mawkie
C&R Whisperer
-Always a Winchester fanboy, I've been casually looking for a nice example of a Winchester 54 for some time now. Always figured it would be in .30-06 as those are the easiest to find and the least expensive, making it easy to dip a toe into the vintage sporting rifle world. But as time passed I still hadn't gotten any closer to scoring one. Prices started to rise so what was an affordable $500-600 investment jumped a couple hundred dollars.
-So I find myself in the position where if I'm going to add a 54 to the herd I need to bow to the current market and just expect to spend more than el cheapo mawkie wanted. Freed of that shackle I decided to go totus porcus and opened my mind to the option of a 54 in .22 Hornet, which is the most expensive chambering for the 54. Besides, I had heard so many wonderful stories about what the .22 Hornet was capable of. Always mindful of Col. Townsend Whelen's famous quote "Only accurate guns are interesting" I decided to keep an eye out for one.
-About a month ago I'm trolling the hinterlands in a NY country auction and see a nice 54 in .22 Hornet. Before the live auction bidding was modest, topping out at $600. So when the auction went live I was ready to see what it would take to bring it home with me. As it turned out I almost had it on the cheap @ $850 but someone pushed the bid one more $50 increment so I had to go to $950 to bag it. Add the vig and it's mine for $1140 which is low for a 54 in this chambering.
-Took the auction house nearly a month to get it packed and shipped but it arrived intact and looking much better than auction photos represented. Very well kept for a rifle built in 1935. And it helped that I could share shipping cost with a FN 1922 that I found in the same auction (coming to a separate thread soon).
-The Winchester 54 was the company's first dedicated bolt action sporting rifle for modern high power cartridges, competing with Remington's Model 30, a spin-off from the US Model of 1917. Production started in 1925 with chamberings in .30 Govt and the new .270 Win. Over the roughly dozen year production run it was offered in 30-30 Win, 7mm Mauser, 7.65 Arg, 9x57 Mauser, .250 Savage, .220 Swift, .257 Roberts and .22 Hornet.
-The .22 Hornet was added to the lineup in 1933 and introduced a new SpeedLock trigger which, like with the Winchester 52, significantly reduced lock time. In fact, the lock time for this 54 is nearly identical to the current production Model 70 which was based on the 54.
-The 54 was offered in standard, target, match sniper and carbine versions along with a Super Grade which primarily featured a higher grade of furniture. When production ended in 1936 about 50,000 Model 54s had been sold. And its legacy lives on in the classic Model 70. Expect to pay around $700-800 for a nice standard model in .30-06 and about $1300-1500 for one in .22 Hornet. Rarer models like the Sniper, Target and Carbine versions obviously command more.
-So I find myself in the position where if I'm going to add a 54 to the herd I need to bow to the current market and just expect to spend more than el cheapo mawkie wanted. Freed of that shackle I decided to go totus porcus and opened my mind to the option of a 54 in .22 Hornet, which is the most expensive chambering for the 54. Besides, I had heard so many wonderful stories about what the .22 Hornet was capable of. Always mindful of Col. Townsend Whelen's famous quote "Only accurate guns are interesting" I decided to keep an eye out for one.
-About a month ago I'm trolling the hinterlands in a NY country auction and see a nice 54 in .22 Hornet. Before the live auction bidding was modest, topping out at $600. So when the auction went live I was ready to see what it would take to bring it home with me. As it turned out I almost had it on the cheap @ $850 but someone pushed the bid one more $50 increment so I had to go to $950 to bag it. Add the vig and it's mine for $1140 which is low for a 54 in this chambering.
-Took the auction house nearly a month to get it packed and shipped but it arrived intact and looking much better than auction photos represented. Very well kept for a rifle built in 1935. And it helped that I could share shipping cost with a FN 1922 that I found in the same auction (coming to a separate thread soon).
-The Winchester 54 was the company's first dedicated bolt action sporting rifle for modern high power cartridges, competing with Remington's Model 30, a spin-off from the US Model of 1917. Production started in 1925 with chamberings in .30 Govt and the new .270 Win. Over the roughly dozen year production run it was offered in 30-30 Win, 7mm Mauser, 7.65 Arg, 9x57 Mauser, .250 Savage, .220 Swift, .257 Roberts and .22 Hornet.
-The .22 Hornet was added to the lineup in 1933 and introduced a new SpeedLock trigger which, like with the Winchester 52, significantly reduced lock time. In fact, the lock time for this 54 is nearly identical to the current production Model 70 which was based on the 54.
-The 54 was offered in standard, target, match sniper and carbine versions along with a Super Grade which primarily featured a higher grade of furniture. When production ended in 1936 about 50,000 Model 54s had been sold. And its legacy lives on in the classic Model 70. Expect to pay around $700-800 for a nice standard model in .30-06 and about $1300-1500 for one in .22 Hornet. Rarer models like the Sniper, Target and Carbine versions obviously command more.
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What a nice piece bro !!
