My Father passed away a few years ago and left me his weapons. One of them is a Pre64 Win model 70, 30.06cal....
I'm not worried about changing out the barrel, the rifle has been modified, 2" has been removed, the barrel is now 22" long, it's a very nice job, but still, collectors value is gone....
I'd like to know if the model 70 "long action" is long enough and strong enough to handle to handle the 300win mag?

Yes, ALL P-64 Mod. 70 actions are the SAME length and were modded in various ways for different cartridges.

I would do this and have a top smith alter the action and install a good tube, Krieger, Lilja or other justly famed make. You should get a "short mag." box, from Wisner's, open the bolt face, trim the extractor beak AND, the "tricky" part, do whatever "tweaking" of the feed rails and upper, inner, left corner of your receiver bridge that particular action reguires.

Then, a good synthetic stock, mounts and scope and "shazzam" you done got yerself a real rifle, boy!

I would deal with D'Arcy Echols or someone he might suggest to get the work done properly in Utah. These fine old rifles reserve top notch work, I just got my latest one started today by a local shop.

quote:

I'd like to know if the model 70 "long action" is long enough and strong enough to handle to handle the 300win mag?

Yes. But...

You ought to check the costs of converting a pre 64 action to a 300 Win Mag.

You will find that buying a used 300 Win Mag is a better deal, price wise. And then you will have a nice 30-06 and 300 Win Mag.

A good gunsmith will be able to do this with about two hours labour and then the cost of the barrel plus chambering. He will then have an action superior to any Mod 70 made later in production and one with links to his dad, which is probably very important to him.

The cost of modifying a P-64 to an H&H round ARE greater, but, lots of sound .300Win.s have been built on re-chambered P-64 Std. 30-06 rifles and worked/shot very well. So, it is not going to cost huge coin.

Dewey,

Get that Dakota up and running yet?

It's coming, Ralf Martini phoned yesterday morning about one of the other rifles of mine he is working on and gave me the welcome news that he is installing the Micky Edge stock and Satterlee 3-pos. safety on my Brno ZG-47 original 9.3x62 and then will start the custom work on my old Dakota, so, things are progressing.

I have about a dozen rifle projects in various stages of completion now and will be so broke by the time it is all over that I may HAVE to hunt to eat! Ah, what the hell, it's all fun and beats wasting time and money on gambling, booze or any other such activity!

BTW, did you ever find a Kifaru Siwash that suited you?

I can relate so your situation with so many irons in the fire, I have four right now, including an Ottmar I've purchased off Ralf's website. David Christman should begin work on a 7x57 on a Mexican Mauser here shortly. looking forward to that.

Haven't found a Siwash yet, I've decided to wait until I can actually try one on with some weight in it. Just haven't had the time yet.

quote:

Originally posted by AI22-250:
My Father passed away a few years ago and left me his weapons. One of them is a Pre64 Win model 70, 30.06cal....
I'm not worried about changing out the barrel, the rifle has been modified, 2" has been removed, the barrel is now 22" long, it's a very nice job, but still, collectors value is gone....
I'd like to know if the model 70 "long action" is long enough and strong enough to handle to handle the 300win mag?

As stated earlier, in my opinion you would be wasting good money on this conversion. If you wanted to restore that rifle, there are a multitude of pre-64 30-06 original barrels out there and could be installed on your action for a fairly reasonable cost.

PM me if you are interested.

Jim

If I were gonna jump in and do something like you're talking about, I would strongly consider someone like Mark Penrod. His work speaks for itself in these parts. One of my dreams is to onwn a Penrod M70. Personally, being your late father's gun, I'd have it restored as Jim said.

I agree that you would be better off restoring that rifle and Jim is correct; all lot of good .30-06 take off barrels can be found for small amounts of money.

Of course, the rifle can be easily "restored" and I have had that done to a few P-64s, over the years; however, the gentleman ASKED if the action COULD BE used for a .300 Win. So, I gave him the reply as to how this should be done, if that is what HE WANTS to do.

A "restored" P-64 Std-.30-06 is NOT a particularly valuable rifle and, IMHO, a custom by, say, Mark Penrod on his action would tend to hold more value, plus, be a superior piece for big game hunting.

Suppose, he has dreams of a BC or Yukon or NWT multi-species "dream hunt" and wants ONE rifle to do it with. A custom .300Win. on a P-64 is about as close to "perfect" for this as can be had, until you get to Echol's "Legend" and is superior to a .30-06 in this situation.

A P-64 Std. in .30-06 or .270W. and I have owned at least a dozen of each is TOO heavy a rifle for it's power and I see little advantage in a "restoration" for a hunting tool, when better options exist. The P-64 action/rifle is best used for .300Win., .338Win, .300 H&H and .375H&H rifles, IMHO and then for lightened customs in .270W., .30-06 and so on.

In any case, I have never understood why some posters do not respond to an original query here with simple, factual replies as in it is NOT very costly to have a good 'smith convert this to a sound .300Win. and the OP asked about that, not for options concerning the uses of his action.

I have a friend, a machinist-gunsmith and biologist, who does work for a local gunshop and he is better than some quite famous 'smiths I have seen. He has an original P-64 Alaskan in .338WM and, sinner that he is, cut the bbl. to 23" as he was counting Salmon in Grizzly country when he bought the rifle.

Years, later, his son wanted a rifle like dad's and P-64 Alaskans are not easy to come by, even here in B.C., where a lot of them were shipped. So, my buddy bought a sound .30-06, changed the bbl. and some inner parts and tweaked the rails, etc. a tad. He even copied the external profile and now his son has what looks and shoots like his dad's .338WM and this is all the pair hunt with here in B.C., a damm fine choice, IME.

So, let the OP do as he wishes, he will enjoy his "dad's" rifle and still have what he prefers to hunt with.

I don't think any value of the rifle will be lost by replacing the cut off barrel with an original .30-06 barrel. The rifle will not be any more valuable unless a full blown custom rifle is built from the action. If it is rebarreled by anyone to .300 Winchester Magnum, it will really only have the value of the action.

quote:

Originally posted by gunmaker48:
I don't think any value of the rifle will be lost by replacing the cut off barrel with an original .30-06 barrel. The rifle will not be any more valuable unless a full blown custom rifle is built from the action. If it is rebarreled by anyone to .300 Winchester Magnum, it will really only have the value of the action.

And then only if the conversion was done correctly.

I am with Jim Kobe. I would have an original pre 64 30/06 barrel installed.

If I hunted something that I thought I needed more "stuff" that a regular 30/06, I would just pick a load with a heavy premium bullet in the Federal High Energy, or the Hornady Light Magnum or Super Force line.

Ain't much that a man can't fix, with 700 dollars and a 30/06.

I have a very very nice pre-64 Model 70 Barrel in 30-06 that is for sale. It would have to be removed from a receiver.

Kobe San,

estimate what it would cost to take a P64 '06 action and make it work right as a 300 H&H.

Rich

I am betting too much!!

There is a 300 Wby on GI right now that was a 30-06. I am betting it is a single shot? It is cheap enough to think about. Here is the link: http://www.gunsinternational.c...cfm?gun_id=100132506

Thanks for the discussion, I'm not certain what, if anything I will do to the rifle..... It holds many memories the way it is, however I don't like to see it sit on a wall..... In any case it will be some time, I'm waiting for my 6.5x47 to get back from the Gunsmith, competition trigger, muzzle break, true action, bead blast barrel. As soon as it's back and a new stock added, I'll start on Dad's rifle..... maybe?

I know where there a plenty of 30-06 pre 64 take off barrels. Let me know the serial number range of the rifle. I will see if there are any nice barrels for it. This is the Standard M70 with the goose egg for the rear sight? A Featherweight has no goose egg, is marked Featherweight and is 22 inches originally. Barrels are like $100 - $150 shipped.

Another thought is cut another two inches off of it and have a nice handy carbine.

Airgun 1 is a little high in his estimate of the cost of an '06 take off pre'64 M70 barrel. I have purchased two the are pristine for $50 each. That price does not include fitting and headspacing.

quote:

He will then have an action superior to any Mod 70 made later in production

Winchester reintroduced the "Pre '64" action in the Mod. 70 somewhere around 1992, when they "corrected" the mistakes they made in 1965. Reintroduced the full length extractor, controlled feed, and a nice trigger.

I'd keep the '06 as is and buy a .300 WM off the rack. 30-06 will do pretty much anything .300 WM will do inside 300 metres. (More or less, on a good day. Let's not pick nits here!)

I too have some Pre-64 M70 30-06 barrels for sale. When swapping barrels on Pre-64 M70s sometimes (quite often in my experience) the headspace is perfect. Other times the "Go" gage won't go and you have to remove metal from the bolt face. Or, the "No Go' gage goes and tou have to set the barrel back a turn which is a problem because the rear sight boss no longer aligns with the stock inletting. So, you might have to try more than one barrel to get one that works (preferably one that headspaces correctly with no alteration). First, you need to provide the serial number range if you want to match up the action with a barrel that dates correctly. [The barrels prior to about 1955 were date stamped. Those after about 1955 were not]. Then, you might need to try more than one barrel. If you are interested, contact me and we can work something out.

Gunmaker48--If you got 2 pristine Pre-64 30-06 barrels for $50 each, you stole them, at least in comparison to what they go for where I live. I recently bought a Pre-64 M70 Standard 30-06 length action for $300--less than half what they normally go for. Occassionally, we can steal these actions and barrels but not too often, at least for me. Usually, Pre-64 parts go for more than they're worth.