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Hello Winchester forum. I just joined in order to post these photo’s and pick your brain on a rifle I inherited from my grandfather. I was told that this rifle has been in our family since it was purchased in the late 40’s and was used by my grandfather for hunting.
After some quick research and looking up the serial number it appears it was purchased in 1947. Reading online, this appears to be a somewhat valuable/rare rifle in that it is chambered in 300 savage. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on its condition and if it appears to be mostly unaltered.
November 7, 2015
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Welcome, looking forward to seeing the pics. It is an unusual chambering, not sure how rare it may be. My brain isn’t worth picking but we have a few guys on here who can probably help with any questions you may have.
Mike
November 5, 2014
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Hi M300-
Welcome to WACA!!! Hopefully you’ll find this place helpful.
For Members such as yourself, posting photos should be a piece of cake (using an “upload attachments” tab that should appear directly beneath the text window you’re typing in when logged in). But if you just joined be aware that sometimes it takes a day or two for your member status to be updated in the system. If you have trouble after that, try contacting Trisha Smith by PM so she can sort it for you… 
It would be refreshing to see pics of a genuine 300 SAVAGE pre-64 M70 given the amount of chicanery (fakery) that has surrounded these guns over the past decades. The 300 SAVAGE chambering is amongst the rarest, if not the rarest, of CATALOGED M70 chamberings, and a nice one is probably worth some serious money to a collector. The Harry Chamberlain data published in Roger Rule’s M70 book put the number of M70s in 300 SAVAGE at 362, compared to 404 for the next rarest chambering (35 REM). I don’t know if those figures are completely accurate, but you get the idea…
Best,
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
Shoot, I added them last time but didn’t hit start upload! Here are a couple of quick pictures.
Congratulations, if you are going to inherit a M70, that’s right at the top of the list of the ones you want. It sure looks the part of an original 300 Savage. I see that the rear sight has been swapped out. It should have a Winchester 22G on it. That’s really not a big deal, there are lots of them out there if you want to put it back original. The other concern I have is the stock. It could be the lighting for the picture, but it sure appears it has had a coat of finish put over the original. Again, certainly not the end of the world, especially considering the rarity of the rifle. I have a 300 Savage within about 350 #’s of yours and they are twins. I would be interested in knowing the barrel date stamped on the underside of the barrel just in front of receiver if you should ever have it apart.
Steve
300SavageMdl70 said
Hello Winchester forum. I just joined in order to post these photo’s and pick your brain on a rifle I inherited from my grandfather. I was told that this rifle has been in our family since it was purchased in the late 40’s and was used by my grandfather for hunting.
After some quick research and looking up the serial number it appears it was purchased in 1947. Reading online, this appears to be a somewhat valuable/rare rifle in that it is chambered in 300 savage. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on its condition and if it appears to be mostly unaltered.
If you’re SURE it’s been continuously in your family’s possession since it was purchased, that fact would exclude fakery, because faking of rare 70’s hadn’t been thought of in 1947, or for many yrs afterwards. Looks like the finish has been touched-up with a coat of Lin-Speed, or something similar, but that wouldn’t be surprising for a hunting gun used over many yrs, & on a model of such rarity, detracts little from its value.
Is it possible your grandfather picked this unusual chambering because he had a Model 99 Savage in the same caliber?
Steve – If I end up taking it apart, I will certainly take a picture of the date on the barrel. This is a great community and its awesome to think of two guns going all these years and being so close in serial number.
In regards to the coating, it does look like my grandpa or someone else added a coating based on other pictures online. I’m curious if I should have the gun’s finish restored?
Clarence – That is the family story and what my grandpa told me. I don’t have any actual documentation to back up that claim though. It’s a bummer because he has receipts and records for a number of his other rifles.
I was thinking of selling the gun as my wife and I have our first baby on the way and I already have a number of other rifles. Do you all have recommendations on where to sell a gun like this and if I should have the coating/sites restored first?
Appreciate you all taking the time to look it over.
Welcome,
It looks like someone may have also drilled an extra hole in the rear receiver bridge of your grandfathers gun.
Ted
Taking the stock off rifle also allows access for a good cleaning. A savvy collector will also want to see bottom side of barrel for stampings prior to making a purchase. So, if you take it out of stock be sure and verify all the stampings on the bottom. There will usually be a 2 digit date code along with caliber stamping and 1 or 2 inspection marks possibly.
Large auction houses usually net the highest prices, but they also take the largest commission. Also, I would try to get it back as close as original as possible to net the best price. From the pictures it looks pretty dusty also. Give it a good cleaning so it presents itself well.
I don’t know of anyone who does a good job on stocks. I know there are some out there because I have seen some of their work on faked model 70’s. There are many more that think they can do it right over ones that really can. Be careful who you choose if that is the route you decote to take. It looks like you have a nice solid stock. It would be a shame to get a botched refinish job.
Steve
300SavageMdl70 said
Do you all have recommendations on where to sell a gun like this and if I should have the coating/sites restored first?
No, because the first thought that crosses the mind of collectors when a rare chambering shows up is, “is it real?” Because over the last couple of decades, as values of rare M. 70s have soared, it’s become highly profitable to fake them; in fact, there’s now an “industry” of professional fakery, damn them all to hell. The “homeliness” of this gun, with its touched-up finish, helps to validate its authenticity, I think. “Improving” it may only sow doubt.
Best place to sell it might be word of mouth through advanced 70 collectors like Steve & Lou, if you can afford to be patient.
Tedk said
Welcome,It looks like someone may have also drilled an extra hole in the rear receiver bridge of your grandfathers gun.
Ted
Good catch. I completely missed that. It does have an extra hole in rear bridge.
Steve
Appreciate all the insight. I think just getting the gun cleaned up would be a good first step.
I wonder what the extra hole in the rear bridge would have been for? I’ll try and grab a clearer picture of the hole in the morning.
300SavageMdl70 said
I wonder what the extra hole in the rear bridge would have been for? I’ll try and grab a clearer picture of the hole in the morning.
Appears too small to have been for some previous scope mount. Whatever its purpose, it will unfortunately detract from the gun’s potential value, although the rarity of this chambering will compensate somewhat. If you sell, it wouldn’t be surprising to find it, after a yr or two, offered for sale in some major auction, but with that hole “disappeared,” & the stock restored to as new cond.
clarence said
300SavageMdl70 said
I wonder what the extra hole in the rear bridge would have been for? I’ll try and grab a clearer picture of the hole in the morning.Appears too small to have been for some previous scope mount. Whatever its purpose, it will unfortunately detract from the gun’s potential value, although the rarity of this chambering will compensate somewhat. If you sell, it wouldn’t be surprising to find it, after a yr or two, offered for sale in some major auction, but with that hole “disappeared,” & the stock restored to as new cond.
That front hole is actually factory d&t. My sense is that the rear base may have been intended for use on earlier M70’s with clip slots that weren’t factory d&t. Rather than getting the correct base someone just drilled that middle hole.
November 5, 2014
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Just to illustrate Tedk’s point, the photo below shows the location of the factory D&T holes on a standard length transition M70 receiver. This is a photo of S/N 84373, a 30 GOV’T 06 from one of Dave Morris’ ads a while back:
I’d tend to agree with both Steve and Clarence. If the underlying stock finish is original with just an overcoat applied on top, my inclination would be to NOT strip to bare wood and start over… A bad refinish would seriously hurt the rifle’s value, and a good refinish would be costly (if you can find someone who can do it correctly). I can’t replicate an original finish so I don’t even try…
If you are looking into selling, you could try talking to somebody like Justin Hale (pre64win.com) or Dave Morris (Frontier Guns in GI), as they specialize in pre-64 M70s and have a pretty good idea of the (crazy) M70 market these days. I believe that either would handle the gun on consignment and that their percentage is far less than an auction house would get. I do not know specifics, but it wouldn’t hurt to talk since you’re not committing to anything unless the price is right…
Good Luck…
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
Tedk said
Rather than getting the correct base someone just drilled that middle hole.
Not as bad as the butchery committed on a Winchester I have–to mount a short base tang sight, some bastard drilled another hole midway in the upper tang, destroying the lettering of course. Didn’t know it when I bought it, as a correct Winchester base sight had been mounted to cover it up.
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