My buddy finally gave in and we made a trade, I got a Stainless Win. .416 barrel. It has factory roll marks and sighs with a second lug. Any one seen or heard of a factory Stainless Classic?

I found that a few weeks ago for him and he is now in BIG trouble as I sorta had "dibs" on it if he was to sell or trade....SOOOOO, the '46 minty P-64 barreled action will now be MINE, ha ha, PLUS the P-64 action from FB's .264.....NO MERCY when it comes to trading with you guys!

BTW, Ralf very likely still has my best P-64 H&H action plus a choice "in the white" Sunnyhill drop mag that I bought way back in the Barnet days to build a .416 Rem. You might call him as my other bud traded it to him, after hosing me out of it due to my being so nice to my pals.

Dick Davis of "Micky" told me that he would inlet a Safari model stock for it, add Recknagels and a little Leupy and I might have some Talley bases to fit if RV didn't clean me out of those and you will have a choice .416 Rem.

I have encountered a couple of these in the past year or two, so, they are out there, but, not very numerous. In a couple weeks, I "might" have a lead on a very choice sight setup for that, as well.....some bribery would be in order...

Yes. Several AR members have owned or do own one. I believe that they may have been special builds, but am not sure.

Here are a couple of photos of mine, which is a custom shop special build.

MR,
That is a beauty ... except for those silver Leupold QR scope bases! You really need to replace those!
Some black Leupold QRW bases or Talley bases would look so much better!
Either could be properly set up to have little or no overhang of the ejection port.

MTM,
I think a small run of MR's rifle package (sans L-QR bases) was done by the Winchester Custom shop.
Stainless and pretty walnut.
I have seen them in a shop in Louisville, Kentucky about a decade ago, offered for about 2K.

I have never heard of a .416ReMag M70 Classic Stainless like the .375 H&H that was new and plentiful in 1994.

That suggests that a factory roll stamped stainless Winchester .416RemMag barrel came off a Custom Shop rifle.

Bore scope that barrel before re-installing it!

I have seen Winchester custom Shop barrels with wide spots and rough spots in the rifling.
Like the 470 Capstick that belonged to Chief Thunderstick.

Those photos were taken by the fellow from whom I bought the rifle (off of the Classified forum right here on AR).

I immediately replaced the Leupold QRs with stainless Talleys with QD lever rings.

It will be easy to determine whether this barrel is a custom shop barrel.

All custom shop barrels have both the standard Winchester proof mark and also the custom shop proof mark stamped on the top of the barrel, above the chamber.

Mrlexma

WOW that is a gorgeous looking Winchester! I have one of the stainless 416s also, not sure my stock looks that good however! Mine came out of the Custom Shop too. Very good rifles, shoot great! They also did a run out of the custom shop in 358 STA and I have two of those. One of which I have used extensively.

Michael

There was one of them at the big Tulsa gun show a few years ago that I still cuss myself for not falling on. I know it had the Winny Custom Shop cartouche on the barrel.

Great looking guns!

Yes, the Winchester Custom Shop produced a run of Special Builds in SS .416Rem some years ago. They were produced with Walnut stocks with an upper sling swivel. I contacted the Custom Shop manager at the time and ordered one with the synthetic stock and a barrel band sling swivel. A friend ordered his in the same configuration, and to the best of my knowledge these were the only two rifles produced in that make-up.

I put a Leupold 1.5-5x30mm illuminated circle-dot reticle on it in QR rings and have taken many Cape Buff and Eland with it during many safaris. It's a fine rifle and does everything I ask of it. These were great buys at the time.

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:

I immediately replaced the Leupold QRs with stainless Talleys with QD lever rings.

Smart rifle all around now!

There were a bunch of the M70 Classic Safari .416RemMags in plain walnut and blue.
There were 125 .416RemMags chambered as the fifth and last chambering of the M70 Classic Safari Big Five series,
with fancy walnut, matte-black blued, and with a gold leaf cape buffalo on the floor plate.
I have the matte black Leupold QRWs on those, or nothing at all.

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:
Those photos were taken by the fellow from whom I bought the rifle (off of the Classified forum right here on AR).

I immediately replaced the Leupold QRs with stainless Talleys with QD lever rings.

It will be easy to determine whether this barrel is a custom shop barrel.

All custom shop barrels have both the standard Winchester proof mark and also the custom shop proof mark stamped on the top of the barrel, above the chamber.

Yes thats it. Both proof marks. Thanks for all the input guys.
Dewey, I shot the 300 H&H today. shot great, but there's still hope. Also shot the 375 Browning. First three TSXs went into 5/8". It's only a short extracter but I'm likeing it.

Dewey, lets call it even on the dibbs thing. I'm thinking of an FN .458 and a nice little Brno 7x57 that a certain gun store thought was a clunky old Mauser.

The Austin, Texas seller where I bought mine said it was a 2001 Shot Show Special from Winchester Custom Shop. Don't know how many were made in total.

mrlexma's gun has been bloodied in Africa. Sorry to say, mine is still a virgin in that respect.

There is one of these over on gunbroker now. The buy now is $3200.00. It's nice, but I don't think nice as Mrlexma's. That wood on his rifle is fantastic.

Michael

$3,200 . . . I may have to put mine back on the market!