Model 94 Winchester experts - here's a weird 'un...

[Dark Alley Dan]

Hey, hivemind.

I'm teaching the CFSC on Sunday. We're in the familiarization phase - I have seven people, each working hands-on with a firearm, sorting out how it works.

One fellow who I wasn't helping in the moment calls out "I think I may have broken this one." Oh sh!t. What's the issue?

An ancient and abused 94 in 32-40. Shot out bore, incorrect buttstock, a bit sloppy but good lockup. An excellent course gun, I thought. And somehow the locking bolt has slipped its mooring at the aft end of the link - where the two "pins" milled into the bottom interact with it - and literally fallen out of the gun. Pic for reference:

Damndest thing.

I retrieved the locking bolt and the rifle and in about ten seconds had put it right. Everything snapped back into place, functionality restored, all seems well. I'm thinking the old girl is sufficiently sloppy that the tolerances have opened up and allowed it to happen, but do you think I can duplicate the event? I cannot. Everything appears workably tight to me. I cannot, no matter how I bugger about with it, get those pins to come back far enough to even come close to leaving the gun.

Is this a known problem? Anyone else had this happen before?

 

[Lee Enfield]

Almost certainly they disassembled the lever link and couldn't figure out how to re-assemble it.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

I don't think so. Not like he had time to take out the retaining screw, drive out the link pin, and winkle the locking bolt out that way. The thing literally fell out of the gun during normal, non-abusive use.

Or are you saying the last person to have the gun apart screwed up in reassembly? Not sure how the hell I would have done that. It's worked fine since then, you can't put the locking bolt in backwards, and it's been a couple of hassle-free years since I had the gun that far apart...

 

[Deathrawt]

Weird things can happen with guns sometimes
I was cleaning an old model 8 Remington a while back and I had it took down plus had the charging handle out so I could reach in behind the bolt to try to clean up the old gunk without totally disassembling it
Everything was going good I was using patches with cleaner to get around everything and then I noticed an old stubby large diameter pin laying on the ground
I had to do some hardcore searching on line to figure out where the damn thing came from and it turns out it was one of two bolt locking pins that go in the sides of the bolt
I had to take the whole damn thing apart to get that thing back in there I have no idea how it could have fell out like it did

 

[9.3mauser]

Take the lever pin stop screw out and check if the retaining pin is still in there. The only way I can see for the bolt to come free of the link is if the link is allowed to travel further than normal. The only way for that to happen is for the pin to be missing.

 

[mmattockx]

Everything was going good I was using patches with cleaner to get around everything and then I noticed an old stubby large diameter pin laying on the ground

One of the worst feelings in the world.


Mark

 

[fingers284]

One of the worst feelings in the world.

Nope...its when your wife (unannounced & unasked for) vacuums the gun room and the next day your putting someone else's gun back together and a small spring & detent ball are not to be found anywhere!!

 

[kamlooky]

Someone up above is messing widdjah.

 

[Scar270]

There are protrusion on the front of the lower tang that hold that locking block in, i have seen other 94's where they are wore enough to allow the block to drop out. You need a new tang or tig up the front of those protrusion.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

There are protrusion on the front of the lower tang that hold that locking block in, i have seen other 94's where they are wore enough to allow the block to drop out. You need a new tang or tig up the front of those protrusion.

That seems very likely indeed, Scar. Looking at that area, any protrusions that were there at the factory appear to have been pretty much ironed flat with use. Luckily I have a spare tang I've been meaning to throw in there. Hopefully this prevents this from happening again.

Thanks very much!

 

[IronCanadian]

Leave it to a student/noob to pull off the impossible. lol

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Leave it to a student/noob to pull off the impossible. lol

They seldom fail to amaze.

This was a particularly good group - smart, engaged, good questions. Having a malfunction at their hands was a surprise. Had a guy at another location who managed to both snap the ejector on my Model 12 and fvck up the bolt on my Scorpion .22, God bless his little engineering soul...