“…Old model 70s have a signature smell. It is walnut and oil and old steel worn bright in callused hands. It is saddle leather and linseed oil, the lodgepoles of western Montana and the sagebrush of southern Oregon.” Wayne Van Zwoll
Those words could not be truer. I grew up in a home where Winchesters were, and still are, your one rifle. I shot my first blacktail deer with what was my great grandfather’s model 64 lever action in .25-35. All the men in my family had a Winchester Model 12 shotgun, and a Winchester rifle for deer. My uncle chose a model 94, while my father and grandfather had pre-’64 Model 70’s.
So when the opportunity arose to review the Shooting Times Book of the Winchester model 70 & 94, I leapt at the chance. Now I am not a gun collector, but I came to love these guns because of their utility as an “everyday using gun”. Thankfully, much of the shooting and hunting media has shared that sentiment and the articles collected in this 138 page compilation give collectors, shooters, and hunters information and entertainment value.
If you have the least bit of nostalgia, you will be pleased at the in depth discussion about the model 94, it’s place in firearms history, and the caliber that it was nearly synonymous with, the .30-30. Winchesters colorful history and restoration of the Model 94 is covered in the book in detail.
For bolt action aficionados, much of the debate about designs of the action pre and post 1964 is mentioned as Captain George C. Nonte evaluates the “new”design in the June 1964 issue. While it was hailed as a “greatly improved version” consumers soon made it clear that features like controlled round feeding were the heart of this rifles appeal.
I can appreciate the sheer variety of models in the article “Collecting the Model 70” from standard, to Super Grade, Carbine, National Match, Target, Bull Gun, and Featherweight models. Pictures of the packaging, and rifles give the neophyte as well as seasoned collector an understanding of the variety available.
Each model and caliber is valued on a percentage condition scale. For the rifle owner unsure of the vintage, a table with the production dates matched to serial number ranges can give the year of production. In looking through the family gun closet, I found a 1962 .264 magnum, a .270 from 1952, and a .30-30 Winchester still used today from 1949.
Now none of our rifles are high in the collectible value since they bear the signs of use such as worn bluing and scratches on the stock. But they do hold a firm place in my heart because of the fact that they come from a long line of rifles that earned the respect and admiration of generations before me. The book of the Winchester model 70 and 94 pays homage to that lineage in a manner that is informative, as well as entertaining. You may pick up a copy of it for a limited time on newsstands where Shooting Times is sold.
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