An absolutely beat up and abused Winchester Model 67 .22 bolt action.
My grandfather bought the little gun new in early 1938. I have found it listed for $4.75 in a catalog reproduction from that year.
He taught my mom to shoot with it…and she was a darn good shot, even in her later years. He literally used it to put meat on the table. In the 40's, he bought a 'fancy' pump action .22, then handed the little bolt action down to my mom...who also shot food for the table with it and kept varmints out of the garden. At that phase in its history, it lived in the washhouse...handy to the garden, which was almost an acre.
I also learned to shoot with this little rifle and toted it around for many an afternoon and weekend on my uncles ranch. When I was either twelve or thirteen, I remember getting an unbelievable Christmas gift ... an entire BRICK of .22 LR! I felt like I was rich.
After l left home, the little rifle lived behind the utility room door at my parents house...once again relegated to duty keeping dangerous coyotes and rabbits away from the chickens and garden.
After my mom passed away, the little gun was not fired much. I tried to use it to teach my daughter to shoot, but the hammer was so week only about 1 in 4 shots went off. When my dad passed, I found it still propped up behind the utility room door. It was in sad shape. The stock was beat up and cracked, with the butt plate missing. The barrel badly rusted and pitted on the outside. The bolt froze up.
It sat around for a few months, until I decided to clean it up. After disassembly and removal of 70+ years of oil and grim, and finding a replacement spring, the bolt worked again. (My dad was not a big believer in cleaning guns. Singer sewing machine oil and WD-40 was all he ever used.) When I went to attack what I was sure was a badly fouled and corroded bore, it got two surprises. 1] The inside of the barrel was in much better shape than the outside. 2] There was no fouling of the rifling…because there was no rifling. Since the barrel does not have the "Smoothbore" stamp, it is one of the first 200 smoothbores produced in 1937, before the “Smoothbore” roll die for the marking was ready.
After many hours with fine grit sandpaper/steel wool and careful bead blasting, I sent the barrel went out for hot bluing; it is now very close to original condition. I refinished the stock myself, gluing and clamping the cracks, raising the scratches and filling some of the worst gouges…it still shows it’s long and unpampered life, but now has a warm glow to it, instead of dry and splintered. I’m dropping the bolt off at a place to be re-chromed next time I am in Houston.
Next year, sometime around July 26th, I’ll put this little rifle in a hard case that is WAY too big for it, and get on a plane headed to Anchorage. A little blue eyed girl, who will be turning 12, will have to listen to a long story before she opens her last gift.
