My New Winchester 94- What Do I Need? A Lot More Pics

[Hagler]

Good People,

I bought me an older Model 94, made in 1975. It needed some attention, so I took it apart:



I am not trying to make this rifle look like a new one. I want to keep it going, and looking like an old Winchester should. The wood is walnut, so I stripped the peeling varnish from the stocks, and rubbed in some Tru-oil:







I had to get rid of some rust from the receiver, too. I will take more pictures, when I have it back together.

Now, I need some help here:

This is my hammer & lower tang arangement:



Everything functions quite well, but a visual inspection shows this:





The sear has a corresponding piece of steel missing from it:



I am supposing that I need a new hammer & a new sear. Am I correct?

Thanks,
Shawn

[J Miller]

Shawn,

Your hammer and sear is just fine. All mine are made that way too.

What does that carbine need? Well, were it mine, I'd lube it good and proper, put it back together. Put a Williams FP 94/36 and a post front sight on it and use the dickens out of it.

Joe

[mescalero1]

Joe,
How................ do you put a post front sight on it?
The guts on his look the same as mine, other than being post 64 what other undesirable attributes do I have

[J Miller]

Joe,
How................ do you put a post front sight on it?
The guts on his look the same as mine, other than being post 64 what other undesirable attributes do I have

Simply press the bead front sight out of the ramp and install a post sight. Skinner { http://www.skinnersights.com/index.html } makes custom front sights basically to order.
XS { http://www.xssights.com/ } makes a dandy one with a white stripe right up the center.
Marbles made a sourdough for a while. Brownells
{ http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ ... RONT+SIGHT } shows only one in stock, but the link has a pic so you'll know what a sourdough sight is.

The only undesirable attribute to your 94 is you don't shoot it enough
The early Post-64s had a stamped carrier and a roll pin in the link. This was the biggest gripe people had with them. Winchester went to the cast carrier and a solid pin sometime in the late 70s I think. It really is a non-issue for me as those early ones I've had worked just fine.


Joe

[Hagler]

Joe,

Thank you for the quick reply.

I was of two minds about my hammer & sear:

(1.)-The parts fit well, and they work well, so they must be alright.

(2.)-One of the parts appears to be broken, while the other one looks like it was awkwardly machined, so they must be broken.

It has been 4 years since I owned a Model 94. After poking around model 92s, this 94 was a piece of cake to take apart!

Thanks, again,
Shawn

[J Miller]

Shawn,

The Win 94s are the simplest Winchester lever gun ever designed.
The only lever guns simpler are the Marlins.

Joe

[mescalero1]

Oh ok , I was thinking of getting rid of that stupid looking ramp up front; thanks for the reply.

[mescalero1]

I like that Skinner

[J Miller]

The earliest ramps were actually a machined part of the barrel. My 1950 is that way. I don't know exactly when they changed.
Next came the soldered on ramp, then later they really got cheep and put a screwed on ramp on the 94s.

I really don't know why that ramp is so objectionable to folks. It's been there since before WW II and is perfectly functional. Another non-issue to me.
Oh well, every body has their preferences.

Joe

[20cows]

My first 94 was made in 1975. It did not have the stamped carrier. I still have it, but it's not a carbine any more.



I replaced the wood, but kept the old stock. The old stock is what the trapper in the picture is wearing. Nothing goes to waste!

[Pete44ru]

Shawn - If you'd like to de-gloss that Tru-Oil final finish look, it's easy to do via a light rub with a OOOO steel wool pad.

If it doesn't look good to you afterward, you can always simply apply another coat of the tru-Oil.

I usually paste wax my finished stocks after the finish is dry/hardened, to get a smooth feel to them.

.

[jlchucker]

What do you need? What do you need???? You NEED to put that fine looking rifle back together, get yourself a box of 30-30 ammo, and head to the nearest range! THAT'S what you need! Beyond that, come deer season, you NEED to have an 8-point whitetail cross your path while you are carrying that Winchester. That's what you need.

[Duff L Bagg]

What do you need? What do you need???? You NEED to put that fine looking rifle back together, get yourself a box of 30-30 ammo, and head to the nearest range! THAT'S what you need! Beyond that, come deer season, you NEED to have an 8-point whitetail cross your path while you are carrying that Winchester. That's what you need.

+1

[Charles]

To each their own, but those dents, scrapes, scratches and hickies need to come out of that wood and the finished needs to fill the pores of the wood for a nice smooth finish. Gloss or flat finish is up to you, I would either refinish the stock right or not at all.

[Modoc ED]

To each their own, but those dents, scrapes, scratches and hickies need to come out of that wood and the finished needs to fill the pores of the wood for a nice smooth finish. Gloss or flat finish is up to you, I would either refinish the stock right or not at all.

Depends on what your definition of "right" is.

I like a rifle to have an an equal "overall appearance". Nothing looks worse that to have a shiny new looking stock holding up iron that has a worn look to it or shiny looking iron resting on a worn stock.

[mescalero1]

The stock does not look "right" to me either, but I do not know how to fix it

[Hobie]

Well, I'm one who buys a used gun, cleans it thoroughly, installs a good receiver sight (if appropriate/necessary) and goes shooting. If it works I don't fix it, I shoot it. I'm going to bung it up anyway and for sure I'm not showing off with my guns. So, if it works you need a receiver sight and ammo and to get the heck out of the house with it!

[Charles]

Mescalero

If you want to do a better job on the stock, here is how I do it. Others, I am quite certain do it other ways.
1. I apply a single layer of aluminum (.003 thick) air conditioning duct tape to the front and rear of the receiver and tangs and with a sharp knife trim it back so it is on the surface and not folder under where it will interfere with the stock fit.
2. Put the stock back on and with 220 grit paper backed by an "art gum" eraser sand (with the grain) the area where the wood contacts the metal. The aluminum tape will take quite a bit of abrasion and this will keep you from over sanding the wood so it will be below the metal.
3) Go back over this same area with 320 or 400 grit paper.
4) Removed the wood and sand it for the entire length with 220 grit. Don't go back over areas you have previously sanded near the wood. Again sand with the grain.
5) Take a wash rag, wet it and ring it out. Double it over and lay it on the stock and using Moma's iron steam the stock. God over the dented and scared areas two or three times. This will raise the wood in the dents and help some with the scrapes and scratches.
6) Now take your 220 paper and backed up by a wood block or sanding block sand out as many and much of the dents and scrapes as you can. Be careful not to dish out any areas. This may or may not remove all of the hickies depending on how deep they are.
7) Save the sanding dust!!!
now mix up a little Brownells AcraGel and add the sanding dust. When this has stiffened up a mite place it in the remaining scars. It should be enough to sand up over the surface.
9) You will need to do this twice, once for each side of the stock.
10) When the Gel has hardened (give it a full 24)hours, sand the stock (again stay away from the areas sanded next to the metal) with 320 or 400. Oh did I mention to keep the butt plate on the stock so you don't round over the edge of the wood. You should have a nice smooth, hickey free stock. Yes you will be able to see the filled places, but nobody coming by on a trotting horse would notice them.
11) Now you finish the wood and Tru-Oil is a great product.

Yes, this take some time, but when you are through, it will give you great pleasure every time you look at the rifle....or maybe not...depending on how you consider such things.

[mescalero1]

I am VERY much indebted to you for explaining the step by step procedure, that WAS always something that has eluded me

[J Miller]

Charles,

I am going to print out those instructions ~and~ save them to my hard drive. I'm pathetic when it comes to stock work. These instructions are very helpful.

Joe

[mescalero1]

Joe,
How is that accomplished?

[J Miller]

Joe,
How is that accomplished?

How is saving them to the hard drive accomplished? I do a copy then paste the text into a Word File. Then I save that to a folder on the hard drive. You can also use Notepad or Wordpad to save it.
If you are running a Windows operating system you'll have the last two. They come with it.

Then with what ever text file I have saved it on open, I go the upper left corner and click on File. Then click on Print and that usually gets me a hard copy.

Joe

[mescalero1]

Last time I tried it I copied the forum!

[Charles]

You gents are quite welcome. Most folks develop their own ways of doing these things. This is just the way I do things, much of it learned by trial and error in 50 odd years of monkeying with rifles and gunstocks. There are probably easier and better ways of doing these things, but I am sorta "sot" in my ways.

[mescalero1]

I can live with that

[Hagler]

Gents,

I got the rifle back together. I fed some dummy rounds through it, and all is well. I still need to correct what I believe to be an overly-stiff extractor, and I need to polish the bottom of the breechbolt. I took some more pictures, today. I hope you enjoy them:







I left a few pits around the proofmarks & serial number. I did not want to destroy them:



I also managed to remove most of "Bubba's" initials from the link:





Shawn

[20cows]

Looks like a shooter to me!

[C. Cash]

That looks fine Shawn. I personally like to see the character left in the wood, and there are no flies on that tru-oil finish over the original stain/dings.

[Hagler]

Thanks, guys!

I negelected to show a good "before" picture of the receiver. It was rough & pitted on the outside. I see too many like this. Someone must put away a wet gun, then become ashamed of it, then they let it languish somewhere. Here is a "before" picture:



It is almost always just a rusted receiver, with all other metal in pretty good shape. The bore on this rifle is quite nice. The guts look nearly new.

Shawn

[mescalero1]

Joe,
I did it again ,copied the whole thread.
All I wanted was the advice from Charles!

[JerryB]

Hagler, I think that is a real good looking 30-30.All you need to do is shoot it.