I have 3 94’s. The first is a 1941 in 32 Win, the second is a 1951 in 30 WCF (30-30), and the last is a 1980-1981 model 30-30.

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NRA Life Member, Patron

Love mine, got it for 90 dollars in sorry shape in .30-30. Stripped all the rust, cleaned it up, gave the receiver a nice patina. She's a shooter for a beater rifle I bought as a project!

Another .30 WCF Model 94 from 1941. Belonged to an uncle who sold it to me in 1961 for fifteen bucks. That was my only hunting rifle until 1975 when I bought a nice used Model 70 in .30-06. I still have them both.

I remember when K Mart would put the 94 on sale every deer season. Forget the price but it wasn't much.

My first firearm at age 13 in 1975 was a 9422. Several hundred of the best hours of my life have been spent shooting it - still one of my prized possessions. You can imagine what it was like for me to graduate from an air rifle to the '94 -heaven!

At that age I had no idea what a diamond in the rough this model was as far as being decently machined in the age of stamping etc. I was recently surprised to note the prices these fetch now and it made me briefly cringe over all the hard wear on mine but then I remembered how it came by every ding honestly so no regrets.

I also have a Marlin 1894 in .44 mag which I like a lot, but not like the 9422. The .44 feels more to me like an overgrown Red Ryder :Q

I'm more of a bolt action fan than lever action fan when it comes to high
power rifles. I do have one pre 64 30-30 model 94 however that I bought
from a co worker twenty some years ago. It is in near mint condition so
it has a permanent home. The 94 is a classic rifle that is a pleasure to
just get out and handle once in a while.

I shoot lead bullets out of my 30-30. Right now it is sighted in for a light load with a plain base 150 grain bullet. A few years back I won a 200 yard steel plate buffalo shoot with it and that was against people shooting factory ammo in any caliber. No restrictions.

had use of an early century 94 in .32 WS as a teenager, the action was butter, and was highly accurate at a hundred yards.
Of every weapon I have handled since, that's the one I'd most like to own now.

Mine is circa 1963 in 30-30...you have to have at least one lever gun...!

I have one 94 from 1966 that was used by a mounted Police Dept near me. Also have a 9422, best .22 I own. Here's the 94, you can see the CHP stamped on the receiver for Cleveland Heights Police.

While my favorites are single shot from the late 19th,I must admit that the model 94 Winchester holds a special spot in my ticker.I have owned or still own one or more in 32-40,38-55,22lr and of course,many in 30-30.
I shoot 99% lead bullets and keep them(after a little work)easily within 2 1/2'' at 100yds with a few exeptions at 2''.
These 94 are a living testimony of that great genius,John M.Browning certainly the greatest brains when it came to create new mechanical concepts for firing a cartridge!

My dad used the '94 in 30-30 for years. I was born in '57 and he had it probably early '50s/late'40s after he returned from the So. Pacific. I would shoot it once in a while when I was young. He retired it for a 30-06, I believe it was the model 70 that is in another post. I'll be getting that 94 next time my sister & BIL come up from Texas. I recently acquired a Sears Ted Williams model 100 30-30 from my other sister & BIL. The wood needs refinished a little to spruce it up. I haven't shot it yet but it does load & cycle as it should. Summer's coming so I should have it presentable-looking and will take it out & check the accuracy, etc. I'll post pics when I get my phone to work right again. (Enter my 19 year-old daughter!)

I have my Dad’s in 30-30. I think he hunted with it just a few times. He was more a bird hunter with his Browning Sweet 16.

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I am a sheep dog!
1601 (ret)

A 1941 Winchester 94 carbine in .32 Winchester Special lives here. I was tickled with its accuracy performance and some really rewarding groups when I was verifying its sights at 100 yards from off the bench rest before deer season a couple years back.

Have only had one 94 which was loaned to me for a while by my brother. He found it is a burned out house. It was in bad shape. Charred wood. Metal pitted. But, the bore was nice. Put a Bishop buttstock on it. It worked fine. Off hand groups were never more than 2.5 inches at 50 paces in the backyard. Never fitted a forearm. Cold blued it. Nice little rifle. I'd have liked to kept it. Wish my brother hadn't let it go. Oh well. Sincerely. bruce.

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I have had a few 94 Carbines over the years but they never held my interest for long. A couple of years ago I decided to look for a M94 NRA Centennial Musket, I remember seeing them when I was 10 and always thaoght that they were very sharp looking. I found one NIB, never shoot, with the box, sleeve, and all the paper work for a decent price. It is finished better than most M94’s that I have seen from that period. I will get it to the range one of these days.

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Life NRA, Life TSRA, C&R FFL

The purists will tell you the last real ones were made in 1941, before the US got into WWII. Firearms production technology made huge leaps during the war and Winchester applied those changes in production after the war, with the result that there was much less hand fitting. So, to a collector, the real value is in the pre-war Winchesters.

The changed made with the 1964 Winchesters, and in particular the Model 94 were pretty dire. However, the most egregious changes - the stamped lifter and roll pins, were gone by about 1966. In fact, I've never seen a Model 94 from the late 1960s through 1981 that had roll pins or a stamped lifter.

There were three types of finishes used from 1964 to 1981.
In 1964 Winchester started using a sinter forged casting process for the receiver to reducing the milling required. However, this process used a steel alloy that was not able to be blued with the traditional Win Blue/OxiBlak process and they switched to the Du-Lite 3-0 process.

That process still works just fine on these rifles with no special prep needed. However, you need to find a gunsmith willing to set up a separate bluing tank for that process for carbines and rifles in this serial range. If you don't you'll get a uniform reddish plum color finish:

1964-1968 2,700,000 - 3,185,691

In 1968 Winchester started using a Black Chrome plate finish on the receiver. Refinishing one of these requires polishing off all the chrome, and then using the Du-Lite 3-0 process. It's a little more work to remove all the chrome plating, but it is pretty straight forward and predictable for carbines and rifles in this range:

1968-1972 3,185,692 - 3,806,499

In 1972 Winchester switched back to the Win Blue/Oxiblak process and to make it work on the receiver alloy they plated the receiver with iron. These are the receivers that turn out with a mottled finish when refinished with a standard bluing process. The iron plated portions come out blue, while the areas where the iron plate was polished away removing the old bluing and prepping the receiver turn out with the reddish plum color. But again, they can be refinished with no issues using the Du-Lite 3-0 process.

1972-1981 3,806,500 - 5,024,957 Win Blue/Oxiblak

In 1981 Winchester switched back to billet receivers made from 4144 alloy and milled with CNC equipment to reduce labor costs. That would have been ok, except they also changed to a rebounding hammer, rather than the traditional quarter cock safety, and in 1982 they made it worse (IMHO) with the AE receiver, and then doubled down in 1992 with the cross bolt safety, which eventually was replaced with the not much better tang safety.

The irony here is that the 1964-81 Model 94s have a great deal of value as shooters, since they never had the collector value of the pre-64 Model 94s, but share the same traditional operating system.

There's even more irony in the fact that the market for post WWII to pre-64 winchester lever actions has softened a lot, with the result that a very nice post WWII pre 64 Model 94 can be had for maybe $50 to $100 more than a similar condition 1964-1981 Model 94.

If you are in the market for a pre-64 Model 94, now is the time to buy and you can get one in excellent condition for around $50-$600. In a few months, once we are past the initial virus scare and gun buying panic, I suspect you'll see them show up for sale for even less as cash strapped owners start selling them off in a down economy.

Winchester recognized that it had severely damaged its reputation with the 1964 changes and the 9422 introduced in 1972 was an effort to restore confidence in Winchester quality. They cut no corners (initially) with the Model 9422, producing a very high quality firearm. In 1978 they added the XTR finish to several models and this equated to highly polished flats on the hammer and lever on the 9422. The 1978 9422 XTR did not have checkered wood, that came along in 1979. However, once the XTRs were discontinued checkered wood became standard on the 9422, but not the high polished flats on the hammer and lever.

1978 also saw a change from a steel magazine tube to a brass magazine tube. That was said to be a change to prevent rust on the tube, but I've never seen a steel magazine tube rusted on a 9422. I'm fairly certain it was a cost cutting measure.

Winchester also changed to using the 9422M receiver with it's slightly longer ejection port on the .22LR 9422. I believe that change occurred around 1992. On these later 9422s, you can see a small portion of the bolt carrier behind the bolt in the receiver's ejection port.

I'm a Model 94 fan. I've owned and still own others, but I prefer the pre-64 Model 94, not so much for finish reasons but because they will consistently shoot 1.5 to 2 MOA with a tang sight installed. In my experience the post 63s won't consistently deliver better than 3 to 4 MOA accuracy.

I've owned four over the years and I still own 3 of them, one on loan to my FIL.



I've owned a five post 63 Model 94s, including a Trapper in .45 Colt. The only ones I still own are a Big Bore 94 in .375 Win, and a Legendary Frontiersman in .38-55.

The BBs and the commemoratives during the XTR era were all XTR finished rifles or carbines. I've found the XTRs to be better fitted than the average post 63 Model 94. Winchester had a bad habit of making "Commemorative" rifles in huge numbers. The LF is a prime example with 19,999 of them made. Apparently Winchester thought 20,000 would have been one too may, rather than about 19,000 too many for serious collector value. But that's good news for a shooter, as they are not overly gaudy, the fit and finish is great and the checkering on the wood is very well done. They sell for around $1200 in mint in an excellent condition box with all the hand tags. Without the box or with a less than excellent condition box, or in excellent but fired condition, they sell for around $800. That $800 buys you an excellent shooter in a harder to find caliber. Like my Pre-64 Model 94s this one is capable of 2 MOA accuracy with a tang sight installed (yes, it's heresy to d&t a commemorative, but it's not hurting the value given how much I shoot it - it's one of the most enjoyable Model 94s I own. Here it is with my BB94:





I also own three 9422s, a 1978 XTR, a 2000 16" Trapper, and a 9422 Legacy that pays homage more or less to the Model 64.

I used to have 3 all in 30-30.A 24'',a 20'' and a 16''.
But my wife started shooting with me last winter;now I only have the 24 and 16''.I guess I'll have to hide them away from her!