Burt Humphrey said

Chuck said

Burt Humphrey said

David Bichrest used to have business cards with the slogan “Where Condition Is Everything”.

  

I still have one of those cards.  It was long ago when he lived in Maine.

  

Chuck – I have not seen David in many years – he lives in Texas now. He used to come to Alaska to hunt Dall Sheep and has been to my home and fondled Winchesters a couple of times. Over the years, some of the finest Winchester’s have been thru his hands. Over 40 years ago I bought this Model 65 from him – it is a 218 Bee and between the rarity of the model, originality, configuration, caliber, and condition it is a gun the likes of which very few will be fortunate enough to own.

  

I just found out David Bichrest passed away on October 11, 2022 – not quite 3 months ago – he was 80 years old. Bert Hartman was kind enough to let me know. Like I said in the post, back in the old days a lot of fantastic Winchesters passed thru his hands. He was the Executive Secretay of WACA for a long time and was a fixture at all the best guns shows in the country for many years. In a WACA Forum post I made in the last couple of days I noted the friendships I had made while collecting Winchesters and how one cannot put a price on these friendships. David Bichrest is a prime example of that. The last time he was here at my home he was so elated that he had been able to take a fabulous Dall Sheep in the Alaska Range and spoke of it as one of the most physically demanding adventures of his life. Here is another David Bichrest gun I purchased a long time ago – he preached condition and this gun had it – Model 64 in 219 Zipper and as good as I have ever seen.

I used to see him every fall in Reno and a few other large shows I went to.  This rifle was his.  The letter I have for it is in his name from 1993.  The scope was added later.  Really sad to here of his passing.

Chuck said
I used to see him every fall in Reno and a few other large shows I went to.  This rifle was his.  The letter I have for it is in his name from 1993.  The scope was added later.  Really sad to here of his passing.

  

Nice rifle!!

Very nice Chuck – you have been holding out on us. I have always been intrigued by that early checkering pattern – I believe they called it “square back”.

Chuck said
  Never heard of square back checkering?

  

“Square” on one end, as opposed to pointed.

clarence said

Chuck said

  Never heard of square back checkering?

  

“Square” on one end, as opposed to pointed.

  

You only see it on real early guns but not on all early guns I have only seen it on 73’s and 76’s – look at the “back end” of the checkering on the forearm – it is squared off rather than being pointed (as Clarence pointed out). Here are some examples of the square back. Remember the real nice Jim Cauthen deluxe 73 which you chased for awhile – if I remember correctly, it had the square back checkering.