Deleted at Paul's request

Nice rifle, I like the long rifles dolled up.

Very, very nice work on a fine piece of stock wood. Nice bottom metal, I notice the stock screws are properly timed, a sign of both good taste and good workmanship!

The Winchester 69 is a "sleeper", not always appreciated as it should be. The Winchester 75 Sporting model, much in demand with collectors, is essentially the same rifle.

Mechanically the major difference is the bolts on the 75 were headspaced to the rifle and serial numbered to match. 69 bolts are not serial numbered, at least I haven't seen one that was.

The component parts (bolt, receiver, barrel) were made to the same standards. Many 69s were in fact headspaced as well as the 75s, and were just as accurate.

The reason for the higher price of the 75 was the buyer knew for sure he'd get an accurate rifle, plus Winchester put a better grade of wood on the 75s.

I got a good deal on a used 75 some years ago and enjoy plinking with it. It is an early model, not grooved or drilled/tapped for a scope. I made a short video of it, found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...JE3Gf6M&feature=plcp

The stock is quite a good piece of wood though not in the ballpark with the one made by Paul.