Another pic from my trunk. Picked up this Winchester 94 from another pawn shop to go along with my Marlin 336. Normally, I wouldn't be picking up a rifle, much less two in the same caliber within a week of each other, but here we are. This was $350 OTD, probably still a little high, but since these lever guns have become about as rare as ARs and AKs right now, I figured why not. As you can see it has a fair share of brown patina and freckling (it looks much better to the naked eye than in this Hi Def closeup pic), which apparently is pretty common to the Winchester lever guns of this period (mid-70s) given the metallurgy and finish method. I'm thinking tonight I will introduce it to some oil and bronze wool and Ren Wax, after a good cleaning of course. Not sure how much good it will do, but my other options were a 94 with rough, dull freckling instead of somewhat shiney smooth, and another with decent bluing but furniture that had obviously been refinished (dark and shiney) and a receiver that had what I think was a Weaver side mount, and I guess I didn't want to deal with what the bluing under it might look like, or if I'd need to come up with additional parts to put it back to stock, i.e., take off the side mount.

The rifle I picked up also has the somewhat "floppy" trigger that apparently is common to this gun, if not normal, but otherwise seems tight and has a smooth action.

Any thoughts on any of this are welcome.

Any thou

Attached Images

	94 L.jpg (47.1 KB, 306 views)
	94 R.jpg (76.3 KB, 292 views)

The 94 receivers of that period wouldn't take a standard bluing process so they used a plating. That flaking ugly finish was pretty standard for that period. Not one of Winchester's finest time periods.

Congrats. Great run you're on.

My thought are some of us call that CHARACTER.

Clean it, shoot it, enjoy it, pass it down to the next generation.

you did better with the marlin. 1965 to about 1980 Winchester receivers had poor finishes.

Nice urban assault rifle. Bofem.

I concur, but right now the market is what it is. Six months ago had the same bug bit me, I could have had almost anything you can think of. Although I shop by price, right now even if money weren't a consideration, there's not much to be had. I figure clean it up, etc, and one day I can trade it towards a "nicer" copy (if the current state of affairs ever ends). At least this gun isn't some kind of poor example of its type; seems there are a lot more of these out there with brown receivers than blue. Too bad, really, since the barrel, mag tube, lever, and hammer (i.e., anything not the receiver) on this gun are still quite nice.

BTW looking at completed sales on Gunbroker, it took me until the $500 mark before I found a gun that, cosmetically at least, I'd rather have than this one.

Clean it up as best you can (want) and shoot the heck out of it! You’ll love it!

I swerved off the revolver trail a few months ago and purchased my 1950 M94 from a friend (the original owner). The .30/30 is an absolute blast to shoot for the whole family.

__________________
Pass it on.
Mark

That's looks nice.

I picked up the Sears Ted Williams Model 100 this year. It's the model 94 made for Sears. It had a scope mount on the left side, but no scope. It has that "floppy trigger" thing going on, also. I haven't been able to shoot it yet but it cycles okay. Is there a trigger spring (or supposed to be) in there that may be broken? The metal on it is pretty clean & smooth. I can't find a year of manufacture; probably '60's to '70's. I never really tried to find out. My dad hunted with a 94 for years until he bought a .30-06. My sister was gonna bring it to me but this virus hit. She's in Texas & I'm in PA...nice guns; classic deer rifle for these PA woods.

Notice your 1950 version has a longer forearm than the 1970s version. I think they got shorter around 1955 or so. That was a very good score on the 1970s .30-30 and it looks just fine. My only 94 is a 1948 flat band carbine in .32 Special. a caliber much more powerful than your pipsqueak .30-30s (just kidding).

Good deal or not, if I saw a old 94 with that much character for $350, I'd be tempted. At $300, I could not have walked away.

1970s era 94s are sleepers IMO. They don’t carry the price a pre-64 does and they don’t have the cost-cutting measures the later guns did (plastic parts, etc) or that horrendous cross-bolt safety some of the 80s/90s guns did.

__________________
Some Might Say.

I have a 94 in .32-40. How common was this caliber?

If a post 64 Win 94 looks bad the best thing you can do is remove the finish from action and buff it till it shines. Rest of gun will cold blue easy, including screws. I had a Marlin Glenfield 30/30 & Win 94 last year. Both like new with boxes but had been fired. I put $425 on both, sold the Marlin in a few hours for $400 on line, so buyer paid ship and transfer. He had close to $500 in it. The Win I drug for over a year and finally let go for $300. Around here pre 64s bring top dollar and are bought up quick.

Every gun collection needs at least one Winchester!
I have two of them one 32 Spl. and one 30-30.
Enjoy!

32-40 was one of the two original chamberings in the 1894. The other was the 38-55.
Both BP at the time and the 1894 at least for the first year or so was a softer steel because of that.
Then the 30-30 and the other HV cartridges came, the 32Special and the 25-35. Winchester began using Nickel Steel.
The 32-40 (and 38-55) continued to be chambered and were popular. The 38-55 more so I believe. But the 32-40 had it's followers.
32-40 & 3855 discontinued at WW2 as a standard offering.

Win did offer at leaast one Commemorative (John Wayne) in 32-40 in the 70's or 80's. I think the 32-40 Commemorative ammo that went with it was more welcomed than the carbine by 32-40 shooters.

The 32-40 was a Marlin cartridge before becoming a Winchester offering.
Marlin ended up with it because it was a Ballard Rifle Co original first. Marlin bought out the Ballard Co and so the 32-40 Ballard cartridge became the 32-40 Marlin & Ballard.
Very popular as a target round with the single shot crowd for many years and offered as a standard chambering in target rifles from Stevens, H&A, Ballard, Remington, Wurfflein and others. It's still a popular single shot target round to chamber when building a real target rifle.
In Europe the 8.14x46R was a fairly near identical round used for the same purpose from the same era.

It lacks any magnumitis of modern calibers but for those that like vintage rifles it's certainly a draw. Next to the 38-55, it'll probably sell an early collectible Winchester 1894 as well as any of the calibers do.
I've noticed that many of the original Trapper (bbl less than 16") 1894 Winchester carbines seem to be in 32-40 caliber for some reason.

Same bore dia, same rifling twist and same bullet weight used as in the later 32Winchester Special.
It's just not a HV cartridge and was never designed to be. Orig a BP loaded rd, then later it was loaded with smokeless.

Bet it's downed a lot of game over the years though.
Especially before the White Tails seemed to have started wearing Kevlar and we've been told to use nothing less than a 300 Win Mag.

Sounds like even those post 64 Winchesters are bringing some money lately. I bought one new in 1974 for just under $100. My fault for not being aware of the "changes" back then. Believe the receiver was from sintered steel process instead of being milled and would not take to a decent bluing. Still had a nice walnut stock even then. Swapped it for a Remington 700 a few years later with a few bucks thrown in.

The later 94's with the recv'rs that won't take a hot salt blue will generally rust blue nicely.

This link gives you the details on the three processes used on the 1964-1981 Model 94 receivers, the serial number ranges, and the process used to reblue all of them:

A Quick History of the Post '64 Winchester Model 94 Receiver

This is the process itself in detail:

https://du-lite.com/Operating%20Insr...%20Process.pdf

The short version is that they can be re-blued with no major issues. The only problem is the gunsmith has to set up a tank specifically for the du-lite 3-0 process. Many will tell you they can't be refinished because they just don't want to bother setting up a tank to do a single Model 94. Some are perhaps just not ware of the process.

Yes and no.

Yes, I'm seeing 1964-1981 (the post 1963 but still pre rebounding hammer and Angle Eject) Model 94 carbines in .30-30 sell for around $500 in just good to maybe very good condition, at least here in eastern NC. They are bringing that kind of money as they are one of the more affordable ways to get a Model 94 that still has the original quarter cock operating system with none of the later rebounding hammer, cross bolt or tang safeties.

On the other hand, I'm not lining up to buy one at that price any time soon. Why? Because I'm also seeing post WWII pre-64 Model 94 carbines in .30-30 sell for around $550-$600. The reason for that is two fold.

First, Winchester lever gun collectors are getting old and dying off faster than new collectors are becoming interested.

Second, the die hard collectors really regard WWII as the cut off point for collectible Winchesters. Winchester made a lot of M1s in WWII and essentially modernized and changed their production methods. Hard core collectors prefer the older hand fit Winchester lever guns.

Those two together mean the market for the post WWII, pre-64 Model 94 carbine in the most commonly chambered .30-30 is pretty soft right now.

And, as a shooter and soft core collector who believes every gun I own better be able to work for a living, I prefer the pre-64 Model 94 carbines and rifles as they are smoother and more accurate than the 1964-1981 Model 94s, and I despise the rebounding hammer on the mid 1981s and the 1982 and onward AEs. I also despise the cross bolt and tang safety Model 94s.

To quantify the accuracy difference, I have owned a total of four pre-64 20" Model 94 carbines in 30-30 and every one of them has been capable of 1.5 MOA 5 shot group accuracy at 100 yards with a tang sight and 150 gr Winchester soft point factory ammo, as well as my Hornady 150 gr soft point handloads. I still own three of them (although one is on long term loan to my FIL).

In contrast I have owned two of the newer Model 94s (a 1973 and a 1971) and both of them were 4 to 5 MOA accurate under the same circumstances. Not bad accuracy, and certainly minute of deer out to 150 yard (even 200 if the shooter is up to it), but not on the same level as the pre-64s.

----

That said, I'm also a fan of the XTR Model 94s which were made from 1978 through 1988. The fit is better as well as the finish and they'll generally shoot 2 MOA 5 shot groups at 100 yards.

I have an early (1978) Big Bore 94 carbine in .375 Win as well as a 24" Model 94 rifle in .38-55 in the Legendary Frontiersman commemorative format (1979). Both are shoot solid 2 MOA 5 shot groups. All of the Big Bore 94s made in the 1978-88 time frame were XTRs as were the commemoratives made in that timeframe.

----

The major change in the Model 94 in 1964 was the switch to a sinter-forged receiver. The process used powdered metal that was mixed to create the alloy, and then sinter forged in the die under intense heat and pressure.

The resulting receivers are reported to be slightly more porous than traditional forged receivers, but they are plenty strong and there are no issues with them failing.

The advantage for Winchester was that the sinter forged receiver came out of the die close to final shape and dimensions and they needed a lot fewer machining steps to complete.

If Winchester had left it at that most people may not have noticed. However, people did notice things like roll pins and stamped lifters and recoiled in horror. Winchester walked back those changes by 1966. To be honest I've never personally seen a stamped lifter or roll pin in the wild. I suspect most of those 1964 made carbines have had those parts replaced over the years - probably in 1965-66.

The problem with bluing those receivers by conventional means is the high percentage of chromium used in the alloy. I suspect it was used for greater strength or some other sound engineering reason.

I have a 1967 model Canadian centennial that was a gift from my grandad. It’s a wonderful shooter, the octagon barrel adds a nice weight to soak up recoil.
We are actually taking it out to the farm tomorrow morning. My oldest daughter has shooting with dad on her summer time bucket list. Coated bullets over unique make it shoot like a 22 rifle.
David

The Canadian Centennial rifles are a superb example of commemoratives that make excellent shooters.

They made 90,301 of them in both 26" rifle and 20" short rifle configurations, far too many to be truly collectible. They are also not overly gaudy like most commemoratives, which again makes them more attractive for use in the field.

The 20" short rifle is commonly, and incorrectly referred to as a "carbine" by many sources, including the Winchester Arms Collectors Association. I suspect WInchester may have referred to it as a "carbine" as well at the time they marketed them.

The 20" still doesn't make it a carbine. Carbines usually have round barrels, and always have a barrel band near the front sight (in front of or behind it depending on the era) as well as a barrel band around a wood forend milled to allow the band to slide over it. Carbines can have curved "carbine" or flat "shotgun" butt plates.

Rifles had barrels that could be round, octagon, or half round bu they were at least 24" in length (up to 32" in some cases) and they always used a hanger dovetailed into the barrel to support the magazine tube. The rifle forend has a metal cap on the end and is secured to the barrel with horizontal screw.

Rifles normally have either a curved crescent butt plate or a flat shotgun style buttplate.

Rifles also can be found with a variety of magazine lengths including full length, 7/8 length, 3/4 length and 1/2 length with the latter basically being a button sticking out the end of the forend.

Rifles can also have straight or curved levers and pistol grips.

Short rifles are rifles with barrels shorter than 24", with 22" and 20" being the most common.

If you look at the 26" and 20" Canadian Centennial rifle and "carbine" below, you'll see the carbine is really a short rifle. That's a plus as in my experience the Winchester rifle and short rifle patterns tends to be more accurate than the carbine pattern.

I shoot a lot of 150 gr plated bullets in my .30-30s on top of Unique, including both 1894s and an 1885 High Wall. I've noted that at velocities above about 1775 fps I start getting occasional fliers. Shooting at targets close in showed small ragged holes from fragmented jackets.

But they make a very nice, very accurate, and inexpensive low recoil load when kept down around 1750 fps.