Thread: Winchester M69 revived

My recently-deceased clubmate and friend John Hastie asked me to do this little project for his grandsons and I was more than happy to do, both because John was a great guy and he was super generous to others and shooting in general. He was a top shooter in his day, winning the Ballinger Belt, and a skilled gunsmith. He and Tony Halberg built the HHE Millenniums which were the NZ Team rifles and still seeing wide use today. John was a Life Member of the NZ NRA and the HB Rifle Club. It was largely his efforts and a lot of his own money that got the 1000yd range going here.

This near 80yr old M69 was given to him by his father and accounted for literally tens of thousands of rabbits. He told me he regularly got 49 rabbits from one packet of ammo and cracked the 50 occasionally. It had a rough stock made by him as a teenager but it was split and missing the mag release which are an unusual side plunger. The metalwork was pretty rusty but it seemed to be basically in OK mechanical condition. It was also missing its magazine.



I started by tracking down a compatible mag from the US and scored the mag release on here. My sawmiller told me where to get some black walnut which he'd milled and had been sitting in a shed for well over five years. I did the woodwork on it but the main inletting was done by my mate Ian. The rifle has a cute little peep sight on it, 100X more accurate than any V-sight. The iron sights demanded a greater drop at comb than you'd choose for a scoped rifle. I had Allen Carr reblue it and he did a fantastic job, managing to retain the engraving and serial number.

Anyway, I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. It's no "best" but is still a significant item for his grandsons to have. The only shame is that John never got to see it finished.

Nice writeup, great pictures.
Tony and John gone but will never be forgotten.

You've good far more patience/perseverance with wood than I have.

Nice results I'm sure his grandsons will be happy with it.

PS. Thanks to Grandpamac for letting me look at his nice example to figure out a few things prior to starting on the stock

Originally Posted by 6x47

PS. Thanks to Grandpamac for letting me look at his nice example to figure out a few things prior to starting on the stock

You are welcome,
Nice job. I doubt it looked that good when new. Any firearm with a family connection is a real treasure. Neither of my grandfathers or my father ever owned a firearm of any type although all served in the army or home guard. I do have some rifles that belonged to departed friends though. My grandson will be spoilt for choice however.
Regards Grandpamac.

Hastie is a very uncommon Norwegian name.
I wonder how his forefather ended up in Hawkes Bay?

Originally Posted by norsk

Hastie is a very uncommon Norwegian name.
I wonder how his forefather ended up in Hawkes Bay?

No idea but his business partner Tony Halberg had Danish ancestry, cousin of Murray Halberg. Apparently the correct original spelling was Hallberg but (as was common) got butchered when they reached NZ.

Originally Posted by muzza

Did I supply you the mag release? Thats a great job on a nice old rifle. These old guns were well made and very accurate

Yep, thanks Muzza, you did. Did about 20 measurements before drilling that mounting hole..

As for accuracy, I haven't tried it properly but fired three rough shots into ~250mm sq block of firewood at about 20yds. Despite no aiming mark and terrible rest, they were in about 2/3" group so I guess the barrel must be OK, consistent with my borescoping. It of course had some pitting but not too bad.

That stick is just ‘wow’. A worthy project.


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What a great job, I'll wager Frank F Burton never envisaged his creation looking as smart as that.

Originally Posted by muzza

Theres a large Scandanavian presence in Hawkes Bay . Norsewood and Dannevirke being the main town centres .New Zealand attracted many nationalities back in the early days of colonial settlement

Bloke down the road from me was a Sailor back in the day,He used to visit Napier and Auckland fairly often.When he speaks English its like talking to a time capsule,interesting man.They used to swap Crayfish for Sardines in Cans and Chocolate and make a tank on board the ship.They would eat them on the way back to Norway. He still thinks its hilarious that Kiwis would swap "Fucking Sardines mate" for Crayfish.

Great work @6x47

In his later years John was also instrumental in establishing the use of Silver Mountain electronic targets at several clubs around NZ. Always a pleasure to phone him for technical advice.

That story Norsk is very similar to what a Newfie Canadian once told me. She said that anyone who took lobster to school for lunch was considered low class, the rich kids always had beef etc.

Originally Posted by ebf

Great work @6x47

In his later years John was also instrumental in establishing the use of Silver Mountain electronic targets at several clubs around NZ. Always a pleasure to phone him for technical advice.

John was a clever guy and never had trouble picking up technical stuff. I've had quite a few sessions working with John on our targets. We've just completely rebuilt the 300/600 target frames which lasted maybe a decade.

Beautiful job on the restoration....a rifle I would be proud to use...love the peepsight,never seen one like it before.