Winchester 94 and the 30-30??

M

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Hello, well all this running around and buying and selling rifles and talking myself into things I dont need has gotten me nowhere!! I have lost a tonne of cash on re-sale of guns and nothing has won my heart over for an Ontario whitetail deer gun. I have just now bought a mint condition 1975 Winchester 94 in 30-30 for my hunting needs. I have never fired a 30-30 nor have I read much about them, but my hunting partners always tell me not to bother with anything else, "a 30-30 Win 94 is all you need for shooting whitetail in Ontario" they say.

So with that being said I am trying to educate myself on this rifle and round. I have heard that there is a few safety types that were put onto the 94 over the years, mine is the hammer at half #### type. Is this good?? How are the factory sights on these guns, good enough to take game out to 100-200 yrds? Is the rifle easy to clean and keep serviced for years to come? How are the triggers on these rifles??

30-30 questions: This round is alot slower and with less ft/lb than a .270/.308/30-06 at all ranges. What are its limitations as far as taking N. American game?? Does it make sense to re-load 30-30 ammunition, or is it better to buy factory? What is the advantages of this round, I will be using it for small to medium ranges on whitetails and maybe the odd Ont black bear.

Any info or articles or experiences you can share with me on this rifle and round would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I have bought my last rifle for medium sized game and can focus on a nice 30-06 for moose and elk. Then I will be set, no more buying and selling and losing my shirt!! :rolleyes:
 
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As long as you don't expect too much out of it, you will be well served for the rest of your life, your childrens lives and their childrens lives. Every rifle has it's own issues. Yours may or may not be accurate enough for squirrel sized critters, but I'm sure it will be fine out to 200 yards. And that's about the range of the 30-30. Right quick here someone will mention the new LeverEvolution ammo. Just because you can now kill a deer at 300+ yards doesn't mean you should or your rifle is capable. A 170 grain bullet out of your rifle will kill a moose, let alone a deer. Put the bullet where it needs to be and it will do the rest. Is it worth loading for it? It's probably always best loading your own so you can custom tailor ammo for your rifle, but I don't for mine. I keep 200 rounds of factory ammo on hand for it and that will keep me well served for whatever life throws at it. Mine likes 150 grain Federal, but you will be best served buying one box of everything you can find to see what shoots best.

To be honest, I've never really been a fan of the 1894 Winchester, and cleaning isn't quite as easy as a Marlin 336, but by using a good quality cleaning rod with a muzzle/bore guide, you will be fine. Sights are never very good from the factory on these, and you'll be better served with a good peep. However, I just turned out a nice 2 inch group with the factory iron's yesterday with my 30-30, so most folks will agree that's good enough, they will get the job done. Good luck and have fun. :wave:
 
You have a good rifle and cartridge for Ontario deer, bear and the odd moose, if you are careful where you hit the moose.
Forget all those ballistic figures about what various cartridges do. The standard, 170 grain bullet, with a flat nose is ideal for game, deadly for deer and bear.
My advice is do not bother getting into reloading for hunting game, just buy the 170 grain factory ammo.
Your rifle is sound, well built, and with care, could easily be in great shooting condition when all you want to do is sit in your fancy rocker.
Look at the left side of the receiver of the rifle, near the top and well back. if there are two little dummy screws there, it will mean it is drilled and tapped for an aperature receiver sight, probably a Williams Fool Proof, or model 94. If the screws are there, my strong advice would be to buy a peep sight for it. After you have learned to use this sight it will add at least 50 yards, to the range you can make good hits on the deer.
 
Since when is a hunting rifle about what you need!!

I don't need any but one of mine, and I can't stop buying more. If you like it, buy it and shoot the heck out of it. Life is short and you can never have enough guns.

With mine, inside 100 it kills everything hit proper. Outside 100 I ain't the best shooter with buckhorns. I replaced em with XS Sightsystems ghostring sights and they rock hard for beating the bush.

The cartridge works. The rifle works...Whats not to love.

As far as the reloading goes, I picked up some 170 grain Speer bullets but have yet to load any...Can let ya know more when I get started. Reloading is always fun though. And 30-30 would be fairly cheap.
 
30/30 being one of those round/flat nosed cartridges, you may be interested to read about the Hornady LEVERevolution as well, being it's supposed to add another 100 yards or so to it's range. :)

what's 336 RC stand for sealhunter?
 
IMO nothing beats the feel and carry of a lever gun and a 30-30 is a great caliber...it's been taking deer, moose, elk and bears for over 100 years on RN & FN 150 and 170 gr ammo. I personally like the 170gr. Win Silvertips.
The Hornady Lever ammo has stepped these rifles into the new millenium, although many would argue it was fine with the standard ammo.
I hunt Ontario big game ( deer, moose & bear) with my Winnie 30-30 about 75-80% of the time.
 
I'll agree that a .30-30 is all you actually NEED to hunt whitetail in Ontario, or anywhere else in Canada or the U.S., including Saskatchewan and Alberta. But there's Ontario and there's Ontario. There are farm-country hunters here that routinely shoot deer at 300+ yards, and cutline moose hunters that do the same with Bullwinkle.
That said, the .30-30 is a truly great round for deer at the ranges they are usually shot, say under 100 yards. Very mild recoil, lots of power for the intended use, and a rifle that's fun to practise with. In addition, I think the Winchester 94 is the fastest-pointing rifle ever invented. It just seems to come to the shoulder with sights aligned. They are also accurate, generally, but require more practice to shoot than a scoped rifle. I just inherited a 1957 carbine. I had some handloads around the house, and tried them out. My first three shots at 50 yards went into 3/4 inch. At 100 yards, it was about 2 inches or so. I think the 100-yard groups could be improved a bit by mounting a receiver sight and a finer front sight, but it's good enough as is, and I intend to hunt with it this fall.
For deer hunting, I'd use either 150 or 170 grain loads, whichever works most accurately in your rifle. People are fond of saying the 170 is the "original" load (it is not), and to stick with it, but either load will kill deer quite dead, and both are considerably more powerful than the actual original load (160 grains at 1970 fps) that made the .30-30 famous. For bigger game, say moose and black bear, I'd stick with the 170 or try the Hornady Leverevolution ammo, which would also be great for deer.
For deer, I'd keep shots under about 200 yards, maybe 250 or so if you use Leverevolution and can shoot accurately enough...very difficult to do. For moose, I'd try to limit shots to 150 yard broadsides, maybe 100 yards quartering.
 
I referred to the the 170 grain bullet as the "standard." I guess, traditional, would have been better.
I remember the depression years in the homestead, bush country boondocks, where every family lived on wild meat, year round. Every type of centre fire rifle was used, but the 30-30 was far and away, the most popular for getting the moose, elk and deer. Moose and elk were the most often shot animals.
The tiny country stores carried ammunition, starting with 30-30. But there was absolutely no choice for bullets. The ammunition was CIL Dominion, with 170 grain bullets.
It was years later when I saw 150 grain 30-30 bullets for the first time. So I think I can refer to the 170 grain bullet as being either, "standard," or the "traditional" bullet.
 
Any info or articles or experiences you can share with me on this rifle and round would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I have bought my last rifle for medium sized game and can focus on a nice 30-06 for moose and elk. Then I will be set, no more buying and selling and losing my shirt!!
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Welcome to the world of Gunnutz :D
 
A very nice old lady I know, now a great-grandmother, bought a new Marlin Glenfield 30-30 in the early 1970s.

The first thing she shot with it was a moose.
 
H4831

Any way you put it, you're correct, I think. If I were to guess, I'd say the 170 outsells the 150 about 10 to 1 in Canada.
My point was that lots of hunters, in Canada especially, think of the 150 bullet as being just barely heavy enough for a Florida whitetail or something, when really, it will have about the same effect on a deer as the 170. And coincidentally, of the six .30-30's I've owned, four shot noticeably better with the 150, one with the 170, and one is undecided. (Haven't tried the 170 in it). I wasn't being my usual nitpicking self.
 
no you need some fancy highpower magnum for any hunting.

I'm more of an open country hunter and use a 25-06 as my primary deer gun.


But that said I have 2 Win94's both in 30-30 and those are the backup / truck guns for hunting. They are good for hunting at close range (under 200yds) and are light, reliable, and you won't really need anything else.
 
For pure utility, you may want the Marlin 336. Take it apart in 2 minutes for cleaning and clean from the breech. Also easier to scope. Simple, simple simple.
 
shoshin said:
For pure utility, you may want the Marlin 336. Take it apart in 2 minutes for cleaning and clean from the breech. Also easier to scope. Simple, simple simple.
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As an owner of a 94 win I also vote for the Marlin for simplicity.
I find my 94 a real pain to take apart and put back together for cleaning.
 
I've never dared to dismantle my 94, but I was given a rusty basket case 336 so I'm working on restoring it and I was amazed at how easy it was to take the lever off and bolt out for cleaning.

The rest is straight forward too if you want to do a full take down and reassemble.
 
Got me a 30-06 and a 308 too but I still like to have a 30-30 lever around and the Marlin makes the most sense to me especially since it is designed to be cleaned from the chamber side and comes apart pretty easy. Not a big fan of the Winnie but have owned a couple. Taking the Marlin out to play this weekend and looking forward. Still my fave go-to deer rifle for out here in BC is the Savage 99c lever 308. But they will both go with me into the bush and it never hurts to have a backup.
 
MD said:
I've never dared to dismantle my 94, but I was given a rusty basket case 336 so I'm working on restoring it and I was amazed at how easy it was to take the lever off and bolt out for cleaning.

The rest is straight forward too if you want to do a full take down and reassemble.
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I'm restoring a Savage 1899C 30/30 made in 1902-1903. It's a lot more complicated than the Marlin 336, but that's part of the fun. I doubt that it'll see much more than occasional use once it's done, but you never know. (No it wasn't a collector grade piece).
 
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