Has anyone got the manufacturers dates where Winchester started plating their receivers and reblueing got real difficult to avoid the "purple" colors? I used to have the cutoff dates but lost them. Appreciate your help.

Aloha, Mark

The pre 64 can be blued, the post 64 receiver is not all "steel" so it does not blue to a proper color.

Well as a rule the pre64s can be blued but I have run into more than one exception. It would seem that Winchester may have done some experimenting and run some of the new steel prior to 1964. I called US Repeating arms on this topic over 15 years ago and asked for serial numbers and proof stamps relating to these guns and they told me to send them back to the plant to be refinished.. In a lot of cases if you use a caustic blue on pre 64s. Sodium nitrate and sodium hydroxide. You may see red lines running through the receiver. I have been told that this is impurities in the steel. If you polish the receiver and barrel and send it to a machine shop that does potassium bluing it will come out nice and black. Bear in mind that a potassium bath operates at 800 degrees farenhite so remove all the springs: Rod Henrickson

To avoid that purnurple tint shock the action in ice water. Go back & forth from the salts to ice water (be sure theres lots of ice) several times during the blueing process.

I don't know the exact dates but the cast receivers started about 1964. I think Winchester went back to forged receivers with the introduction of the angle eject model about 1982. Soimebody on the forum at leverguns.com could probably give you a better answer.