I have a winchester 94 30/30 I got from my brother to try out some loads I worked up for him it is a 1976 model. I somehow ended up with a couple thousand 30/30 cases and figured I would load some up for him and he could have something for the kids to plink with besides a 22.He does not pay much attention to things and did not know of anything wrong with it. I on the other hand do.Anyways the first problem was I could not load more than one round into the mag tube. Fixed that by scrubbing out the rust. The second and much more dangerous problem is the hammer will drop from halfcock if you so much as touch the trigger. The gun also has a trigger pull of two pounds. I cannot get the hammer to drop from halfcock by any means other than pulling the trigger. I am thinking there may be a sear issue? Also the action seems very sloppy. I am not the most familiar with the 94s. I can get them apart and replace parts just don't know where to look for the problem. Thanks for any advice.

Mike, can't help with your particular problem, but can tell you that I looked at a brand new one in 1976 and it was very sloppy, thought it was junk, so I went with a Marlin and have not regretted it.
James

I have not handled many 94s. But this one just seems sloppier than those. I am not worried about the slop just throwing it out there in case it could be contributing to the halfcock problem.

clean it really good... sounds like hard dried grease is in the wrong place....

<------not a gunsmith
He/it may have a broken trigger tip, and/or the half cock notch on the hammer may be broken. I suppose it's also possible that the hammer or trigger is simply "gunked up"
Pull the guts out of the receiver and inspect