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I recently inherited my childhood hunting rifle which is labeled as a Winchester model 54 30 govt .06. As a child I never really paid much attention to the details of the gun, but now I have come up with a number of questions.
First, it seems to have a pre-war model 70 bolt that is etched with a matching serial number. The stock has the metal butt plate, but no Schnabel lip. The barrel seems to have a late style site with the long ramp and the stamping starts with the two line (New Haven on top, Winchester proof steel on the bottom) followed by the standard Winchester logo and then the Model 54. The “54” looks as if it has been re-stamped…I can even see a 0 around the 4. The trigger plate looks like a model 54, its a one piece stamped with no hinged part and the screw goes into the carrier further forward like a 54.
So…looks like a model 70 barrel with a 70 bolt, an early 54 carrier (serial is 4 digits) with a late 54 stock. I don’t know what to make of the whole thing. I know it has been in my family since the 70s, but I don’t have any information on it before that. I believe it was given to my mother by one of her boyfriends. Does any of this make any sense?
November 5, 2014
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Pictures would certainly help. As a guest, you either have to upload to a third party site like Photobucket and provide the link here or e-mail them to a member who can post them for you.
Only the M54 “1st Standard Rifle” had the thin stock with Schnabel fore end tip and Nickel Steel barrel with pinned front sight blade. Somewhere around 1935 two changes were phased in at about the same time. The stock became the ‘NRA style’ which is closer to the early M70 stock (except for the checkering pattern), and the barrel was changed to chrome moly steel (Winchester Proof Steel) with integral milled front sight ramp (just like the early M70s) The shape of the M54 bolt handle never changed until the M70 design. The M54, and M70 up to about 1940, had the barrels roll marked on left and right sides. Beginning sometime around 1941 they started with the M70 left side only barrel roll mark that starts with “New Haven” over “Winchester Proof Steel” as you describe.
So it sounds like you may have an early M54 (based on a 4-digit s/n), in either a late M54 or early M70 stock (checkering pattern?) that was rebarrelled after 1941. What do the barrel proof marks look like, is there by any chance a ‘P’ within a circle (mail order proof mark), and do you know the two-digit barrel date from the underside of the breech end of the barrel)? The bolt was either altered (for scope use?) or the rifle was retrofit with a M70 bolt (has it got the M70 blot sleeve as well?).
Really need pictures to be sure.
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
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