No idea where to put this so I put it in gunsmithing;
An original Winchester Model 70 Carbine barrel in 300 Magnum, just sold for $529.99. And back then, 300 Magnum meant only one thing. It was real, with integral milled FS base and full markings.
This is probably the most rare M70 barrel made. One of them anyway.
Just FI and curiosity.
I didn't even know they made a 300 Mag carbine. Had to be a flame thrower.

With that short barrel you could shoot and cook the animal at the same time

Ive seen a .375 H&H original, a 7x57 and a 30-06 but never a 300 H&H, that would be a .308 in effect so call it a 308 flame thrower. that one needs a 26" barrel to compete, but back in the day when customer service ment something Win and Rem would work to satisfy a customer...

If that's the same barrel I saw for sale, there was a lot of speculation that it had been cut down.

In any case, couldn't see the need.

Just from the picture I saw, the front sight base was integral; of course a good welder and machinist could install one. And then there is the taper.
The need would be to put it on a period action and recreate the rarest Model 70 ever (or never) made.

Well...hope I had nothing to do with this one, but many yrs ago a fellow from San Francisco (Nice guy by all parameters) had me shorten and weld on original ramps to more than a few M-70' barrels...one he even had bored out to 7.65!

I found out later he was selling these as original, rare. While I was furious and told him so, not much I could do about it .

Gotta be real careful when stuff like this turns up.

Ok, that would explain a NOS, 300 H&H Carbine barrel which I was amazed ever existed from the factory. I was going to buy it at $100 but it quickly jumped to $500.

Sadly pre'64 M/70's especially ones in rare calibers/configurations have become like Lugers and Colt SAA's, lots of fakes. Caveat emptore applies to each, fortunately several of the M/70 fakers are no longer in business but their dirty work is still out there.

Ridge Rule’s Book on page 76 list the carbine cartridges as follows:

22 Hornet; 250/300; 257 Roberts, 270 WCF, 7mm which is a 7x57, 30/06; and and 35 Rem being added in 1941. The 35 Remington is listed most rare in this configuration. He list total production of carbine sub models as 7,197 rifles.

My 4 short barreled 18" and under carbines in 308 30-06 and 7x57 and very loud and one could read by the muzzle flash.

A 300H@H wow.

So...the info I see so far tells me the 300 barrel is a fake. No surprises there

I wish I had saved a picture of it; it looked so perfect and I looked closely at the front sight base to make sure; I wanted it to be a one of a kind, uncataloged, factory barrel. Someone thought so because they paid $ for it.

I know for a fact the 375 H&H could be had back in the day, I know of two that came direct from the factory and they belong to a couple of PHs..and in bad shape..

The only way to confirm something not cataloged as above would be through an Order sheet for a special order pre custom shop or a confirmation letter from the Cody Wyoming Museum which had the most complete set of records bf Olin got out of the firearms manufacturing business.

I like Roger Rule and I am a huge fan of his book, but as good as it is, it is not perfect. I have talked personally with contributors to his book and they are quick to say the book is good but not perfect by any stretch. One told me that Roger was a book salesman, not a true collector, and there are a lot of opinions and errors in the book. I still like it very much and reference it a lot, but it is not the tell all.

I also had a very good friend who knew many graduates of the Gunsmith School in Pittsburgh, PA back in the days when all the major manufacturers were lined up at graduation day to hire them to work at the plants. He stayed in touch with many through the years. They told him numerous times that when quotas needed met guns got built and not necessarily to catalog configuration. They did what needed done to get them built. This was in the pre 64 era at Winchester.

I agree no resource is perfect, but not to find one during his research seems unlikely. He found a Model 70 284 Win. I have no doubt that this barrel to be authentic had to come from Special Order. The cataloged configurations are simply too easy to research and pin down.

Also, the only way to authentic such a barrel now would be with an order from Special Order or a letter from Cody.

Assuming it is authentic, it has to be validated to be of historical or monetary value. I see no collector/investment value at least not from me without a confirmation from Cody or the Special Order order form.

I wonder if the front sight ramp is intergal or soldered? The intergal sight ramp was dropped in 1954 for the soldered sight ramp.

Roger’s book may not be the Dead Sea scrolls, but it is the best resource available.

I once had a serious M70 collector tell me that there was an outfit in Florida that had all the appropriate stamps and that they would make you a barrel in about any caliber you wanted. These barrels were indistinguishable from factory originals. He did not like them at all!
I have seen documented M70s in .30-30, 8x57, and a few others. Without a factory letter I wouldn't believe anything.
C.G.B.

I totally agree that without a Special Order letter certain variants can not be proved.

I also know that Winchester sold off all of the stamps. They were in the parts liquidation with all of the other parts. This was a very bad thing to do.

The barrel in question has the integral ramp. Whether it was original to the barrel or grafted from another gun is in question, or was it an original 30-06 carbine barrel that was rechambered and then restamped. It sure looks good, but there are craftsman out there.

Front ramp in question was definitely forged as part of the barrel, or at least welded on and ground so you couldn't tell; I blew up the picture to check for that. Of course, documentation would prove it's provenance but lack of factory docs does not disprove it. You can't prove a negative thesis.
And yes, Win stamps (they were actually rolls; you can't stamp a long line of type), have been sold on the open market. and can be easily made. If one wanted to go into the pre 64 barrel business, it would be easy to do. You need the 4 groove barrel blanks.

If Win did the work and re-barreled the gun they would normally stamp the 70 with a flat stamp and overstamp it with a 54 for instance, and usually do a double oval stamp on the top of the barrel at the action..I have one of these and have seen a number of them over the years..My dad and uncle sent their 54s to Win. and got such back and Ive owned two in my lifetime counting the one I have..

It was a common practice in the early days of win., I doubt that they would let a modification leave the factory without a stamp of some sort. I do know that some smiths in Mexico could copy and stamp anything that any company made to the point that collectors couldn't declare one way or the other...Most of those old smiths were in Juarez, and made a living copying Conquestadores spurs, and soaking them in barrels of wet cow dung to age them..Those guys were good!