Dunno if gun posts are really cool here or not but this thing's old as dirt so hopefully it's OK. If not, no sweat... I was bopping around checking in on some friends in the antiques business & one of them mentioned he had something he knew I'd be into. Said he took it in trade with some other stuff and didn't know anything about it other than what the dude told him but he thought of me and figured it was up my alley. Since I have now committed to at least a cosmetic restoration I thought I'd start a "build thread" of sorts... do***enting the process and anything interesting my research turns up, if anything. This might look like kitschy "rustic" western decor you'd buy at Hobby Lobby but it is in fact a real Winchester '94. The guy said he found it in his yard in Peaster (a little old west cow town near me) along with the knife also attached to the board. I've done some pretty involved restorations on some pretty far gone guns but this one is pretty damn bad. The first thing I did was pull it off the board to ***ess & date it. At first the serial number came back as a 1909 but I found an extra digit which brings it pretty far into the future. More on that in the next post. I like to start projects like this with a dry rub with #0000 very fine steel wool... the steel wool will knock off any loose stuff without hurting any surviving finish. It is pretty incredible what very fine steel wool can do. Within two minutes I went from this... ... to this... I was also able to expose the barrel markings which contain Winchester patent information & confirm that it is a .30-30. At this stage the gun is still completely locked up but I'm seeing a lot of intact blue finish and the pitting is nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be. This was pretty much the worst rust on the whole gun; thus encouraged I started soaking it with aerokroil. I now have some of the moving parts freed up... the hammer has full travel, the trigger is free and the lever is wanting to move, but the bolt/toggle are totally stuck and won't come free yet. I have the action soaking in a copious amount of kroil. I am not sure where to apply pressure to encourage the bolt to open. I think I understand how the action works but I don't have a good rifle to compare to. I have tried tapping on various parts of the toggle with a br*** punch and everything is stuck pretty tight. Worse, I think there may be a cartridge in the chamber. I doubt the primer could possibly ignite and even if it could the powder would never light, however, it may take an act of God to get the bolt to open if the extractor is holding the rim of the case, as the br*** will have corroded & expanded against the chamber... A few hours ago nobody knew what this thing was or was even sure if it was a real firearm... can't wait to see where I get with it in a few weeks' time.
I found an extra digit in the serial number which puts it in 1981 instead of 1909. Winchester had the infamous 1964 shakeup where their western guns all dropped m***ively in quality - sintered metal receiver, stamped steel internals, etc... This knowledge almost caused me to hang it back on the board, but I was thinking that some things on this rifle didn't match what I had read about the post-64 rifles. I did a little more research and learned that for a few brief years, right before completely changing the '94 design to what is sold in Walmarts all over the country today, Winchester went back to the forged receivers, machined internals and deep blue finishes. Now, I don't typically ***ociate the 80s with quality, but this generation is considered to be on par with the older guns... in that way, maybe it's kind of the Brookville roadster of western guns? So it's not a real cowboy gun lost in a forgotten skirmish with Indians and outlaws after all, but it still deserves some attention. I'll continue to work with it and see what I can do with it. As I said above I was able to get full travel out of the hammer and trigger, and the lever is no longer seized, but the action is still frozen up. I was able to get some play out of the toggle link (on the bottom of the receiver) so I know it's wanting to come loose, but the locking bolt is stuck fast and doesn't want to drop. I will need to get the toggle to crack before I can even think about trying to tap the bolt loose. The offending part has the arrow pointing to it - this is the bolt behind the hammer that drops when you pull the lever down. I'm not sure if I should go whacking this with a br*** punch or not... seems like this part doesn't have a lot of mechanical advantage over the toggle so it probably wouldn't go anywhere even if it wasn't stuck. Maybe if I find a way to keep downward pressure on the lever while I tap on it?
Cool find man! I wish I could help you on some of your questions. Maybe you could search out a competent gunsmith to help you. I think I'd try and find an older gunsmith that is used to working on these. Larry
It’s strange that someone just left an expensive gun out in the elements. My brother was working in Baltimore city back in the early seventies and found a 12 gauge shotgun and a bong under some bushes, and brought the gun home. I told him that it was probably used in the commission of a crime, and I don’t think that I would want it in my possession…
I have a method & have had good luck conserving finishes thought to be lost on guns that survived fires and floods or were just really rusty. Vinegar will completely destroy the surviving bluing when really there is a lot intact that will polish back. Mainly I just need to get the gun to come apart - and I made a little more progress. The locking block is down as far as it can go before the bolt starts to move back, so my next challenge will be figuring out how to encourage the bolt to start moving. Once I can operate the rifle enough to clean it out & get oil to the backsides of each screw I can strip it and really begin working on the finish.
Aaand it's open. I'm done with it for now - when I'm back at work it'll come to the shop with me so I can clean it out with the free brake cleaner and pickle it in oil. Obviously the action is pretty gritty but it does work- even the shell lifter is moving. Next post will be about dis***embly & stabilization work on the finish.
Saturating it in a 50/50 mixture of ATF and acetone will penetrate better than anything and will not remove any remaining bluing. The acetone in the mixture will evaporate rather quickly but when applied works well because at a molecular level it is able to penetrate better. In my opinion, it will make for an interesting wall hanger, nothing more. It has no real value.
You're right, but I don't mind if it has no real value... neither do any of my cars. It's just fun to resurrect old cast-off junk... whether it's cars or something else. After springs and wood, I'll be in it for less than $400. I couldn't buy one for that so I'm doing OK even if it really is just a wall hanger. With the equipment I have access to I could even rebarrel it if I chose. I have done this with probably a dozen or more firearms now, mainly stuff from the s**** pile at gun shows... old revolvers, Civil War muskets, some WW1 and 2 stuff. Some end up shootable, others are just interesting trinkets. I have a pretty good collection going. Some I get complete and others I have to find parts for. It's just fun - I have no interest in monetary return on these.
Yep, I get it. I've got several hanging on the walls, just for sentimental reasons or they have an interesting story to go with them. I have my Grandmother's '32 vest pocket snubnose revolver hanging in the garage and the Winchester M62 that I learned to shoot with in the '50s. My Dad was a Winchester 94 collector. He had dozens of them. Good luck with it!
I’ll play. My 1916 Model 1894 30-30. Dad bought one for each of my brothers and me. This unrestored one was my first choice, I was 14. Have had it for 41 years. I shot my first deer with it . The action had been brazed at some point. That’s quite a project. Good luck with it!
Thanks for posting this save, I find it interesting. Can I ask a question? I find it annoying when car guys use the terms, Drive it like you stole it, or Driver the wheels off it. Do gun guys Shoot the barrels off of things after a restoration? Merry Christmas! Bob
That is a beautiful rifle - exactly my style. I would pick this over a mint safe queen at the same price without hesitation. I love brazed repairs... a little bit of kintsugi to testify to hard life & loyal service. Lol I don't know if it's conventional but I've done it once. Merry Christmas!
I love this thread.......very traditional ! My dad had a Model 94 that he bought used in order to go out to Wyoming deer hunting. My three brothers and I all got a chance to shoot it when we were growing up. I was a very early gun and had all the scars and wear marks to prove it. Dad fell on some hard times in the 1960's and had to sell 4-5 guns to keep feeding the family.......he was really embarr***ed about it, and we just thought they were missing, but realized later what he had to do. We all recovered and he was able to buy a later model for coyote hunting sometime in the 1980's. I still have it and am damn proud of it.......in the gun safe right next to my Rodders Journal on the adjacent shelf !
Cool rifle. 1981 was one of the last years for the traditional ejection design. Soon after they went to an “Angle Eject” design with a tang safety feature. This required you to squeeze the ejection lever in order to fire it. Was known as the Winchester 94AE.
I have 3. One was my dad's, bought in the late 60's. The other was my Uncle's bought the same day and the other was my father inlaws. They are all like new and safely stored in my gun safe. It's more of a sentimental thing rather than value.
Sorry for the decline in picture quality. I dropped my phone in the shop and cracked the camera lens and now it takes pictures like my old Blackberry. Anyway, got a stock for it. I really wanted this rifle to be an earlier example, so naturally I'm back-dating the furniture and sights. This stock came off a commemorative model and is a match for the musket-style straight stock of the earlier guns, but inletted for the later receiver design. Holding off on getting the forend until I figure out if I'm going to have to rebarrel the rifle. If I rebarrel it, I will be using a hex barrel which will require a different forend. I was able to get the stock wrist screw to come out and the threads are perfect both on the screw and in the receiver, but it was stuck hard around the head/bottom. I clamped some non marring vice grips on the exposed body of the screw (because the original stock had rotted away around it) and was able to get it to turn that way. To get enough breakaway force on the rest of the screws I will probably need to get a manual impact driver - plus considering the manufacture date they may be loc***ed in addition to the rust. Once I can get it gutted I'll figure out how much I actually need to replace. Right now I'm budgeting for every spring, the lever (it is broken where it hinges on the bolt), and probably the extractor. If the barrel ends up OK after straightening I'll only have about $500 total in the gun; if I have to rebarrel it I'll be out another $300 or so. Even though I wasn't really concerned about the money, I don't think I could even touch an equivalent rifle for for under a thousand... bearing in mind that the end product will be an all-machined rifle with early furniture and sights. Both the early rifle that I'm cloning and the later commemorative models are running over $2000 all day long. In that way I think this is very much in the spirit of building a hot rod the way you want it.
Great job on the rifle! Looks like it’s in great hands. Winchester got all the write ups and movie scenes but Marlin had the smoothest lever action going. Their 1894 had a strong following. They went to hell when Remington took them over but now that Ruger owns the rights they are making a comeback. Great fit and finish and under $1500.
Your Winchester 94 is coming along nicely! Ditto on the Marlin lever action rifles. I had used one for more than 50 years, now p***ed down to my nephew. Available in a .35 caliber and capable of taking down any big game we have in Canada within acceptable range. Great heavy bush caliber not deflected as much by branches.
You didn’t mention did it have a round in it? And don’t fool yourself about old ammunition not being able to go off. I had some very old Peterson 38 caliber that spent years on the floor of a wet ba*****t. 2 days in a ********y polisher, a couple of years in a very hot attic and out of about 50 rounds only 1 dud!
Not loaded, luckily. I haven’t touched it in a while- been distracted with this AA I picked up and trying to buy a house. No time to play with guns!
They sure are easier to do major work on than a car .... handy when healing from an operation. .38-40 WCF rifle, most expensive Winchester I've ever owned. .32 WS made of parts from at least 5 guns. .22 single shot M. 67, remarkable shape considering most $15 guns got used hard.
The Jalopy Journal
