Winchester 94 barrel replacement question

[JDGus19]

Hi Y'all. I'm new to this community. I am originally a Yooper from Upper Michigan, and now live in NE Wisconsin. I grew up hunting, shooting and fishing daily, and have developed a passion and hobby for firearms. Lately I've started tinkering with minor gunsmithing... mostly just swapping parts and polishing along with some stock refinishing.

My grandfather passed down his father's Winchester 1894 pre-64 Rifle. The receiver and internals are in great shape but the octagon barrel is rough. My great-grandfather cut off about 5 inches plis cut the mag tube down to forearm length so he could swing it better in the deep woods. He also cut in his own dovetails for sights and the tenon for the forearm cap. The exterior of the barrel is pitted and the rifling is completely gone. My grandfather wanted to swap the barrel with a 26" octagon like it originally had, but never got around to it before passing. When he gave it to me he asked that it not sit in a safe, and instead be brought back to life with a new barrel, so generations to come can enjoy it.

Anyway, I found a barrel I'd like to purchase, and a trustworthy local gunsmith who will do the barrel swap and fitting for me. I see Numrich has a 26" new reproduction Winchester 94 octagon barrel in 30-30 but it says it is non-tapered. Would anyone know if I need a special forearm and cap for that barrel being non-tapered? I currently have the 9 1/2" forearm and end-cap that takes a small screw in each side. Also, what Winchester 94s originally came with a 26" non-tapered barrel? I have been searching for days which is how I came across this forum...with a bunch of extremely knowledgeable people I might add.

Thanks in advance!

[OldWin]

Welcome to the fire.

All standard early 94 octagon rifles were non-tapered. So were standard round barrels.
Of course, anything could be had on special order. Tapered barrels are mostly fitted with shorter magazines from the factory.
Most likely, your rifle had a straight profile barrel. Being a 30-30, you could also get the original lined if you wanted. It would obviously still be short, but that is how your ancestors used it.

[gamekeeper]

Welcome to the fire...

What OldWin said..

[Griff]

I hate to do so, but, I'll disagree with OldWin on the tapered octagon barrels from Winchester, they WERE/are tapered. At a couple of different taper rates. I have one of the untapered Numrich octagon barrels on a post '64 rifle... it measures .850" across the flats from the breech without deviation all the way to the muzzle. It is also the most accurate of the Winchester octagon rifles I own, but it's chamber is really rough; cutting way down on the number of reloads I get from a case... but the rifling is nice and sharp. I used a forend and cap off a Winchester post '64 commemorative that Numrich also had on their site at the time. In fact, they used to sell them as a set. Even then the forearm & cap took a little filing to fit properly. When I had the headspace check, the gunsmith suggested I trim the barrel back to get another turn and recut chamber... but... silly me, I worried about how that would affect the assembly of the forend & magazine. T'was stupid really. Would have been easy to cut a tad off both the mag tube and forearm to have everything back in alignment. Sixgun will correct me if I'm wrong, but all of Winchester's Octagon barrels were smaller at the muzzle than at the breech, hence, "tapered".

The standard octagon bbl was very slightly tapered... IIRC the post '64 Commemoratives in octagon form were the standard taper of the early guns. The round barrel rifles were, IIRC untapered from just in front of the breech to the muzzle.

[OldWin]

Yes Griff. Technically the old barrels do taper slightly. I didn't think, however, that they were what was considered a "tapered octagon" barrel. More a terminology thing. I should have explained better.

Kinda like a model 71 or 64 "carbine". They aren't carbines at all. They are technically short rifles.

[JDGus19]

Wow, this forum does not disappoint. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experience. My rifle is a pre-64, and the serial number of 146,XXX puts it at 1898.

I thought about getting a liner put in but it is rough on the exterior too. The front Dovetail sight cut was done poorly and it has some putting too. The edges are all rounded over as well. So I was thinking of getting that non-tapered 26" octagon barrel because a local gunsmith said he can fit it aappropriately when he does the re-bluing. I do have an unfinished forearm, finished forearm, and both the 2 screw nose cap and the commemorative/centennial nose cap. Numrich said that barrel they have has a dovetail for the nose cap tenon so that tells me my 2-screw nose cap should work if I use my existing tenon. I guess I can just try the finished forearm I have and if it doesn't work I can try and fit the unfinished one.

[Trailboss]

Wow, this forum does not disappoint. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experience. My rifle is a pre-64, and the serial number of 146,XXX puts it at 1898.

I thought about getting a liner put in but it is rough on the exterior too. The front Dovetail sight cut was done poorly and it has some putting too. The edges are all rounded over as well. So I was thinking of getting that non-tapered 26" octagon barrel because a local gunsmith said he can fit it aappropriately when he does the re-bluing. I do have an unfinished forearm, finished forearm, and both the 2 screw nose cap and the commemorative/centennial nose cap. Numrich said that barrel they have has a dovetail for the nose cap tenon so that tells me my 2-screw nose cap should work if I use my existing tenon. I guess I can just try the finished forearm I have and if it doesn't work I can try and fit the unfinished one.

JD, I believe technically your rifle is called pre-war even though it is actually pre-two world wars. Nice rifle to have.

[JDGus19]

Wow, this forum does not disappoint. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experience. My rifle is a pre-64, and the serial number of 146,XXX puts it at 1898.

I thought about getting a liner put in but it is rough on the exterior too. The front Dovetail sight cut was done poorly and it has some putting too. The edges are all rounded over as well. So I was thinking of getting that non-tapered 26" octagon barrel because a local gunsmith said he can fit it aappropriately when he does the re-bluing. I do have an unfinished forearm, finished forearm, and both the 2 screw nose cap and the commemorative/centennial nose cap. Numrich said that barrel they have has a dovetail for the nose cap tenon so that tells me my 2-screw nose cap should work if I use my existing tenon. I guess I can just try the finished forearm I have and if it doesn't work I can try and fit the unfinished one.

JD, I believe technically your rifle is called pre-war even though it is actually pre-two world wars. Nice rifle to have.

Thanks!

[Pat C]

Yes the original 1894 barrels are tapered , hard to tell what those Japanese repos are though. The 1894 nose cap fits precisely around the barrel .If you were set on one of those maybe get the matching nose cap.

Now if money is no object Winchester barrels will make you an exact reproduction barrel including original Winchester address and caliber markings period correct.
$350-$400

1894 barrels are not that hard to find ,,Homestead probably has original barrels on hand.

Standard barrels tapered at a rate of .005" TPI app.
Polish Variences but the barrel should measure
.830" across flats at breech to around .700" muzzle.
Variences of 1/32" are common.

Winchester made custom pencil barrels that tapered more and heavy barrels too.