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November 27, 2018
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Hello! I’m back again trying to learn more about authenticating some of the more rare calibers of the Pre-64 Model 70. Hoping someone is willing to weigh in with thoughts on this listing. You don’t see too awfully many of this caliber, and I have read lots of insight as to where a lot of the more obscure calibers can potentially be faked. I believe the seller to be very reputable and I don’t know whether the gun is for real or not. I also think the gun is already in price currently as is, likely out of my range, but I do enjoy watching how high some of them go for.
The seller doesn’t actually define it as being an “original” rifle, but one would assume it could be. My observations, the finish looks exceptionally nice. Seems odd, yet not impossible. The caliber marking does not match up to what is portrayed in Rule’s book for the appropriate caliber. Date of manufacture based on serial lookup is 1954 which falls outside the date range of being cataloged, but would fall into the last year of date being manufactured according to Rule’s book. Lastly, I feel like I see a definitive difference in the bluing finish on both sides of the front sight which is probably the biggest thing I noticed. Maybe I am wrong, but would appreciate any call outs on my assessment, and as always any additional feedback in helping me to learn more is always greatly appreciated. Thanks all!!
Cole
August 27, 2014
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Cole,
Fwiw the gun looks good to me
May very well be one of the Hudson Sporting Goods barrel clean-up guns
“If you can’t convince them, confuse them”
President Harry S. Truman
August 8, 2024
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I agree with Tedk. Barrel clean up gun that Winchester did in 1954. It would be interesting to see what the barrel bottom reads. I had one like this around 30 years ago. I believe that it had a 1949 barrel.
November 5, 2014
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Hi Cole-
As has been stated, odds are that it’s a genuine “barrel cleanup” gun. It appears to be in very high condition, so I cannot exclude a “professional restoration”, but I’d need to handle the gun to venture an opinion.
The 250-3000 SAV was last cataloged in 1949. The latest barrel dates I’ve seen on them are ’49. Looking at the M70 survey, there are a lot of 1949 M70s in 250-3000 Savage, then very few between 1950 and 1953. But 1954 was the big “barrel cleanup” year, and I’ve got (5) 250-3000 SAV (plus this one) with serial numbers between 297xxx and 299xxx. Notably 5 of the (now) 6 I’ve recorded are in Monte Carlo stocks. Several other oddball calibers also show up in this narrow s/n range, like 7 M/M, 35 REM, 300 SAVAGE…
Most of these oddball slow sellers were distributed through Hudson Sporting Goods in NYC. From June through September 1954, Hudson ran ads in the sporting press offering these “brand new” (their words) rifles. Here is an ad from the September 1954 American Rifleman confirming that you could buy a M70 Standard rifle in 250-3000 SAV with either MC or low comb stock.
Hope this helps,
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
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