I picked up Win. mod. 54 factory conversion, something Ive known about for years but have never seen mentioned...

When Winchester dropped the 54 and went to the new Mod 70 pre war gun, they in order to please the public sent out flyers etc. contacting customer base that they could send in their mod. 54 to be converted to the new Model 70s, Back the boys at the arms companies went out of their way to please the public..

My dad and an uncle Walter, sent their guns in for the conversion, and Uncle walt requested a 20" barrel..They got them back in a few weeks and the barrels and bolts had been replaced with mod. 70s in same calibers and as ordered, no charge postage paid..The mod. 70 barrel stamped mod. 70 was stamped flat and over stamped with a 54, the bottom metal, trigger remained mod. 54 as did the schnable stock and the 20" gun had a new slotted forend stock, otherwise the same.

Since that time Ive owned a couple of those and they shared some collector value so I sold them..

A few weeks ago I purchased another such rifle on the Internet..The shop owner referred to it as a parts gun of some type, and the price was cheap,cheap, I advised him of what I thought he had and he was grateful for that information but the price would remain so I grabbed it and it was legitimate in that the barrel stamp was a 70 override with a 54 stamp, mod 70 bolt, safety etc, 54 trigger and bottom metal and the schnable stock...

Its had a old Lyman 57 and was D&T for scope, and it shoots about an inch with ever load so far, and I suspect it has a trigger job, a yard of slack, but the trigger pull in about 2.5 crisp pull pounds..

I hope I can bring myself to keep this one..Not many around these days and not many folks know about them other than a few collectors..Just a little piece of History..Oh yeah, they have the clover leaf tang..Lean and mean thin stock, nice saddle gun and handle great, good rifle for sure..

Nice story and sales job Ray.
I found a very nice original M54 30 WCF carbine last fall at the local gun emporium When it was made it probably cost twice what a lever action M94 30-30 did. As it was priced for less than half of what they bring today it followed me home. Should make a nice little Kodiak Blacktail deer rifle.

Thanks Ray, that's a good story, the sort I'd like to hear more of. Remember, if you can be bothered to write a book, I will be happy to sub-edit it for you, American style as far as I can.

Did Winchester bother to supply new bottom metal with those conversions? The most distinctive recollection I have of the M54 is that the trigger guard seemed to be pressed.

A nearby gunshop had a 54 in 30-30 with the conversion. No-one wanted it. The old time win. collecters are all dead, and no new folks care about anything but plastic. They ended up trading it off.

Sambarman,
This one as a mod.70 barrel, with the 70 stamped out and 54 restamped, the action is a pre war mod. 70 bolt body??? maybe bolt also not sure but has the clover leaf tang and mod. 70 pre war safety..Has the 54 trigger with a mile of slack and a so so trigger, and the stamped out one piece bottom metal with three screws. Stock has schnable forend and forend screw, checkered both fore and aft..

The only thing Im not sure about is the bolt body itself, it appears the magazine is part of the action, so may me a 54 action..has a 4 diget serial number..Maybe the serial number will open some doors, I have some more investigation to do..wish Id payed more attention to my dads and uncles rifles..dads got stolen and ended up in Mexico. Don't know what uncle Walter ended up doing with his..

Phil,
Wanna trade, Id love of 30-30 in a 54, if you ever decide to sell, give me a call..

Nice find Ray

Local dealer has a Model 54 serial #357 for sale. I don't remember if it was .30-06 or .270 Winchester but I wanted it mainly for the neat serial number. It had a good set of open sights on the rifle. The bolt throw is high enough I don't think I'd want to mount a scope on it if I owned it

Thanks Ray, when you think about it, doing all that stuff to the old model is crazy marketing. The cynicism of the those at Winchester who brought out the .45-90 would have indicated doing nothing with the M54, just spout how much better the M70 was and wait for the orders.

quote:

Originally posted by sambarman338:
Thanks Ray, when you think about it, doing all that stuff to the old model is crazy marketing. The cynicism of the those at Winchester who brought out the .45-90 would have indicated doing nothing with the M54, ;b]just spout how much better the M70 was[/b] and wait for the orders.

The big change from M54 to M70 was to shift the front screw from being into the recoil lug to being into the bedding flat of the action.

Well I fixed the trigger had it fixed but got it back and not working, but got it fixed at 2.5 Lbs, polished the bolt out and its slicker n snot, Had the safety fixed as it was hard. needs a rail adjustment to feed 220 softnose bullets and that's in the mill, its making a sweet rifle, lean, lean, and mean to the schnable, complete with a Lyman all steel receiver sight and shoots and inch and sometimes a little less. I intend to keep it once I get it cleaned up..blue is excellent and the stock is very clean for an old rifle..

These 54s sell good in my part of the country, wish folks would tell us when those kind of guns show up cheap..Id love to find a carbine 54 with that forend slot..These guns are as good as pre 64 win for hunting and better than most of todays new guns IMO..

that must have been one of the changes they offered dad and uncle, both were into the flat but the bottom metal fits????? I just found out from a gunsmith the mod. 70 trigger can be converted to this 54..I might do that at a later date..the 54 trigger with the slack out of it is really nice...

Ray-I converted a model 54 in 270 to model 70 specs with late model 54 bolt(shaped like pre war 70) model 70 trigger and bolt stop and 70 bottom metal and restocked it. I love it, and glad to hear someone else feels the same.

I grew up shooting the 54 and 70 with a scope, back then it was the J model then graduated to the K4 over a few years, then to the mod. 70 low comb rifles..Never noticed I couldn't roll a bouncing mule deer or flat running whitetail with that low comb..To this day I only require sticking the cross hairs on a game animal and squeeeeeezine the trigger, that's what counts..Like Ive said before the human body can adjust to a poor fitting stock or trigger when you have to..Ive never bought off on high comb 3 point clutches on a stock or wide butts to absorb recoil, its all koolaide as far as my shooting goes, but won't deny others their right to choice...