Side Mount for Pre-64 Model 70|Winchester Rifles|Forum|Winchester Collector

Hi WAnewbie-

Can you send photos of the left side of the receiver and stock to me at [email protected]?  I will post them for you.  Alternativelly you’ll need to post them on a third party site and post the link here.

With pics, we may be able to determine what brand side mount was originally installed.  There are about a hlaf dozen possibilities…

Lou

Pictures below from Kevin.  Does anyone recognize the pattern of holes?  It certainly isn’t G&H…

I recall that the late, former Executive Editor of Field & Stream magazine, Peter Barrett, wrote an article for Gun Digest about his selection of rifles for his African Safari. On the advice of his friend, Jack O’Connor, he ordered a pair of Supergrade Model 70 Winchesters, one in 375 Holland and the other in 30/06. 

When they arrived, also on JOC’S advice Barrett had his gunsmith install a Griffin & Howe detachable side mount and fit scopes. Expensive, large, bulletproof and ugly, these were said to be reliable and would return a scope to its original zero. 

My point is that, at the time of writing, the two rifles had been twice refinished because of Barrett’s extensive use and he had by then replaced the G&H mounts with the Echo mount. He wrote the latter was less inclined to hang up in brush and inadvertently open or loosen the scope’s secure attachment. 

The G & H mount does have two tall and prominent on/off levers. Its not-tiny base is attached to the receiver sidewall permanently with several screws but also with large diameter steel pins to assist in resisting recoil-induced movement. The amount of wood removed from the stock and the size and number of holes in the receiver wall are hard to ignore if the base should be removed. 

Barrett was primarily a fisherman who also enjoyed bird hunting and fine shotguns. He was not a collector of pristine firearms. 

Ben said
With only two mounting holes, I don’t know what to think.  Echo, Griffen & Howe, Jaeger and Pachmyr all had at least 5 holes… most Weaver mounts did as well.  There are a couple early Weaver “cantilever mounts” that used only two mounting holes, but those were on lever guns…  I will check some of my reference materials…
  

Ben, perhaps the installer used an Echo blank base and only found it necessary to drill and tap two holes. 

Certain that the members who are trying to help you figure out what mount was on your gun are very happy to learn that there are actually ‘four’ holes not just two as originally noted.

Have you considered a modern, conventional, top mount scope on the Gun?Not going to hurt anything and likely save some time and money…

TR said
  My first deer rifle was a Remington 7 something pump in 30-06 with the Pachmyr side mount on an old Weaver. It was accurate and easy to take off and install without affecting accuracy. I spent some time with the scope in my pocket and some time with it on my gun, yet when it came time to sight it in it did not require adjustment. T/R
  

Tom, depending on your age, could it have been a 721? That was Mike Walker’s contribution to Remington’s postwar survival. EDIT – I didn’t see the word “pump.” A Remngton 760 was the first iteration.

The 721 was plain and without checkering but remarkably accurate. The older 725, based loosely on the Enfield action, was too expensive to make and sell at a profit. What Walker did was think outside the box [he was a chemical engineer who needed a job] and design the 721 action to be cut from a single piece of round stock, using multiple fly cutters in one pass. Stamped small parts. Remington sold them at a good profit and at a price point where they almost couldn’t build them fast enough.  Dupont’s board of directors changed its mind about closing the Remington gunmaking operation, almost entirely because of 721/722 sales.

The icing on the cake was Walker’s design was is very close to modern benchrest design thinking and his trigger – made of stamped parts – was a standout.  Was it a coincidence Walker and Wayne Leek were dedicated benchrest accuracy nuts? Ever hear of the 40XB? 

I’m a Winchester devotee first, last, and always but I was very sad to see Ilion closed. The 721/722/700 action lives on made by other hands because it is still the starting place for accuracy. My first centerfire rifle was a Remington 600 carbine in 6mm Remington — the most gun you could get for $99 USD in 1966. 

TR said
 I bought it 60 years ago and it was a used 760. It was replaced by a model 70 that I still use. T/R
  

I always wanted a 760 BDL in 257 Roberts. Collectors items now.