Tag: Rimfire series

The Rimfire Series: Model 69 Winchester

By Rob Morel

After seeing Joe Berk’s article on the .22 bolt action Springfield rifle, I thought about my recent project Model 69 Winchester.  I bought it from my favorite gunstore.  It was in pretty bad shape when I bought it and it was obviously well used. The Winchester had a screw for a bolt handle that did not work well, a homemade peep sight, the rifle was rusty, and it had a dinged-up stock with a lot of miles on it.  I bought the rifle for $150 knowing it would make for a good project.  I wanted to fix and preserve it as a plinker.

The Model 69 Winchester is an old magazine fed rifle made in 1936.  It is an interesting vintage .22.  I believe it was made around 1935 based on the exposed side magazine release and the exposed screw that holds the barrel to the stock (as shown in the above photo).   These two features make it one of the earlier Model 69 rifles Winchester produced.

The finish on the barrel and the receiver had left the building a long time ago.   It exhibited what might be called an authentic patina, but to me it was just rust and I wanted to prevent it from heading further down that road. I sanded it very lightly and used Birchwood Casey cold blue to preserve it. That turned out well eonugh, but it was not as good as a hot blue job would have been. Maybe I will clean it better and redo it someday.  But my cold blue approach had the rifle looking good (I think for now the steel finish is good enough), so I continued fixing other things.

The rifle’s original peep sights had been “fixed” (read:  Bubba’d) by a shade tree gunsmith.  The sights worked, but they looked terrible. Bubba had drilled out the original aperture and tapped it to a larger thread. Then he took and sawed off a length of all thread (all thread is threaded rod) after drilling a small hole way off center.   Maybe he did that to allow for windage by rotating it in the threads…who knows?  Or maybe he was just sloppy.

I machined a nicer-looking knurled retina (see the picture above), but I ended up putting a scope on it, so for now the peeper looks good but is not used.  I’ve seen comparable sights on Ebay for over $225, so I’ve got that going for me.

The old bolt handle was a standard screw from someone’s grandpa’s blacksmith stable. It didn’t work. The handle needs to go through two sleeves to cock the firing pin properly.  It wasn’t too hard to make a new one that works well. I had the little ball end you see above in my tool box for years.  It was waiting for me to use it on something, and it looks like it belongs on this rifle.

The rifle’s wood stock showed its 85-plus years of use, so I sanded it lightly, stained it, and gave it a clear varnish finish.  I similarly cleaned up the buttplate and its screws.  I think it all turned out well.

After doing the above work, it was time to sight the rifle in. Waiting until it was dark, I clamped the rifle in a cleaning rest so it wouldn’t move on the table. With the bolt taken out I could look through the barrel at a distant streetlight.  I then looked through the scope and adjusted the scope’s windage and elevation so it was right on the streetlight several hundred yards away. After making sure the barrel and scope were secure, I tried the rifle on the farm the next day.  The rifle can shoot .22 Short, Long, and Long Rifle ammunition.  I could hit dirt clods fairly consistently from 40 to 100 yards away. That’s good enough for now. After shooting it for the first time, I had to go out and celebrated with a Yoo-Hoo and a new box of 50 rounds.  I’ll next shoot at a paper target from a rest to hold it steadier then my 66-year-old arms can.

Overall, resurrecting the Model 69 Winchester has been a fun and satisfying project.  It didn’t cost very much and gave life back to this 85-year-old firearm that is a hoot to shoot.  It would be great for a youth rifle and for teaching kids to shoot.  The rifle is small and light, and it can be taken apart for cleaning and reassembling quickly.

Meet our newest contributor:  Rob Morel

Rob Morel is a good guy…a considerate, literate, and motorific kind of man.  I first met Rob on the Western America Adventure Ride, when guys who owned Zongshen RX3 motorcycles joined Joe Gresh, a group of Chinese riders, a couple of guys from Colombia, and yours truly for our 5,000-mile romp around the US.  Rob joined us in Idaho, and I knew I was going to like him the minute I saw the guy seated by the side of the road, waiting for us, somewhere before we crossed into Hells Canyon.  It said a lot about Rob:  He would be ready, he wouldn’t hold the rest of the group up, and he put others ahead of himself.  Like I said, I liked him instantly.  Rob has ridden with us a number of times…on that first Western America Adventure Ride, in Baja, on another ride through the Southwest, and more.  He’s a machinist, a motorcyclist, a shooter, and a writer.  This is Rob’s first piece as an ExNotes contributor.  Welcome aboard, Rob, and thanks for this story!

– Joe Berk

More stories in the Rimfire Series are here.

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The Rimfire Series: French Walnut 10/22

By Joe Berk

Nearly 15 years ago, TALO (a firearms distributor) offered a unique version of Ruger’s 10/22.  It was a model with a French walnut stock.  As a guy who appreciates good wood and a long time 10/22 fan, I knew I wanted one.  The rifles were offered initially at $419, but I knew the price would only go.  It’s hard to go wrong with a Ruger 10/22, especially if it is a limited edition.

I contacted an executive with Turner’s (a sporting goods chain) and told them I and several of my friends wanted to buy these, and asked if they would consider buying a group of them and allowing us to select the ones we wanted before they went on the shelves.  Turner’s went along with my nutty idea, and I and my friends each bought one.

TALO’s French walnut 10/22 on the bench at the West End Gun Club.
I’m pretty sure Ruger and TALO subcontracted the 10/22 French walnut stocks to Altamont. The checkering, fit, and finish is flawless.
The French walnut 10/22 starboard side view.

The French walnut 10/22s were flawless, and I actually bought two.  I gifted one to a friend who steered a big chunk of consulting work way my way, and I kept the one you see here.  I tried several different brands of .22 ammo to find the one it liked best (it was Aguila Target ammo), and I bought a bunch of that shortly after I finished my testing.

I already knew that I liked the Mueller 4.5×14 scope on a .22, so I bought one and mounted it on the rifle.   It’s a great scope, sharp, clear, and with several features I like.

The 4.5×14 Mueller scope.
The Mueller scope incorporates a parallax adjustment feature on the objective end. I dialed it down to 50 feet.
The Mueller scope cranked all the way up to 14-power magnification.

Most recently, I had the French walnut 10/22 out at the range.  As always, it performed brilliantly.  I’ve competed with this rifle in the WEGC metalllic silhouette matches, and I sometimes bring it to the range just to plink.  It’s a fabulous rifle.

The famous Ruger 10/22 rotary magazine in the rifle. It holds 10 rounds. I load only five at a time.
Cartridges in the 10/22 rotary magazine.

I took the 10/22 with me on the same day I shot my old Winchester Model 62, using the same three types of ammo on a 50-foot NRA target.

I’m nearing the end of this old box of Federal high velocity ammo. It was good while it lasted.
CCI standard velocity .22 ammo. This is good stuff.
Aguila .22 Long Rifle target ammo. I found this to be very accurate in my .22 rifles.

The 10/22 did a fine job.  As usual, the Aguila ammo turned in good results.  The Federal high velocity and CCI ammo did a surprisingly good job, too.

The results on a paper target with Federal, CCI, and Aguila ammunition. The distance was 50 feet.

If you are looking for a good .22 firearm, the 10/22 is hard to beat.  At more than 7 milli0n produced, the 10/22 has sold more rifles commercially than any other firearm (there are military rifles that have higher production numbers, like the Mosin Nagant and the AK-47, but in terms of commercially available .22s, the 10/22 is it).  There’s a huge aftermarket in 10/22 parts, too.  You just can’t go wrong with a 10/22.  I’ve owned several over the years and I still have three, including an older 10/22 Mannlicher  with exceptional walnut and a 200th year 10/22 Deluxe model (Ruger roll marked “Made in the 200th Year of American Liberty” on every rifle they manufactured in 1976).  Sometime in the near future I’ll dig out the 200th year 10/22 and post a blog on it.

More articles in The Rimfire Series are here.

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The Rimfire Series: Winchester Model 62

By Joe Berk

The gun that has been in my family the longest is a Model 62 Winchester chambered in .22 Short, Long, and Long Rifle.  I remember it being in the gun cabinet when I was a little boy and being told never to play with it (you can guess how well I listened to that advice).

I could go into a bunch of technical details about the Model 62, and I’ll provide a little bit of that below, but that’s not my intent with this article.  I decided to instead focus on the rifle, how it shoots and handles, a little bit of its history, and what it means to me.

The starboard side of my Winchester Model 62 rifle. It’s a sleek and lightweight .pump-action 22.
A port side view of the Model 62 on the range at the West End Gun Club.

When Dad had the rifle up until the time I went into the Army (and that would be in 1973), the rifle’s metalwork was flawless.  Then I disappeared from the scene for about 10 years (the Army, work, and other things).  I guess during that time my father stopped paying attention to the rifle.  Dad passed in 1982, and when I came home for the funeral, the metal parts had taken on the patina you see here.  New Jersey is a unforgiving and humid place; if you don’t keep your toys oiled, they corrode quickly.  But the Model 62 still looks good and it shoots well.

Shooting in RAW (the camera, that is), a macro lens, and even lighting bring out the inherent beauty of this fine old rifle.

I like the Model 62 Winchester’s straight grip stock.  It felt right to me when I was a kid and it influenced my future preferences in firearms.  I have more than a few rifles with that same straight grip stock now…a Winchester 1886 .45 70 clone made by Chiappa in Italy, several Ruger No. 3 rifles, and a few Marlin lever guns.

The Model 62 is what we call a “takedown” rifle.  A single thumb screw secures the stock and trigger group to the rest of the gun.  It’s a cool approach.

The Model 62 taken down. The stock and the trigger group detach from the barreled action with a single thumbscrew on the left side of the receiver.
I rotated the photo 90 degrees clockwise to provide a better look at the rifle after take down.
A macro view of the aft portion of the Model 62 after it has been taken down. The large thumbscrew in the center of this photo allows disassembly.
The Model 62’s barreled action after take down.

The sights on the Model 62 are old school.  They’re Lyman front and rear.  Nothing fancy, but they work well.  A simple gold bead up front, and a drift adjustable rear with a stepped ramp for adjusting elevation.  But I’ve never had to adjust them.   Either they came zeroed from the factory, or the guy who owned the rifle before Dad adjusted the sights, or Dad adjusted them.

Winchester used Lyman sights front and rear back in the 1930s. This front sight has a brass bead. It tarnished enough so that it looks black when I align the sights, and that works for me. Bright brass beads reflect light and pull the shots to one side.
The Model 62 rear sight. Simple, elegant, and traditional.

I think my Nikon 810 and the Sigma 50mm 2.8 macro lens do a good job in bringing out the rifle’s vintage beauty.  You can see it in the next few photos.

The Model 62’s bolt lifts up and slides to the rear when the pump is actuated. The spent brass ejects upward.
Another shot of the retracted bolt, showing the mechanism that ejects the spent brass case.
Rollmarks on the right side of the barrel: “Made in U.S.A. Winchester Repeating Arms Co. New Haven, Conn. Patents Pending.” Cool stuff.
The receiver from the left side. Patina, they call it. I could have it reblued, but then it wouldn’t be original, and like they say, it’s only original once.
The pump action forearm with its distinctive pre-war oval shape. Post-war forearms were straight. This one is much classier.

When I was a kid and my parents weren’t home, I sometimes snuck out of the house with the Model 62 and a box of .22 ammo.  We had a couple of acres in New Jersey that ran into the woods with a stream behind the house (the stream fed Farrington Lake, which emptied into Raritan Bay on the Atlantic Ocean).   You might think having a couple of acres in central Jersey with property bordered by a stream was a sign of wealth, but it wasn’t.  It’s what people did in the 1950s: You bought a couple of acres and built a house, and that’s what my Dad did.  He didn’t pay somebody else to build a house; he actually built our house.  Today you’d have to be rich to own those two acres.  Back then it was the path you took if you didn’t have money.

Those were good days and good times.   One time a kid from my junior high came home with me (Bob Dixon, if you’re reading this, drop us a line).  Mom and Dad weren’t home yet, so Bob and I grabbed the Model 62 and headed into the woods.  There was an old cellar door laying in the mud next to the stream and Bob thought it would be a good idea to flip it over.  “You know, there might be a snake or something under there…”

A New Jersey water snake. This one was about five feet long. We used to think these were water moccasins.

We did, and what we saw shocked the hell out of both of us: A monstrous, scaly, and scary reptile.  Being kids, we were convinced it was a water moccasin.  Today, I realize it was probably a water snake.  But it was huge and we did the only thing any kid would have done in similar circumstances, and that was to put the Model 62 to good use.  Call me Bwana.  (On a recent trip back to New Jersey’s Farrington Lake, I saw another one of those frighteningly large snakes and I wrote about it here.)

Loading the Model 62 is pretty straightforward.  The rifle has a tubular magazine that holds a ton of ammo.  As you see from the rollmarks above, it will shoot .22 Long Rifle, .22 Long, and .22 Short.  I don’t know how many rounds of each it will hold, but it is a lot.  I only load five rounds at a time, so it’s kind of a moot point to me.  Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I saw .22 Long or .22 Short ammo anywhere.  It’s all .22 Long Rifle these days.

The tubular magazine below the barrel. The arrow points to the knurled knob that opens the magazine.
A macro shot of the tubular magazine’s knurled knob and its bayonet lock. Twist the knob and the plunger can be pulled forward for loading.
When the magazine’s inner plunger is pulled forward, the loading port can receive ammo.
A Federal .22 Long Rifle being loaded into the Model 62.

So how accurate is this nearly 80-year-old pump action .22?  I’m glad you asked.  I had not shot it in three or four years, so I grabbed three different kinds of .22 ammunition I had in my ammo locker:  Older Federal copper washed high velocity ammo, CCI standard velocity ammo good buddy Greg gave me a few years ago, and Aguila standard velocity target ammo I bought from a local sporting goods chain when it was on sale.

I’m just about to the end of this box of .22 Long Rifle Federal ammo. Look at the price!
The accuracy load: CCI standard velocity .22 Long Rifle ammo. This is good stuff.
Aguila .22 Long Rifle target loads. Previous testing at 50 yards showed this worked best in my Ruger 10/22 (a Rimfire Series blog on that rifle will follow in the near future).

My U-boat Subie and I braved the Meyers Canyon water crossing to get to the West End Gun Club, I went to the .22 range and set up a table, and I tested the Model 62’s accuracy at 50 feet from a bench rest.  I fired three 5-shot groups at an old 50-foot rimfire target I found in my stash.   Here’s how it went:

Test results at 50 feet. The top right target was the first target of the day, and it was predicably the largest group (the bore was unfouled, and I was not yet in form). The Model 62 did best with CCI standard velocity ammo. This is not too shabby with open sights on an 85-year-old rifle.

A bit more info on the Model 62 Winchester:  This Model 62 carries the serial number 94XXX, which puts its date of manufacture at 1939.  My father bought the rifle when he was a kid; he would have been 13 years old in 1939.  Winchester manufactured 409,000 Model 62 rifles from 1932 to 1958, with a two-year break during World War II.   In 1939, production switched over to the Model 62A.  The Model 62A incorporated engineering changes to reduce production cost (mine is the original Model 62, not the 62A).  When Winchester introduced the Model 62 in 1932, the rifle’s suggested retail price was $17.85.  Presumably, the price had climbed a bit by 1939.  Family lore has it that Dad paid $8 for the rifle.  Sales of recently completed auctions on Gunbroker.com show the price for a Model 62 today ranges from $300 to $3000.   That’s quite a spread, but to me it’s irrelevant.  This rifle is not for sale at any price; one day it will go to one of my grandsons.

Model 62 Winchesters show up for sale on Gunbroker.com pretty much all the time, so if you want one they are available.  More good news is that the Model 62 is legal here in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia.

The Rossi Model 62.

More good news is that Rossi, a Brazilian firearms manufacturer, offered their Model 62 (a fairly faithful reproduction of the Winchester Model 62) from 1970 to 1998 and the Rossi rifles can still be found.   Rossi discontinued the Model 62 when they were acquired by Taurus, but the Rossi rifles still show up on the auction site gunboards. Sometimes you see one in a pawnshop or a gunstore’s used gun rack. I’ve never handled or fired the Rossi so I can’t say anything about them, but if I came across one at a reasonable price I would jump on it.  You might consider doing the same.

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Check out our other Tales of the Gun Rimfire Series articles here.