I have a Winchester 94 (44 mag if that matters), that is just a bear to cycle the action on. It is difficult to do with the gun on your shoulder, as you can not generate enough leverage. After playing around with it, I have determined that the part of the cycle that cocks the hammer is when all of the resistance is generated.

Does anyone have a fix for this ? Can the hammer spring be trimmed ? Ideas ?

Jimmy Mac,
I wouldn't recommend lightening the hammer spring. Might lead to misfires. Will also increase lock time. Something that might help, is to polish the hammer, and the bolt where it rides on the hammer, to a near mirror finish. It wouldn't hurt to polish the whole bolt, or at least inspect it for any rough spots/burrs. You should use a high quality lube/grease, on all moving parts (not too much!) including pins. It is often surprising how much a good lube helps here. Stay away from the lightweight sprays, unless they are a dry lubricant, with something like Teflon, or PFTE. Anyone else???

I had a 94 that had a similar problem. As the bolt came back, it cocked the hammer just fine, but then the rear of the hammer contacted the rear of the slot in the receiver, and it took considerable pressure to force the bolt further back to complete the cocking action. To fix it, I remeoved a little metal from the least expensive part, the hammer itself. Used a Dremel to sand off a tiny amount from the top corner of the hammer face, and a little bit off the back of the hammer stem where it was contacting the receiver slot.

Interesting thought, Saco. What difference would it make if a round was feeding through the action or not?

The gun is just plain old stiff to work, cartridge or no cartridge. I will add that it functions and fires fine, just stiff.

It is pretty clean, and not rusty.

So what's causing the stiffness? Is it the bolt sliding in the receiver, the connection between bolt and lever, the lifter rubbing the receiver, the bolt rubbing the hammer, or the hammer binding the bolt because it won't travel far enough back and down? The fix will depend on the problem.