I see CRF Winchester 458s offered for sale with one piece bottom metal and also two piece. Is the current production one piece? If not, when were guns with the one piece bottom metal produced? Is one more desirable than the other?

I don't own one but have read that the SC mfg M70 has the one piece bottom metal.

Current production is one piece. The last few Safari Expresses before the production shut-down were also one piece.

From what I've seen the SC production rifles are the best Model 70s they ever made. I've had five so far.

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From what I've seen the SC production rifles are the best Model 70s they ever made. I've had five so far

I've heard this more and more.

Other than the Cabelas logo on the floorplate and the 'rocker' rear sight, I really like the Cabelas version 458, with the slimmed down stock. Nice.

That would be a nice one. I have a Cabelas Supergrade featherweight, and though I could live without the floor-plate it is otherwise a nicely executed rifle. Probably the best of my little herd.

I bought one of the new production 458 cabelas super grades when they were having a killer deal on them and it was one piece. my new winchester alaskan 375 is also one piece

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Originally posted by gohip2000:
I bought one of the new production 458 cabelas super grades when they were having a killer deal on them and it was one piece.

Ditto.

my new winchester alaskan 375 is also one piece

Ditto.

And here is what the one-piece bottom metal of the Alaskan .375 H&H looks like:

The Alaskan is just about the perfect weight for a .375. After using mine for a few days I couldn't remember why I ever thought a over 10 pound .375 made any sense.

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Originally posted by Dogleg:
The Alaskan is just about the perfect weight for a .375. After using mine for a few days I couldn't remember why I ever thought a over 10 pound .375 made any sense.

Yep, 7 lbs 10 oz. as shown above, which is 2 oz. lighter than the original Ruger Hawkeye African in .375 Ruger with walnut stock.

Mine's 8.4 pounds with a Leupold 3.5-10 x 40 mounted. My Safari Express in .458 is 10.2 pounds with the slightly lighter 2.5-8 on it.

Slightly off topic, but if I were to keep my .270 feather-weight, .375 Alaskan, .458 African and count my lightly customized 7mm STW as a "Westerner" I could cheerfully hunt the world with a grin on my face. I could sell off approximately 100 others to help finance it, but that would make too much sense.