Winchester 1894 30 WCF made in 1900 (Is it special? It is to me)

BCshooterFMJ

BCshooterFMJ

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So, happy news boys and girls , pulled out some of my oldies but goodies , mainly the JC higgins model 20 12 ga (That I still need chokes for) And my BEAUTY Winchester 1894 30-30 long octagon barrel , so , gave her a cleaning, just loving the 114 year old rust on this boom stick, she is gorgeous. So, I inherited this firearm from my best friends father, I never fired it in the few years I had it, and have no idea the last time he fired it, but lord knows I wanna take this thing out.

Just wondering, should I? It has a patch of wood (Fix) on the fore end grip, a couple of nice dings on the rifle itself, it is far from mint.

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Lead loads over unique are surpringly accurate. Cheap too. If you handload I'd definitely see what the old gal can do.

Rusty wood (a site sponsor) has 30-30 lead for pretty cheap and at 10 grains per load unique is affordable too. It's what I use for my plinking loads but they have some punch to them. Mild recoil and report is a bonus.
 
Ah , Relaoding is my next step in this wonderful hobby, just got my basement gunsmith wannabe shop set up :D no garage yet. And wow, 17 jugs , thats badass :D And rustywood is one of the fairest priced places I have seen, them and wanstalls, lucky for me, I am in the lower mainland.

But yeah, mechanically sound? It puts my 10 year old rossi 92 to utter shame (And my rossi puma is real smooth, feels more like a marlin) And the hammer strike is hard, de cocking is risky if you don't know what to expect.

Just finished oiling her all up , the tube under the barrel has this beautiful almost even line of rust on the lower half of it, I wanna call it patina lol. It's almost like it supposed to be there. I am definitely gonna take her out.

I agree with the "It would be a shame NOT to shoot it" Any suggestion on a lighter load to start with? Just a box, then move up(Out of worry for the bolt, it may have been decades since this thing was shot last) or should I just man up and go straight to the good stuff?
 
Sweet , good thread, the bore has some rust in her, been sending a lot of patches through it and just gave up now lol. Got a great field and stream book about guns that has a whole process of removing as much as possible, its only in the grooves anyway :D.
 
I have had good luck with JB Bore Paste for cleaning ratty old bores. Get it as clean as you can then fire six or eight rounds through it then clean it again preferably while still warm. A surprising number of bores that look horrendous can be brought back to shootable condition with a little knowledge and patience.
 
I used to shoot my two 1905 Winny rifles ( one round, one octagon) almost every weekend during the summer. and my 1910 has taken deer over the last few years. I prefer the rifle to a carbine.
 
Winnipeg Toymaker: re prefer rifle to carbine -me too! Rifle due to its long barrell and weight gives it a better "C of G" resulting in less "felt recoil". Carbines for "plinking" can get to be unpleasantly "snorty" - used for hunting - in the "heat of battle" the recoil/snortiness is not noticed! LOVE the old 1894 octagon rifle! I relined/restocked and refinished low serial numbered rifles in both 30WCF and 38-55 - they are destined to go to my granchildren.

HOWEVER I am AS impressed with the old Win 1873 in 44-40! For FAST smooth shooting - I'd take the '73 over the 1892!! IMO!
 
I figured if anyone was subbed to this, I would give an update. Sent a box of rounds through it to get it nice and hot, cleaned it like mad, got home cleaned it again, still coming out dirty adn has rust in the bore, but the patches are just coming out a bit dirty and gray now.

But, the beauty part , when I went to go take down my target at 50 yards that I sent the 20 shots at, without even trying, just hammering off some rapid fire round, the group was inside a foot with the old iron sights. So, still dirty, but a hell of a shooter.

So, she has just earned a new nick name "Dirty 30 girl" . Someong (Bubba) etched "SMOKY" On the side of it... But, it is 113 years old, and for how it shoots, whoever the previous owners were at least kept it in good shooting order.
 
Well, I grew up neighboring Surrey... I aswell have that same special place lol. Worked out awesome, problem WAS, I over loaded, being old and uncleaned, it jammed the follow at the front of the tube (Dirt or whatever) So yeah, didnt get to ACTUALLY test the accuracy, but I still have a few box's of 30-30 , so next range trip we shall see.
 
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