Winchester bolt action 22 LR

by Hawkeye » Mon Jun 06, 2022 9:58 pm

The short one, I have had for a long time (late 70s)

It was given to me by my father-in-law when we moved to TN. It was his gun as a young kid in Washington state. It had just a small amount of surface rust but was mostly covered up in hard dust.

The peep site was bent so far $50 I replaced it. After a good cleaning I sanded down the barrel and

re-blued it. The stock was not to bad and all I did was use tur-oil to bring back that dark color.

There is so much about this rifle to tell, It's model-57 made back in the 1920s, takes a 5 or 10 round clip. I know it looks like a toy but this is a shooter.

One day I walked into an old time country store, looking in the glass counter I spotted a real old brick of Winchester match 22lr ammo still in good shape but covered in dust. (bought them all)

Now back in those days I would shoot in a local club, one of the matches we had was bench rest 22s 50 feet. I would show up with this toy with just a 1/2" leather strap, shooting against some high end 22s, bull barrel, with site costing $100s. I would get looks and even some laughs. BUT it would all way come down to using a set on caliper to see how tight the groups where. I lost one match because there where only 4 holes all connected, you could cover them with half a dime, so it was determined that the other guy had 5 hole he won. I say I had the 5th hole in one of the same holes but I am not one to argue, after all I had made my point (its the shooter that make up 80%, the gun is just 10%, and ammo 10%) I did this a lot back then, I would show up with an old military rifle and hold my own with some high end sporting rifles.

The longer rifle I just happen to find in a out of the way gun shop. (back in those days we had small gun shops every where. I even had one that I did custom stock work. I had to have it. This is a model 69 made some time in 1930s. I put a scope on this one. It shoot very good but not as good as the little short 57. Both take the same clips 5 and 10 round.

You ever go ground hog hunting? The farmers around here use to let me hunt them in there fields.

One day I spotted one just over 75 yards, down hill siting on a downed tree truck. With the old 57 before I had match ammo (I think I had some CCI stuff) hit him dead center in the chest

I can go on and on about these two shooters, trained my kids with these, trained grandkid with them before we get the fun guns out. When I first started shooting, 22s are the only thing I would shoot for years.