Odd, Winchester Heavy varmint marked 243, chambered 22-250 from the factory

[nakneker]

Never seen this before. I wonder if it’s legit.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/745994705

 

[Shawnba67]

$671.50 to find out!

 

[nakneker]

$671.50 to find out!

LOL, I’ll pass. If I knew for certain it was a factory mistake I may buy it if it went cheap. I guess if it has the Winchester stamping saying .243 and it’s a .22 cal barrel it probably is a factory mistake.

 

[SSL]

A friend of mine has a Winchester heavy barrel varmint clearly stamped .222 Remington, but is actually a .223 Remington. Factory records indicate that the original markings are correct but it isn't . Often wondered if it was rechambered and not restamped. Makes a bit more sense than a 6mm bore being stamped as a .224 caliber!

 

[dwcon]

I had a 300win mag stamped but was chambered 30 06 bought used just scraped the barrel

 

[joshb]

Rare? Yes. I'm not sure I'd want it. It's an accident waiting to happen in the wrong hands. I can just picture myself with that gun when Alzheimer's starts to kick in.

 

[akajun]

I remember reading in an old American rifleman that a guy had bought a new model 70 in the 80’s in one caliber , barrel, box all said that caliber, let’s say 270 iirc
Would not chamber. Bore looked big, did a chamber cast it was 3006
Moral of the story was to check every new gun before firing , I think he contacted the factory and they fixed it
Anyway that article along with this auction tells me that there was some qc issues in the barrel stamping dept at Winchester

 

[snert]

Rare? Yes. I'm not sure I'd want it. It's an accident waiting to happen in the wrong hands. I can just picture myself with that gun when Alzheimer's starts to kick in.

I had a similar comment but forgot it

 

[nakneker]

I had a similar comment but forgot it

 

[butchlambert]

Ain't it pretty easy to change the barrel and sell it as rare?

 

[retired]

would like to see the muzzle ...liner to drop 6mm to 22

 

[flatlander]

There were definitely some QC issues at WRA in that time period. I bought a M70HV in 223 that had a ding on the muzzle - looked like someone had purposely set a 1/8" pin punch half on the crown, half out over the bore, and given it a whack with a small hammer. I wonder if it wasn't an inspector's 'reject' mark, because after I had the crown re-cut, I found it had a grossly oversized chamber. Sent it back to the factory, it came back with a new bbl - but this one had an eccentric/out of round chamber. So much so that when you rolled a fired case out of it across a counter top, it would hop around because it was so out-of-round. Sad state of affairs for one of the finest old rifle companies in the country... The decline from the rifles they built back in the 1890s is painfully obvious when I pull one of the old 1886, 1892, 1894 lever rifles, or High Wall single-shot out of the safe to admire.