I have two post 64 94s doing the same thing;

1. Load cartridges through the spring cover.

2. As soon as the spring cover is released, the cartridge slides back on the carrier blocking the spring cover from opening again. No additional rounds can be loaded until the mag is empty.

What functions as the primary cartridge stop on a 94? I know about the secondary stop on the front of the link and have fixed many of those. That isn't the problem.

I'm stumped.

There is a little step on the bottom of the lever; When you open the lever, it moves out of the way and lets the cartridge (which has been released by the link stop) move toward the rear where it is stopped by the ejector, and as the bolt comes back, so does the round. Sounds like your lever step/stop is worn. When they made the 94 in 357 mag, they added a little piece of metal to the lever stop area. And also, in 45 colt, they are finikey due to the small rims. Study it and you will see.

I had the same issue on a 1970s Model 94 in 44 Magnum. The good news is that any competent auto-shop or welding shop can fix it.

Just a "dab" of weld onto the top of the stop will do then file it back down to the correct profile. But....

So what I did was make a metal template of the stop as it was before I did any welding work. Then set that template aside and get the welding done.

Then offer up the template to the now welded stop and that gives a gide as to how far you can remove metal with haste and at what point you need to go slow.

It maybe that you will have to offer up the part a number of times as if you don't remove enough no cartridges will come back at all.

I used INERT ROUNDS for the trial work as that way no risk of accident.

Thanks for the help. They're both 30-30.

It's tough studying what goes on inside the closed action. I tried removing the spring cover to see the cartridge stop in action but the spring cover helps hold the cartridge to the left and into the lever/cartridge stop.

The more I work on post 64 94s, the lower my opinion is of them.

Now you see why, at the time, no military power ever adopted the Winchester 94 as an official issued service weapon!