Would this be possible? There's a WECSOG'd one at the Bass Pro in San Antonio w. a beautiful stock... and bedding compound, etc all over the place...

Yes it's very possible but it may cost you as much as just buying a M70 Mag action.

Open the bolt face and extractor, open the front and rear of the mag area, new mag box, new bolt stop, new extractor collar plus some feeding work. Then on a pre war probably replacing the safety with a post war type for ease of use.

If this is a "Pre-War" Model 70, it must have been re-barreled to .243. That cartridge wasn't invented until the 1950's. Do you mean pre-64? At any rate, if it has been drastically altered, you would be better served to just buy an action that will work for the magnum. If you just want that Model 70, buy it but, as SWD stated, you'll have to do an awful lot of altering to make it into a .375 Ruger.

quote:

Originally posted by Masterifleman:
If this is a "Pre-War" Model 70, it must have been re-barreled to .243. That cartridge wasn't invented until the 1950's. Do you mean pre-64? At any rate, if it has been drastically altered, you would be better served to just buy an action that will work for the magnum. If you just want that Model 70, buy it but, as SWD stated, you'll have to do an awful lot of altering to make it into a .375 Ruger.

depends on "what war" we are talking about here....hahaha...perhaps the gent means before the Golfwar..

Hmm, well BassPro had it as a 1937 model... It was pretty goobered together... which is a real shame since it had a really nice action, and a beautiful stock (complete w. ivory grip cap.)

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
Hmm, well BassPro had it as a 1937 model... It was pretty goobered together... which is a real shame since it had a really nice action, and a beautiful stock (complete w. ivory grip cap.)

This is one of the reqsons it is so important to get bona fide, original, written, provenance (history) with older Winchesters before paying good money for anything supposedly "special", "old", or "hard to find".

Neither dates on the undersides of barrels, nor serial numbers on actions are reliablly indicative of when a rifle may have been put together, nor by whom.

The Custom Gun Shop in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, owned and run in those days by Doug Paul and Erv Heiman, used to send barreled actions with decrepit barrels back to Winchester for re-barreling. The directions were simply to rebarrel the action with something "appropriate and interesting". All kinds of calibers and barrel dates came back on the replacement barrels, including 7x57, .300 Savage, .220 Swift, etc., and that was in 1971-'73!

Once they even sent in a failed pre-war vintage action for a customer that due to a forging flaw had eventually split the rear bridge lengthwise. In about two months from being mailed out, back it came direct from Winchester USA, with a replacement PRE-WAR action, which according to the serial number, should have been manufactured in about 1939!!!

Apparently Winchester made both actions and barrels in large batches, and when orders came in for rifles, whould grab an appropriate action from a stack or barrel of them, fit an appropriate barrel from another stack or barrel of them, stock it and ship it off. That need not have been within any specific number of years of the parts actually having been made and stamped with dates or serial numbers.

It was still using those parts at least 10 years after discontinuance of manufacturing the pre-'64's, for warranty and "preferred customer" repairs.

Anyway, you can bet your boots BassPro is wrong when they date that rifle as having been assembled in 1937. The .243 Winchester cartridge definitely did not come to be until into the 1950's...following as it did the .308 Winchester, which came out in the early '50s.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
Hmm, well BassPro had it as a 1937 model... It was pretty goobered together... which is a real shame since it had a really nice action, and a beautiful stock (complete w. ivory grip cap.)

Sounds like it was an action off a Swift or 250 Savage that was "customized". As SWD perfectly stated, it's going to take a fair amount of work and additional parts to convert to a standard magnum configuration. I love the pre-Wars, but I'd only make this conversion if you get a smokin' deal on the donor action.

Working up the pre-War will cost you about $350 more than starting with a standard magnum pre-64. If you're thinking about spending $5-10 thousand on full custom rifle, I'd spend the extra chicken scratch on the pre-War just to have that action.

quote:

Originally posted by jens poulsen:

quote:

Originally posted by Masterifleman:
If this is a "Pre-War" Model 70, it must have been re-barreled to .243. That cartridge wasn't invented until the 1950's. Do you mean pre-64? At any rate, if it has been drastically altered, you would be better served to just buy an action that will work for the magnum. If you just want that Model 70, buy it but, as SWD stated, you'll have to do an awful lot of altering to make it into a .375 Ruger.

depends on "what war" we are talking about here....hahaha...perhaps the gent means before the Golfwar..

i didnt know golfers were not getting along

I'm not much on fighting Golfers. My Mom is one.Packy