One of my uncles owned a .220 Swift / Pre 64 Winchester Featherweight.

It was a nice gun, but there was not a lot of difference in appearance between a Model 700 Remington and the Model 70 Winchester back then.

As one gun writer said, and I will quote.

Unless you are being charged by a stampeeding rhino, there is no need for the controlled round feeding of the Model 70!

The Model 70 was very costly to manufacture, was very expensive to buy, was not a whole lot of them produced - in todays terms of manufacturing.

This is the only thing that makes them so valueable today.

The post 64 Model 70 Winchester was every bit as good a gun as the pre 64, but it got a bad rep because people did not like change.

Even the Edsel was a flop the first couple of years that it came out because it was a big car during a recession and it had quality and production issues.

Ford didn't go out of buisness, just because the Edsel was a flop. They came out with something else and people quickly forgot about the 58 and 59 Edsel.

Most young people have never seen a Edsel and most other people cannot even remember a Edsel. A friend of mine had two of them and had enough parts to make a third!
The motors were easy to work on and the bodys were solid as a rock. The transmission push button shifter in the steering colum was unique. He hauled them both for junk when he needed money.

There were probably 40 times more post 64 Winchesters made than pre 64 - due to the number of years that they made that model and due to the number of models sold at that time.

Yes Winchester lost some of their loyal following, but they gained millions of new customers in the process that never could have afforded a new Pre 64 Winchester type gun.

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I got a pre64 featherlight for 300 dollars at a estate sale. Eat your heart out suckers.

OK...

Oops, forgot, got to translate for our out of country northernfriends. It means, I got a good deal, and the people didn't know what they had, so they were suckers worrying about thier 1900's cherry chest.

I got it the first time , but thanks...

That was my first 300 wsm in the synthetic stainless action...all I did was have the trigger done and it was good to go actually i hunted with a 5 lb trigger until i could visit my gunsmith. Recoil should not be a problem.

The problem is I’m torn between keeping it or getting that new Sako 75 chambered in the 300 WSM I mentioned on another post. My Winchester is a nice rifle but I just have something about a used rifles. I don’t know , maybe I’ll get that Sako and keep both. What to do... [>:] Thanks OEH for the info...

"CAN YOU TOP THIS??" As a matter of fact, ..............

I once bought a pre-64 Model 70 Super Grade in .375 H&H from a Captain stationed at Fort Wainwright (Fairbanks) Alaska for $125.00. It was in NRA excellent condition, and had a Lyman Alaskan scope mounted on it in a Jaeger QD sidemount.The guy had fired it five times, and decided he liked his .243 better!! He had obtained the rifle intrade for a Win. M12 shotgun at a roadhouse somewhere in Canada as he was driving upthe Alcan highway. The rifle was made in 1949.

At the same time, the Fort Wainwright PX had discontinued selling .375 H&H rifles, and put their entire remaining stock of .375 H&H ammo on sale for $1.00/box. I got 16 boxes of the stuff (Win. 300-grain Silvertip ammo) for $16.00. This happened in 1965. I still have a couple of boxes of that ammo left! My son in CO has the rifle......

My only problem was buying a few 300 wsms before finally buying the SM model but in my defense it only came out a few years ago. I went thru an Abolt,Weatherby VAnguard Blued,VAnguard SUBmoa before I got some sense in my head. SAKO 75 SM action is the perfect WSM action.