94 winchester feeding trouble

madeintheshadeguns

I posted this on the general discussion forun and was told I should try here and see if Burt could help me.

Hi,

I do some rifle building, but all of my experience is with mauser bolt rifles. I have a question about a problem with a pre 64 model 94 winchester that I have been rebuilding. I aquired this rifle with a bent barrel and no stocks, but have rebuilt it and have put a new barrel in 38-55 on it. Everything has gone well and I am about ready to final finish, except that when I try to cycle dummy rounds through the rifle they want to bind. The rounds come up through magazine and are lifted by the carier fine, but want to bind when the bolt pushes them into the chamber. It appears that the feed rails on each side if the receiver are not allowing the rear of the round to come up in time (in-line with chamber) before the round starts to bind in the chamber. My question(s) are do I need different feed rails for this cartridge?? Can I alter the existing ones?? Or am I looking at the wrong fix?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Ron.

nononsense

madeintheshadeguns,

What was the original chamber?

Best.

madeintheshadeguns

Hi,

The original caliber was 30-30 Win.

Thanks, Ron.

Grunt2

I have built 3 levers from "Post" 64's (all 3 were 30-30) One in 44-40 and 2 38-55's...I had to replace the guides. On one 38-55 I altered the original 30-30 guides by removing metal from the frame side of the guides. The other I just got lucky and found a set of 38-55 guides. On the 44-40 I had to relocate the screw holes for better timing. It was still necessary to time the cartridge carrier by adding/removing metal from the left guide (as I recall)...The "Pre" 64's are a pain due to the internal guide screws. I did have to use 375 Winchester brass as original 38-55 brass was too long for the post 64 models. Trimming 38-55 brass is next to imposable. Make sure your OAL isn't causing some of the problem..

madeintheshadeguns

I have played with the OAL of the round and found that I had better feeding with a shorter OAL, but this was quite a bit shorter than I would like to use and what the normal OAL was. The altering of the rails sounds like what I would like to do. So by removing metal from the receiver side of the rail I would think would widen the space between rails?? Is this what I want? Do you or have you done anything with the slot guides/cuts in the rails??Like opening them up more rearward to allow the rear of the round to come up in line with chamber sooner?? or is this a nono?? Thank you for your time.

Ron.

glabray

Since the gun's original caliber was .30-30,you need to get hold of a set of cartridge guides that were made for the 38-55 caliber. The case heads are the same size but that has nothing to do with it. The guides attach to the frame at either side of the carrier. They will provide a bit more clearance in exactly the area you describe. A gun with 38-55 guides often will handle 30-30 (although the feeding might be a bit sloppy) but going the other direction often gives the problem that you describe. There are a few guys that are disassembling 1894s and selling the parts these days. One of them often lists parts on the GunBroker auctions. I imagine you can find a set from a 38-55 but it might take a little while.

madeintheshadeguns

Thank you for the information.

tsr1965

If the opriginal chamber was in 30-30, you need to put an ELEVATOR in it for the 38-55. They are not the same.

Best

taperloc

Hello madeintheshadeguns,
I will suggest that you get a copy of Arther Pirkie's book on 94 Winchesters (volume 3).
He states the following:
!. "The same carrier is used in al 94's"
2. Starting on page 28, he does a very detailed description of the different cartridge guides. They are different.

You could try surface grinding the receiver side of the 30-30 guides, it may work, I don't know for sure. They are very hard! I would suggest that you try to determine how much you need to take off and then grind off 1/2 from both the left and right guides. I have a 1901 vintage 30-30 that wil feed 38-55's

Finally, there are two designs of the 38-55 guides. The early design has a small flat spring at the forward end. the second design has no spring. Use the one without the spring.
Taperloc