Did Winchester Deliver Model 71s without a steel butt plate.

[RANisbet]

I have now seen a couple with recoil pads on the butt end.
Was wondering if anyone knows whether Winchester installed pads as an option on model 71s instead of the steel butt plates.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

I don't know that they did. I've seen many with aftermarket recoil pads and side scope mounts. If Winchester put a pad on, it may have been on some very late ones. I can certainly understand the allure of a pad though with the 250 grain loads. You'll start to wish you had a pad if you touch off too many of the Grizzly Cartridge heavy loads.

I've never seen a reference to 71's with factory pads ... someone may correct me though.

[Idiot]

I have one of late production and it's hard steel. And the heavier the loads get, the harder that steel butt plate gets.

[cowboykell]

Rubber recoil pads were fitted at the factory and some were made by Pachmayr for Winchester.

[Mike D.]

Cowboykell answered the question correctly. The one thing that Winchester did not do was drill for a side mounted scope. Many 71 owners fell for this "necessity" and totally ruined any potential collector value of their guns. Heck, at that time nobody gave a thought to one of them being of any importance in the future. You could buy any old out-of-date Winchester Model for a few bucks, so why not scope your new Model 71.

[cowboykell]

Hey Mike D. - who would have thought a 71 would become collectable?

[1886]

Rubber recoil pads were fitted at the factory and some were made by Pachmayr for Winchester.

I saw one about two years ago. I had no idea Winchester did fit recoil pads at the factory, so I foolishly passed. This ONE post demonstrates the value of this forum. Ante up! 1886.

[Mike D.]

FYI, even the '86, '94 and '95 Models could be had with recoil pads. Most were the red Winchester pads. Silver's and Jostem were early pad makers, but Pachmayr didn't join the mix until the late 1930s, I believe.

[RANisbet]

Your info is very much appreciated.
I had no idea that I was addressing something so important and that the communal knowledge of so many smart people did not know about factory installed pads on 71s.

[big bear]

Couls someone direct me to a reference for factory mounted recoil pads on Winchester 71s? I suppose replacing such a factory pad that has hardened with time would be heresy with regards to collector value. If no hard refernce about such pads available, I may have to become a heretic

[Mike D.]

Repro red Winchester pads are very much available these days. Galazan comes to mind as one source for all types of vintage recoil pads. They are now part of the Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Co. Their website has all the info and pricing. Not cheap, but high quality.

www.connecticutshotgun.com

[65bee]

From a collectors standpoint, I would be very leery of any 71 with a recoil pad, however. For every factory installed pad, at least 50 were probably put on later by owners. I have been at the Winchester collector business for 50 years and have NEVER seen what I felt was a legitimate 71 with a factory pad. I don't doubt that Winchester did, in fact, put pads on some 71s at buyers requests, but by the time the 71 came along, Winchester was doing less and less special order work. As always, buyer beware!

[Sixgun]

From a collectors standpoint, I would be very leery of any 71 with a recoil pad, however. For every factory installed pad, at least 50 were probably put on later by owners. I have been at the Winchester collector business for 50 years and have NEVER seen what I felt was a legitimate 71 with a factory pad. I don't doubt that Winchester did, in fact, put pads on some 71s at buyers requests, but by the time the 71 came along, Winchester was doing less and less special order work. As always, buyer beware!

I'm with 'ya on this one. For me to think its an original pad, it had better be old/tattered, fit the wood perfectly along with the original finish on the wood to show it was not fitted by an outside source. In examining hundreds of Model 71's, there was only one with a pad that I would bet on and it had the italisized "Winchester" writing on it.-----------------Sixgun

[Mike D.]

65Bee and Sixgun, of course what you are saying is absolutely true, but never say never when it comes to Winchester. I, too, have been observing them for several decades and can honestly say that although I personally can only account for 3 or 4 71s with pads installed in New Haven many more must exist. Like you say, those "original" pads had very well be dried up and cracked from age.

[big bear]

So can I deduce the following: If one has a Win71 in nice shape with a dried up, hard as a rock recoil pad on it, you should leave it as is, rather than replace it with a modern pad, or would a replica old pad as mentioned above be not too bad an idea? No plan to foist it off on some one as an original,hope to keep em till I don't need em

[Mike D.]

My feeling is that if the pad is dried up and worthless, replace it with a similar one. Absolutely NO modifying the stock, though.