I would have thought that most would know when and why the excess rattle of the model 94 came to be.
The start of the excess rattle for a model 94 has to do with the cost cutting measures that Winchester introduced in 1964. It's also the beginning of what led to the eventual demise of Winchester as a US based company. Collectors, as a general rule do not want post 64 Winchesters as opposed pre 64 models and that applies to just about all Winchester rifles and shotguns produced from 64 to the early 1980's when USRA took over. This is also reflected in the prices quoted in the Blue book of used gun values.
The reason for the excess rattle of the post 64 models is due to the change in the way the receivers were manufactured. Up until 1964, the receivers for the model 94 were made from forged steel that was subsequently machined to exact tolerances. This machining required expensive skilled labor, which was a major part of the manufacturing costs. To reduce reduce these costs and to keep from having to raised the retail prices to cover, beginning in early 1964 Winchester changed to a new less expensive method where the receivers were cast from a powdered steel alloy under heat and pressure in a process called "sintering". The process is similar to how industrial ceramics are cast.
To eliminate all but some minor machining of the cast receiver, they had to reduce the tight tolerances for the internal components. Thus, the guns rattle more--even when closed. Most of the internals were still machined with the exception of the loading gate and the shell lifter. Those two items were changed from machined to stamped. In addition many of the pivot pins were changed from solid machined steel to rolled sheet steel. Another unpopular side effect to this new process was that the sintered steel alloy would not accept the standard hot bluing salts that Winchester had used since the 1930's. Their chemical supplier had to come up with a new formula and the results were inferior to the old finish. In addition, if the gun got used enough that the finish wore off in places, one could not have it reblued with the standard chemical that most gunsmiths would stock. Cold blue didn't work well either. At some point the revised bluing chemicals were made available to gunsmiths,
but every time Winchester would adjust the composition of the powdered alloy, they were back to square one for bluing.
At one point, they actually iron plated the receiver after it was cast, so it could be easily blued with regular salts. This caused an even more complicated issue down the road because of uneven wear of the bluing and/or the iron plating underneath.
Around 1981, after a long protracted union strike, Olin, the parent company, decided to get out the the firearms manufacturing business and only retain the ammunition side. Consequently, the union and the employees of Winchester got together, bought the New Haven plant, reformed under the name United States Repeating Arms, and secured the license to continue using the Winchester logo.
By this time, due to the advent of the economies afforded by CNC machining, the company was able to revert to precision forged and machined parts including the receiver, which in turn allowed them to go back to the tighter tolerances of the pre-64 models. Unfortunately by 1990 or so with failure of USRA and the take over of European owners, they also started adding the redundant lawyers safety stuff such as the rebounding hammer and then the fugly cross bolt safety. This was eventually relocated to the tang, which is less ugly, but at the same time it all but eliminated the ability to add a classic tang sight.
However, the Winchester 94's produced in that short time frame between 82 and 90 were some of the finest model 94 produced after WW II and some say even before.
Anyway, 1964 was the beginning of the excess rattle and 1982 should have been the end.
Here's an excellent blog article explaining all of this along with a timeline of the various changes the model 94 in particular went through from
1964 up through the end of the century.
http://tincanbandit.blogspot.com/2014/02/winchester-model-94-rifles.html
Cheers
