Winchester 94 Restoration

We all know the Winchester Model of 1894. It’s the iconic lever gun that every other lever action is compared to. I recently found one at a local auction that was pretty well trashed. Here is how I handled the problems it had. What you may not know about the Model 94 is that when it was introduced in 1895 it was offered in two calibers. The 30-30 Winchester Center Fire, of course, is the iconic chambering and the one everyone is familiar with, however, that other chambering is one you may not be familiar with.

No, it was not the 32 Winchester Special as that cartridge didn’t come along until 1901 when someone at Winchester thought the old traditional hunters would buy something that allowed them to use blackpowder and cast bullets. As it turned out, many did. The second initial M94 offering was in 25-35 Winchester Center Fire, which is basically a 30-30 WCF case necked down to .25 caliber.

This was a very practical chambering as it allowed those living on farms or rural areas to take everything from rabbits, coyotes, fox, raccoons, and everything else with four legs all the way up to deer. Of course, that was before the deer got so mean and tough that many of today’s hunters seem to think they can only take deer with cartridges that say "Magnum" on the headstamp.

In fact, Winchester’s other M94 choice seemed such a good idea that Remington copied it and chambered it in their Model 8, the first commercially successful semiauto rifle, and called it the 25 Remington. Unfortunately, the public didn’t seem to find the idea as great as Winchester and Remington did. After all, you could shoot those same varmints with a 30-30 WCF and they would be just as dead. Today neither the 25-35 WCF nor the 25 Remington are available as a stock item from any of the major manufacturers.

However, this is an

easy conversion to make by simply running 30-30 brass through a 25- 35 die and trimming the case to length, giving you the same versatility on small game as those outdoorsmen enjoyed at the turn of the 20th century. The M94 is so common and so many have been made that I never thought I would find one interesting enough to want for myself. I’ve owned several of them over the years and have always sold or traded them off for something I found more interesting. It turns out I was wrong, again.

The Winchester 94 I found at a local auction was a saddle ring carbine made in 1906. It is chambered in 25-35, as I’m sure you already guessed, and it was quite well used and in need of some TLC. The finish was long gone, the metal pitted, the stock was split and repaired badly with pins. A dowel rod was put in the wrong place and then removed because it interfered with the mainspring, and wood putty was liberally slathered over the holes and in every dent and gouge in the stock.

The saddle ring was removed and its base had been trimmed down to be no more than a lump on the side of the receiver. I suspect the saddle ring was removed to keep it from making noise when deer hunting but an easier solution would have been to simply put apiece of tape over it for deer season. I started by ordering a replacement pre-64 saddle ring from Jack First Gun Parts (JackFirstInc.com, and used Birchwood Casey Blue & Rust Remover to strip the bluing from the new saddle ring to match the receiver.

The most concerning problem was that the upper tang had been broken and brazed back together with about as much skill as I have with brazing; the attempt had left a lump of brazing material that added to the gun’s ugly appearance. At this point I had some decisions to make. I could draw file the pits out of the metal, polish and reblue the gun, put anew stock on it, and turn it into just another 94, but that would destroy the history and character of the gun.

Instead, I decided to let the gun keep the scars it had earned over the past 116 years of use and abuse and simply fix what needed fixing. I didn’t find any surprises when the gun was disassembled. There was enough dirt caked on the internal parts that I guessed that it had been 115 years since the last time it was detail cleaned, but I expected that. My main concerns were the brazing job on the tang and the wood putty over the holes on the wrist of the stock.

The lump of brazing metal was easily removed with a file along with careful attention to not cut into the steel of the tang itself. The stock was a bit more difficult. After removing the wood putty, I plugged the holes with dowel rod, however, rather than leaving them like that I used an old technique of removing the wood around the

holes and fitting and gluing a patch made of walnut over the problem areas. Then it was a simple matter to rasp and sand the patches down to the level of the stock and refit the stock to the receiver. I have used a lot of stock finishes in my time and I much prefer finishes that soak into the wood rather than just sit on top of it. Linseed oil and turpentine mixed 50-50 will give you a nice satin finish but is rather labor and time intensive.

In this case I chose a commercial tung oil finish and have to say that I was not happy with it. I’ve used real tung oil before and it has a distinct odor. As far as I can tell the product I found locally is designed to give you a finish that looks somewhat like tung oil but doesn’t seem to actually have any tung oil in it. Most of us are familiar with Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil Stock Finish and it is a fine product that gives a nice finish.

Frankly, I wish I would have used Tru-Oil on this project as I wanted to duplicate the factory finish and that appears to have been nothing more than varnish. Now I find myself on the horns of a dilemma. Preserve the gun and its history and leave it as it is, or refinish it and return it to its former glory. The gun is repaired, it is solid, has a good bore, it works, and it should be left as it is—but it is still ugly!

My job is normally to repair and restore guns that have been used and abused—yet, somehow, I don’t feel I have finished this project. It cries out for anew stock and forearm, the pits need to be filed out, and the metal reblued. Like an old Hollywood actress, there are more call long haul; this old Winchester needs a facelift to look young and pretty again. But, in respect for her age and history I’m trying desperately to convince myself that she is beautiful just the way she is. AG