Hi Ethan-

Tedk is correct…  

Winchester only had one catalog symbol (G7062CN) for the FWT in 243 WIN (with MC stock). Only 270 WIN, 30-06 SPRG, 308 WIN, and 358 WIN were offered with a LC stock.  Obviously, the latter was only offered with LC stock while the other three could be had either way.  Except for the original FWT offering (FWTs were available in 308 WIN only from 1952-1954), the LC stocks are pretty uncommon. 

Of the 107 243 FWT S/Ns I have recorded in my (very preliminary) survey, all but one has a MC stock (excluding the half dozen or so that had non-factory custom stocks added).  The sole LC stock example was a 1961 S/N with a plastic butt.  Given that the LC stock FWTs that remained (270 WIN, 30-06 SPRG and 308 WIN) were last listed in 1959, I doubt that there were any LC FWT stocks made with plastic butt plate.  So my suspicion is that the one example I’ve run across was originally a MC stock that was reshaped to LC to accommodate the owner’s preference.  Without that gun in-hand I cannot tell if it was reshaped or not (there is a difference in the drop between LC and MC so you can tell, but it’s a small difference).

So if you want a 243 WIN FWT as a collector piece you’ll have to live with the MC stock.  If you want a LC 243 WIN to shoot, you’ll need to replace the stock.  For the former, I’d look for a 1952-53 308 WIN FWT.  They’re the original offering and pretty neat.

Best,

Lou