Winchester 63

[Luke]

First: I have no financial or personal interest in Cornell Publications, but I hope this bit of information might be helpful to other members.

I recently became interested in the Winchester 63 semi-auto 22 caliber rifle, now out of production. Searching the Internet for information I found a company that sells reproductions of many out-of-print manuals for older firearms.

www.cornellpubs.com

I ordered their Winchester 63 manual, and found it to be an exceptionally helpful publication with detailed disassembly and reassembly instructions with very good (draftsman quality) hand-drawn diagrams. The manual was well worth the $20+ dollars I paid for it.

BY THE WAY: I would really like to hear from anyone who owns on of these fine old rifles.

Luke

[Hugh]

Luke,

I have a Win 63 with an old Weaver K4 dot reticle that is one of my favorite squirrel rifles. Also have Win 61 and 62 pumps that are great shooters. I love shooting the old Winchester 22's that I grew up with. I squirrel hunted with a 62 that had a Lyman tang peep sight when I was much younger and had better eye sight. In fact when I was much much younger, I squirrel hunted with a Ruger single six and iron sights!

[Luke]

Hi Hugh,

Thanks for your comments. When I was a boy my greatest gun ambition was to own a Winchester 63. Never happened. I don't shoot squirrels any more, but I would still love to own one of those rifles. I have two Browning 22s that I shoot, a semi-auto and a lever-action. No pine cone is safe when I am in the woods!

Taurus makes a beautiful stainless steel 63 copy of the Winchester 63 at a good price, and I am tempted; but I would prefer the real thing if I can find a good one.

Tomorrow I am going to the big Charlotte Gun Show . . . . . hoping. But, I'll only buy one if it is in really good condition. Any problems to watch out for?

Thanks,
Luke

[Hugh]

Luke,

The only suggestions that I can offer is to check the bore with a good borelight, be sure that the knob on the rear of the receiver hasn't been marred with plier jaws, be sure the operating rod returns to its forward position smartly after being retracted, and check for scope mounting holes that have been plugged (unless you want to mount a scope, then it won't matter)

My rifle is in 95% condition, but I got it at a good price because it had been drilled and tapped for a scope mount. This was a minus for purest collectors, but actually was a plus for me as I wanted to mount one anyway.

Hugh

[Aaron]

I bought one new back in 1958, put a few boxes of ammo through it, and found it to work flawlessly. However, I it had the poorest accuracy I ever encountered in a .22 rifle, so I traded it off for something else.

[Luke]

Hello Aaron,

That's a little disturbing. If that is the case, I probably would not be happy with one.

I own a Browning Semi-Auto 22 (takedown gun), and it is extremely accurate from a bench rest position under tightly controlled conditions. I am surprised the Winchester is not as accurate.

Has that been your experience, Hugh ? ? ?

Regards,
Luke

[Ron Wood]

Luke,
I also have wanted to own a 63 but never could bring myself to pay the price of a really nice one. A couple of years ago I found a used modern "Winchester" repro in brand new condition (made in Japan by U.S. Repeating Arms under license from Winchester). It is a really close copy of the original, well made and a sweet little gun. It has the dovetail grooves on the receiver to mount a scope so I found a brand new Bushnell 3X-7X scope at a gun show for next to nothing that is just the right size and looks great mounted on the gun. The good news is that I have only around $300 in the whole thing...the bad news is I haven't had the opportunity to shoot it yet.

The most accurate .22 I have ever owned was my first rifle that I got for my 12th birthday. It was a Mossberg model 146B. I put a Weaver scope on it with an aftermarket "varmenter" objective. I could consistently shoot a 5-shot group at 100 yards that you could cover with a quarter (dang, I wish I still had that gun).

[Luke]

Ron -

That's really impressive shooting. I managed that once at 100 yards, but with a Remington M-700VLS in .223 from a bench rest with a good scope.

My first gun was also a 22. My brother gave me a Winchester single-shot, bolt-action when I was 12. As I think back on it, most of the boys where I grew up (South Georgia) had 22s by the time they were 12. Interestingly, I never saw even one incident of careless or irrresponsible use of these guns. I imagine the gun control folks would find this hard to believe . . . but true anyway. We hunted mostly squirrels, but we were careful never to shoot on the level if a squirrel was on the side of a tree.

Would really like to hear from anyone else who has the same experience as Aaron with the Winchester 63.


Luke

[Ron Wood]

Luke,
Perhaps I should have said "frequently" rather than "consistently"! I didn't do it every time.
Did you ever try to "bark" a squirrel with hollow points?

[Luke]

Ron -

Not sure what you mean by "bark" a squirrel. They would often flatten out on a large pine tree limb and become almost invisible, and I would sometimes have to wait an hour or more before they would rise up enough to provide a good shot.

Luke

[Ron Wood]

When they flatten out like that, if you shoot through the tree bark just under them and in back of their front legs it stops their heart, or at least stuns them, and knocks them out of the tree. Of course if the limb is too high, you can't get enough of a crossing shot to do it. It is more of a trick shot than practical. I had an uncle that could do it, but when I tried it all I did was make the squirrel mad.

[Luke]

Interesting. The pine trees in South Georgia were usually so tall that the angle was really bad, and such a shot would have been pretty difficult.

Anyway, I stopped hunting squirrels many years ago. When I was a kid we ate them, but I would have to be pretty hungry now . . . . :-)

Regards,
Luke

[Freischütz]

I owned a M63 about forty years ago. It was new when purchased. It functioned reliably but was not especially accurate. The trigger was narrow and the trigger pull heavy. Consequently I was never sure of its capabilities.

I did not like the disconnector. The rifle would fire with the bolt partially open. This caused the unsupported case to rupture and blow a variety of particles into the right side of my face. I was very surprised that the small ejection port permitted the material to hit me.

Someone stole the rifle about thirty years ago, and I could find no reason to replace it

[Hugh]

It appears that my experience has been quite different from the other posters, maybe I lucked out and got an exceptional gun. My 63 is more accurate than my Ruger or Browning 22 semi autos.

[Aaron]

Say Luke, I think you can answer a question that is driving me nuts. I notice you have a Browning take down .22, and it reminded me that I have an almost brand new one lurking at the back of the safe. I took it out, shot it a while, and found it to be extremely accurate. But my problem is, I cannot find the serial number. I took it down and checked it in and out. I'm sure it is staring me in the face, but I just can't find it. Can you tell me where to look?

[Luke]

Aaron -

The SN on my Browning SA-22 is on the right side of the receiver, just above the trigger. It is #02038PN146.

This particular Browning is made in Japan. If your gun is the Belgium version, it could be they placed the SN somewhere else.

Luke

[Luke]

No luck in finding a Winchester 63 at today's Charlotte Gun Show. Only found one, a beat-up old model that had a replacement barrel, and that at $450. Had to pass.

Maybe next time.

Luke