Winchester 94 and backing out primers

[RWMC]

Yesterday I took out my Winchester 94 .30-30 to test fire it. The rifle was made in 1950. It has a standard 20" round barrel with the longer style forearm. I was firing Winchester 150 grain soft point factory ammo. This was the first time I fired the rifle. It was very accurate and recoil was no problem. When I checked the fired cases, I noticed the primers of each case had barely moved out above the surface of cartridge rim. There was no sign of gas escaping around the primer. Is this something I need to be concerned over? I was looking forward to reloading for this rifle using a 150 grain lead gas-checked bullet, but now I don't know. Any helpful suggestions from other 94 .30-30 owners would be greatlly appreciated.

 

[hubel458]

RWMC--Too much headspace -- should have it fixed.
The thrust of that small moderate pressure case isn't
enough to stretch cases back against bolt, but does move primer.
When it is fired case grips chamber with more force than
what backthrust can move it.Should be fixed because if
an overload happens cases will stretch and might unglue.Ed.

 

[Gewehr98]

Let's not forget...

Underloaded cartridges also exhibit primer setback upon firing.

 

[Sam]

Clean it up real good and polish the chamber with some 0000 Steel wool on a stick. Then try it again and see what happens.
How many .001 is the primer above the case head?

Sam

 

[dakotasin]

rwmc- i noted the same problem in my marlin 336 w/ winchester and some really old federal stuff (that had been left in the truck for 4 years w/o a box - really nasty looking cases, been subject to temp extremes and everything else). i switched over to remington and had no problems, and ultimately ended up handloading, and have been issue-free.

 

[charger]

I just thought that was the norm of the 94

 

[RWMC]

The Winchester ammo I used was just purchased the week before and appeared to be brand new stock; not something that had been cached away for eons. The chamber appeared clean, but I will polish it up and then re test with 6 more rounds from the same box of ammo. I may also then try a box of 170 grain bullets to see if the same problem repeats itself with the heavier projectile cartridges. Thanks for taking the time to read my post and for your suggestions!

 

[dakotasin]

let me clarify my post: the factory winchester ammo i was using was factory fresh. it was the federal stuff that was nasty.

the winchester was 170 grain, and new from cabela's (who moves a ton of that stuff, so it couldn't have been more than a couple weeks from the time it was loaded at the factory to the time i was shooting it).

 

[Cosmoline]

Just a note--I had the exact same issue with the nearly mint condition 1967 Canadian Centennial I shot today with Federal and Hornady. I saw no signs of over or underpressure and no gas escaped. It may simply be the norm for some of the '94's.