Forearm fit on Win '94s

[alnitak]

So, I have this 94AE in .44mag, the one mentioned in another thread where I changed out the rebounding hammer and cross-bolt safety and added the Williams FP sight. As part of the planned mods, I had intended to switch out the factory stock and forearm for an upgraded checkered set. Well, I learned something today...the forearm from a .30-30 doesn't fit the .44mag. I had assumed that the barrel diameter was the same on all of the '94s, with the only difference being how much they bored out for the caliber. Apparently, not true.

However, since the only .30-30s I have are pre-64, I'm not sure if they changed the barrels for later years. In looking at the Midwest Gun Works site, I noticed that all of their replacement stocks and forearms specify 94AE. So, maybe only the AE barrels are different? Can anybody verify this? For example, are all AE forearms (and barrels) the same diameter and are they thicker than the pre-64s (or even post-64 non-AE)? Or, are the barrel diameters/forearms different depending upon caliber, pre-64, post-64 or AE?

Thanks...btw, still need a checkered forearm that fits a 94AE in .44mag if anyone has come across one.

[J Miller]

Somewhere after 92 I think USRAC changed the pistol caliber 94AE barrels from a standard size tapered barrel to a thicker bull barrel.
My 85 vintage .45 Colt has the thinner barrel and it's forearm is the same as a 30-30 as best as I can tell.
I've seen newer .45s and .44s with the thicker barrel.
So I suspect there were two forearms used depending on the caliber.

Joe

[alnitak]

Somewhere after 92 I think USRAC changed the pistol caliber 94AE barrels from a standard size tapered barrel to a thicker bull barrel.
My 85 vintage .45 Colt has the thinner barrel and it's forearm is the same as a 30-30 as best as I can tell.
I've seen newer .45s and .44s with the thicker barrel.
So I suspect there were two forearms used depending on the caliber.

Joe

Thanks Joe. Only the pistol calibers, though, huh? What about, say the .32-xx and .38-xx rifle cartridges that also came in pistol? Do you know if all the AE bull barrels are the same diameter or if they change by caliber, specifically, say .38/.357 vs. .44mag?

[Griff]

A thought just crossed my mind... what about the import 1873 clones? IIRC, the bands are the same as the 1892 & mdl 94... makes me wonder about the forends? Contact VTI. Although they don't list a checkered carbine forend... they can't say "yes" if you don't ask!

[J Miller]

I don't know about the other dash calibers in other models. I do know about 44s and 45s in the 94AE. I'm not even sure they used the bull barrel on the .357 AEs.
My knowledge on this is a bit limited.

Joe

[Marc]

My 356 Winchester and Model 94 in 444 Marlin both have heavier barrels. I don't know how they compare to 44 Mag barrels.

[Hagler]

alnitak,

If you cannot get exactly what you want, then you may have to modify what you wind up with.

A few years ago, I bought a bag of forearms from a guy in France. He did not know which rifles they fit, but I took a chance on them. I sold most of them to a man in Texas. He got ahold of some leverguns (Rossi & Winchester, I recall) that had been in a fire, and he wanted some decent wood to put on them, so that he could have some cool wallhangers. He said that the wood fit some of them, without modification. I suspect that they were from some Italian copies of Winchester rifles. I kept one of the forearms, and put it on my Winchester 94, from 1976. Here is the photo that I used for my auction description:

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k185/ ... eled-1.jpg

MysteryWoodtutoriallabeled-1000high.jpg

Good luck!

Shawn