My wife's grandfather had a Win. Model 1894 which is now her's. I would like to salvage this rifle and use it for hunting. It appears to have been made in 1917 (S/n is 817XXX). Here's the problem, I have completely dissassembled it and cleaned the action (it was really a gummed up mess!) Problem is, the bore is really pitted. Two questions:
1- Is there some way I can salvage this barrel? Does anyone resleeve these? and
2- Can I safely fire modern 30/30 ammo after rebuilding it?
The rifle is marked "Model 1894" on the top tang.on the barrel "specially made for smokeless powder", "nickel steel barrel" and ".30 WCF"
Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.
Oh yes, I am aware that I can have a new barrel installed, but I would really like to preserve the rifle as originally as possible.
Thanks much

Have you fired it yet to see how it shoots in current condition? Sometimes a pitted bore can still shoot 'good enough'. If you have not fired it yet, you really have no idea on what you have.

OK, how pitted is "really pitted"? Are we talking craters-on-the-moon pitted, or just some shallow pitting that goes the distance down the barrel from chamber to muzzle?

If it's shallow pitting, you may be able to either polish or lap (depending on how bad) the bore and get it to shoot to an "acceptable" level of accuracy. If it's craters-on-the-moon pitted, don't bother. Think about having the bbl re-bored to 32 special so you can at least shoot it. Or if the money isn't an issue, have it bored out and lined back down to 30 cal again.

If it's shallow pitting, and you polish or lap it, you may get better results with some cast bullets of moderate hardness and moderate pressure handloads.

quote:

Originally posted by Slowpoke Slim:
Think about having the bbl re-bored to 32 special so you can at least shoot it. Or if the money isn't an issue, have it bored out and lined back down to 30 cal again.

Or a fella could have it rebored and rerifled as a 38/55

I think I will call it shallow pitting since I can see the lands and groves for the entire barrel. I have just finished cleaning and reinstalling the action so have not had a chance to fire it yet. I think I will then fire it and see how it does (as suggested earlier) The action looks really good. Looks like all the gunk protected the components. I will get back after shooting it (I'll have to wait until after the current snow storm). If it does "O.K." then I will use as is. If not, I will check into getting it rebored. Thanks everyone for the thoughts and help.

I am not a reboring expert, but I am pretty sure that there is not enough metal there to rebore to .32 caliber. If you need to rebore the suggestion for a .38-55 was excellent. It is a better cartridge than either of the other choices IMO. Also, for a while, and possible now, there were 94 .38-55 barrels available pretty cheap. That would be the cheapest option if you can find one.

It would also be possible to simple rebarrel it with a New, Old Stock barrel from GunPartsInc

that way you'd still have the original barrel.

AD

Allan, I'm not familiar with GunPartsInc. I tried Google and get a list of dealers. Which one are you referring too? When I shoot this rifle, if it isn't "good enough" then I would like to replace the barrel with a NOS barrel.
Thanks

Gun Parts Inc in West Hurley NY.

http://gunpartscorp.com/

If you've never heard of them you must've grown up on a distant planet

Allow me to point out that ALL Winchester 1894 and '94 rifles use the same threads.

So the only thing you really need to get is a "top eject" barrel

if you aren't really set on keeping it original
you can do all sorts of neat things...

Octagon barrel perhaps?

AD

AD

Well Allan,
not quite a different planet!! If you had said Numrich Arms I would indeed have known immediately who you were talking about....it's all in a name I guess. By the way, I had already checked for a NOS barrel there and unless I'm still on another planet, they had none listed on their website. I will check again however since that is exactly what I would like to do. It is an octagon barrel. Thanks for your assistance.

Horsefly, where are you in Mass. I'm in S.NH and sometimes another set of eyes help. Let me know. JP

Hello JP
I appreciate the offer. I'm in Carlisle (adjoins Concord) only about 20 min. south of Nashua. Where in NH are you?

numrich or gun parts as they are now known has in stock many many barrels. Almost for a certantity they would have a direct replacement barrel for your rifle.I think they have a 24" kit available. Barrel, magazine tube, mag spring and possible a few other bits. With a 24" tube (octagon of course) your almost certaintly going to get close to factory speed and pressure. Like all the load data is done where shop is. You would probably reach the values that are shown for the 150 grain bullet with no additional powder.Something to think about. And they oughta be able to come up with a rifle forend and forend cap as well. Frank

As mentioned, first order of business would be to re-assemble and see how it actually shoots. How does the crown look? IMHO the crown seem to affect accuracy more than the rifling.
Realistically, you're not going to be shooting at anything over 100 yards with that gun anyway and most likely quite a bit closer. I'd be happy with 4" at 100 yds and call it good, and that can be attained with some pretty ratty guns and some fiddling at the reloading bench.

Mark,
I agree totally with your message. I also would be satisfied with 4" groups. The crown doesn't look great so I will just have to see how it shoots at this point. I will be shooting it at the range in the next couple of weeks to check it out. Thanks for all the help from this forum.