My apologies to Mr. Browning and Winchester

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Whiterook808

Whiterook808

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I bought some guns from a friend and he had this rusty old Winchester that I decided to rescue. It is a 1949 vintage Winchester 94 in 30-30. The bore looks pretty good with decent rifling, etc. I have never understood why people would say that the 94 action was smooth. All the ones I have handled have been far from it. But they have all been post 64 models. This one IS butter smooth! I guess it could be that it is just worn in more than the others I have seen. This old girl looked like she was literally put away wet. The stocks were cracked and it was dry as a bone. And lots of rust with deep pits on the barrel under the forestock. Several coats of boiled linseed oil and some glue have been applied and now she looks happier. New stocks are available but it just wouldn't match that worn old steel. I can tell by the finish under the stock and what glimpses I can get of the wood that this ones one beautiful rifle when new. Thanks for letting me share. Now I have to load up some 30-30 ammo. Here is a before and after.

20191013_120314.jpg 20200220_134916.jpg
 
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That is very cool, much better than a refinish.

I have an old family model 94 from 1952, that is in decent shape. I would call the action far from smooth.

Found a pic I took this summer, you can see the wood had a little red/orange tint to the finish.
 

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A neglected child return to a good caring home.
Regarding the action my new 92 Rossi compared to my 94 is like cranking up a WWII Corsair plane
Congrats Whiteroook808.
 
I have a Model 94 commemorative rifle I use to shoot metallic silhouette. I believe most of the many commemorative models they built were done in the late 60's. Mine has the stamped metal lifter instead of the milled one used in earlier rifles. My rifle was billed as unfired when I bought it and it looked it also. The action is not smooth, maybe after a few hundred more rounds it will get better. My Rossi 92 is much smoother.
 
film495 said:
That is very cool, much better than a refinish.

I have an old family model 94 from 1952, that is in decent shape. I would call the action far from smooth.

Found a pic I took this summer, you can see the wood had a little red/orange tint to the finish.
Click to expand...

A lot of the old .22's I have are orange tinted also. On rimfire central they talk about matching that, in the few they actually refinish. Same with the blueing, if it is severly pitted, they attempt to match the metal finish Winchester used at that time. But, they would rather leave original, for value.
 
That’s a great patina’d look. In my opinion you did that rifle right. I’d prefer to have that over a refinish too. I just got an old shotgun and am planning on doing the same.
 
You would not believe how deep the rust pits are under that fore end. When I pulled the stock off red dust just came falling out.
All I did was about 20 years of back maintenance that she was owed. The butt plate was proud of the wood, but after soaking up all that linseed oil it looks pretty close to a normal fit now. That's how dry the stock was. It is sad that someone would neglect a rifle that way. Thanks, gentlemen!
 
I cannot for the life of me find it but there is a C&Rsenal video about him converting rust into black oxide on a winchester 1897 shotgun and I absolutely could not believe how well be was able to turn an old brown finish back into bluing without actually refinishing the gun.
 
Seems like in this day of CAD and other manufacturing refinement that lever rifles coming off the assembly line would be butter smooth and perhaps some of them are, however, it seems to me that a lot more handguns (for sure) and perhaps rifles are being returned to the factory for repair than I ever remember back in the 50's and 60's. Back then I never heard of any return. Today it's an everyday happening. With that said, Whiterook808, great restoration job!
 
My pre-64 Win 94 is from 1959 and yes, the action is buttery smooth.

I once found a Win 94 in the woods with a broken buttstock. It was in close to the same condition as your "before" picture. I'm not as talented as you are at restoring rifles, but I cleaned it up the best I could and gave it to my brother for a Christmas gift. He really liked it, and still has it.

Anyway, nice find and great job. That rifle deserves you!
 
Amazing what a little elbow grease will produce. Now you have a beautiful unique rifle with a story.
 
The late Jeff Cooper considered the lever action 30-30 as a excellent defense gun. He liked it’s light weight, simple to operate action, the ability to be stored with empty chamber and loaded magazine and the power of the 30-30.

Of course that was before Cowboy Action Shooting came along and AR’s became available so I don’t know what his opinion would be nowdays but I have a Winchester 30-30 and some ammunition hanging on the wall.
 
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