1962 Winchester Model 100

[Rulz]

Well...crap.

I did more research on this gun, turns out there's a firing pin recall. Knowing that my buddy's grandpa bought the gun new in 1962 and knowing that he never would have paid attention to such things....I called Winchester for a serial number check and my fears were realized: the recall had not been done.

But wait...

They still HONOR THE RECALL!!

Bullshit. "Yes sir, send us your firing pin and we will send you the replacement with a $30 check for your trouble".

Did I just step into a time machine? Did I actually hear a nice lady tell me this about a 54 year old gun?

I swear it sounded like a phone call from the 50s-60s, sweet and happy voice giving me hope that customer service at a major corporation is actually going to come through on something...

Then I remembered my phone call to Keltec where the guy actually sounded pissed off about sending me a replacement front site for their 30 round .22 magnum gimmick gun that was selling for $1000 at times on Gunbroker, all because they don't tighten them down from the factory as a "courtesy" for those that want to "sight the pistol in for themselves"....and I'm back to reality...

But kudos to the Olin corporation for honoring this old recall on a rifle that hasn't been in production since the year I was born.

That 30 dollars would have bought about 100 rounds of .308 back in the day...now I might get...20, or like 5 rounds of the good stuff...

 

[TexasCowPoke]

That is impressive Rulz!

 

[tcpoke]

Very cool. But remember a true recall (especially for something like a firing pin) is seen as a safety/liability issue. Should they not honor the recall after you bringing it to their attention, regardless of how long ago it was issued, and something were to happen to you due to the firing pin...you may end up owning Winchester!

 

[dtspoke]

That firing pin issue is related to accidental misfires I believe. Thing would shoot without pulling the trigger.

 

[Rulz]

"Catastrophic failure" was the term used to describe this issue.

It will probably take 4 weeks in turnaround time.

My buddy's grandpa used this gun a lot. Must have been lucky he never encountered the issue. These seem like pretty sweet guns really, with the flip over scope mount and semi auto. But there are tales of poor accuracy. Seen some guys do a little barrel bedding and with modern ammo have decent results.

I have an old 30.06 Parker Hale that can dot an i at 100 yards, it's a bolt gun and has done the work of a deer rifle for years. I'm anxious to compare the two in terms of recoil. I know basically what to expect, but if this gun can come close to that one at all I might retire the old PH.

Anybody else have experience with Weaver pivot mounts? Some guys say they suck, others say they return to zero. It's always the guys that have had them for awhile that seem to say they work fine. But I can see why someone would have issues with them.

 

[dtspoke]

Those Weavers work fine. I've had a couple of old sets on older rifles over the years do their job.

I've never had them on something with big recoil, so I'm not sure how they would do.

 

[Rulz]

The gun is in pieces at the moment, but that's it. It's got some battles scars, but I know it's history since I was friends with the old man that owned it since 1962. It's really too bad his grandson is such a loser (he's my ou turd buddy from high school that likes to shake up some crank for a hoot on weekends). He could have had a sweet old family heirloom. I promised his grandmother I would never sell it, and if any of the other family members were wanting it I would sell it back to them for the same price. I just couldn't let it end up in a damned pawn shop for the wrong reasons.

 

[Rulz]

Just got the firing pin in today. Installed and ready to go. That was faster than I thought it would be.

Now when the weather cooperates, I will take this out and get a range report. I'm pretty excited about this old gun. I might even run some of that 1962 ammo through it just for comparison, I'm wondering if the accuracy issues I have heard about with this gun can be cleared up with some modern factory loads.

I don't reload (yet), so all I have are factory rounds.

 

[panhndlpoke]

If you buy high quality factory ammunition, it should be accurate. As accurate as hand loads? No, but they'll be plenty accurate for training and learning about your rifle. Additionally, rifles can react to different bullets and brands of ammunition very differently. I generally find something that works well in the rifle and just buy a shit load of it so I don't have to figure out what works again.

So, in summation, buy 5-6 different bullets and brands of ammo (5-10 total boxes) and shoot all of them until you figure out what your rifles likes best. If you can't figure it out after 5 or 6 different brands then 1) the rifle is inherently inaccurate, 2) your scope is busted or 3) you're not a good enough shot to determine 1) or 2). In my thread about elk hunting, it was my scope, but it took me literally two or three hundred rounds of 300 WSM ammunition through the rifle before I accepted it truly wasn't me. I put another scope on top of the rifle and in 5 rounds the rifle was sighted in. At nearly $4/round, that was a very expensive lesson. But I learned I'm a good shot out to at least 300 yards and I can take at least 20 rounds of very controlled 300 WSM shots before I fatigue and need a break which also coincided with when I REALLY needed to go to work each day, anyway. I loved it. I hope you have as rewarding, albeit less expensive, experience with your newly redone rifle.

 

[Rulz]

One thing that bugs me about this gun is the smell lol. It sat in an old wooden case with that nasty styrofoam that had turned yellow...and it smells like old musty books smell in an old house. I've cleaned the piss out of it, rubbed everything on the stock I can think of...but it still stinks...hopefully with a hard workout at the range and more cleaning that smell will go away.

I think the stock was made pretty cheap. It's wood with some kind of coating that will flake off (I have seen pics of this, although this one is in decent shape, see pics above in this thread). I wish it was like my old M1 carbine stock and I would just use linseed oil on it.

I have read that Winchester was in the shitter around the time these guns were produced, haven't really researched that myself though.

 

[panhndlpoke]

I can't help you with the stock, but if it's crap, buy some sand paper and just sand the outer layer off and either refinish it or oil it up real good. No reason to deal with a cheap flaking stock. You can fix the flaking part pretty easy, but if you restock it, I would want a little help doing it proper at least the first time I did it. A little polyurathane in Satin or semi gloss should be pretty resilient and easy to apply. I've redone a table with rattle cans and it came out pretty good with just a tiny bit work. It won't be good for hard core hunting is heavy wet weather, but if the stock is pretty poor quality to begin with, I wouldn't want to spend too trying to get it "good". You'd probably be better off just restocking.

When I've used this: http://www.lowes.com/pd_45863-678-33060000___?productId=999914539&pl=1&Ntt=minwax+polyurathane I have found that more light coats with extremely light sanding or steel wool between coats works best. I know it is for indoors, but it's cheap and easy to use. Just spay in an area with low air born dust and leave it be for a few hours before disturbing the area and you'll have a pretty good looking stock.

 

[dtspoke]

Be thankful it wasn't stored in cosmoline. I hate that stuff.

I'm pretty sure the soviets required all their satellite states to store every armament made in that grease.

 

[Rulz]

Thanks for the tip, panhandle, I will check that out.

Yeah, I have both a Russian and Yugo SKS. The Yugo must have never been shot when I got it (maybe an arsenal rebuild or some such), it still had cosmoline in certain areas. The bolt was pretty covered. Disassembled that and soaked it overnight in Hoppes 9. Those SKS bolts are dangerous as hell if they have cosmo stuck in them.

I purchased an M1 carbine bolt tool a few months back, it was USGI and still in the wax wrap with a thick layer of heavy grease that had since dried a bit. Took me an hour to get all that crap off. Yeah, I'm sure it was worth more in its storage form, but I needed the use of it more than I needed another gun relic sitting around collecting dust lol.

I think over three years I have collected a huge glob of gun parts and silliness that could fill a small safe...between gun parts, Jeep parts, and three wheeler parts, I have limited storage space now in my cave. Yeesh. I need to have a garage sale....

 

[MegaPoke]

I've got an old model 94 30.30 that is still tight and shoots like new. Great American company.