Winchester 74 Sniper - England Lend/Lease

[Fishcall]

I bought a Winchester 74 in 22 short last year off Gun Broker. It's accurate, cycles CB's and is fun to shoot. It has a treaded barrel and scope mounts.

I was browsing through Gun Broker earlier in the week and I ran across a posting for a similar rifle for $4,500. I sent an email to the seller (they are highly rated) asking for a source on how he found out any info on the rifle. He pretty much said to google it. The ad said there were only a couple know in existence. My rifle has the correct English proof marks.

Apparently it was part of the Lend/Lease program with England during WW2. This was intended to be an Auxiliary Unit rifle used in case of a German invasion.
Google has hardly any info on the quantity WW2 Lend/Lease 74's in 22 short.

I reached out to the importer, waiting on a response.

Does anyone on this form know anything about this rifle?

I'd hate to keep shooting it if it's really that rare.

 

[Horsehat]

I can’t speak to the number of these but it stands to reason it would be very few. Wartime production was dedicated to main line combat rifles to the almost total exclusion of everything else. Any non-main line military arm and civilian arms from this period is a bit rare.