Excessive headspace 1894 solutions--

[theeasterner]

Headspace on an 1894 Winchester is about 15 thou.Is there any way to take it up to about 7 by working the guts of the action.And what parts in that action will take it up,if any.That is my question.

 

[bearhunter]

Headspace on an 1894 Winchester is about 15 thou.Is there any way to take it up to about 7 by working the guts of the action.And what parts in that action will take it up,if any.That is my question.

The bolt on the Mod 94 is held in place by two lugs at the rear, which come up into place when the lever is returned to the end of its travel under the butt stock. The only way I know of to fix the headspace on a 94, is to take off the barrel, set the shoulder back one thread, cut off the chamber so that it is the required length longer to recut the chamber so that you have proper headspace.

With rimmed cases, headspace is measured on the thickness of the rim.

If there is another method, please let us know. It has always been a constant irritation for me with lever action rifles.

In the case of the 94, it is possible to fire form the cases by installing an O ring in front of the case rim, chambering it and fire forming the case so the shoulder is advanced enough to keep it tight against the bolt face. Once the cases are fire formed, neck size only and reload. This isn't perfect but there is so much taper on the 30-30 case it doesn't cause any problems.

For straight walled pistol cartridge chambered 94s, there really isn't another fix that I know of, other than my first suggestion.

 

[mbogo3]

I think it was John Wooters that had the bolt face on a 92 plated to take up the slack on a worn 25-20?Harold

 

[Ian Robertson]

Neck size and be happy as is.

 

[fingers284]

I have a 92 that had .18 headspace and I built new hardened locking bars for it that basicaly removed all the slack in the bolt travelbetween the frame and bars. Headspace was brought down to under.06 and for a 32-20 with very little recoil, it worked very good.
It was a lot of work, tinkering/testing/measuring but worked out better than rotating the barrel, externding treads, buying reamers and re-cutting everything. I used my small mini mill to do all the work and a couple pf pieces of "oil herdening flat bar" that i had around the shop so expencse was negligble.

I think the same thing could be done with a 94 but to make the single locking lug with the two ears may take a little more work than making two identical sized bars as I did.

 

[NorthCoastBigBore]

The bolt on the Mod 94 is held in place by two lugs at the rear, which come up into place when the lever is returned to the end of its travel under the butt stock. The only way I know of to fix the headspace on a 94, is to take off the barrel, set the shoulder back one thread, cut off the chamber so that it is the required length longer to recut the chamber so that you have proper headspace.

With rimmed cases, headspace is measured on the thickness of the rim.

If there is another method, please let us know. It has always been a constant irritation for me with lever action rifles.

In the case of the 94, it is possible to fire form the cases by installing an O ring in front of the case rim, chambering it and fire forming the case so the shoulder is advanced enough to keep it tight against the bolt face. Once the cases are fire formed, neck size only and reload. This isn't perfect but there is so much taper on the 30-30 case it doesn't cause any problems.

For straight walled pistol cartridge chambered 94s, there really isn't another fix that I know of, other than my first suggestion.

This second method works well on my '94. It still feeds reliably.

 

[sunray]

"...is about 15 thou..." How did you come up with that?
"...Neck size..." And you can't for a lever action. Doesn't fix bad headspace anyway.

 

[NorthCoastBigBore]

"...is about 15 thou..." How did you come up with that?
"...Neck size..." And you can't for a lever action. Doesn't fix bad headspace anyway.

I guess my '94 didn't get that memo. I think you're taking Lee's disclaimer at face value. Might want to revise that to read "...and it may affect reliability in lever action rifles..."

I've got an early Marlin '94 in .44-40 I neck-size only for as well...seems to run just fine...if I looked hard I could find some other examples as well I'm sure. .30-30 being tapered; and .44-40 being bottlenecked, likely assists overcoming any of th eperceived issues.

 

[theeasterner]

To answer some of the questions-I came to the 15 thou headspace conclusion by simply measuring the amount the primer was popping out the back of the spent shell.I had thought of the locking lug on the bolt being replaced with a fatter one that would take up the slack enough to make it less than 10 thou.,but I was hoping that very solution was a more common fix on these guns,and there would be some real well advised members who had seen this done often,so I wouldn't have to worry about what effect a beefier lug would have on the rest of the action.I recon,if after all these years the Yanks don't know of an easier fix than taking off the barrel,then I'll end up going into a massive study effort on the internal workings of the 1894 Winchester to find out if there is an easier fix.

 

[Silvertip13]

Why do you see the primeer being 0.015" out a problem? Are you getting leakage? As the rifle gets worn out the end of the bolt will wear and this number will increase, I have seen up to0.062" protrusion without any issues. 0.015" is about right when you average a couple dozen of these rifles. The headspace trick seems to be the "accepted" method of repair. You can build up the end of the bolt to make it lockup closer to the barrell if you were real concerned and didn't want to set the barrel back.

 

[Randy B]

wisnersinc.com (I think) used to sell locking lugs for the 94 in .005 increments don't know if they export though.
That would be the preferred method to fix it. I got carried away one Saturday and made one .007 thicker for myself but it truly is too much work.