Winchester 1894 Won't load thru side gate.

hunter64

hunter64

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I recently picked up a 1894 30-30 Rifle that was manufactured in 1905 and is in really good shape. I got it cheap because it will not load thru the side gate. I have a couple of other Win 94's and on further inspection I think I have the problem narrowed down somewhat.

If I open one of my newer Win 94's and have the lever all the way open (bolt all the way back), if I push down on the carrier it will go to the down position and stay there. As soon as I move the lever to close the bolt it will pop up like it is supposed to.

On my 1894 rifle, the carrier will not do this. If I push it down it will pop right up. If I close the bolt the carrier will not go all the way to the bottom as it is supposed to. Looking with a flashlight thru the small opening in the load gate you can see the carrier not all the way down to the bottom and sitting up about 1/2".

If I put a small stick thru the load gate and push the carrier down I can then open the load gate as usual but if I put a round into the magazine it gets stuck there and will not come out.

So I detail stripped the rifle figuring maybe it is just really dirty which it was. I found nothing broken but the carrier spring looks like it has considerable wear on it and I am not sure that it is curved correctly looking at a replacement spring from Numrich http://www.e-gunparts.com/DisplayAd.asp?chrProductSKU=265490&chrSuperSKU=&MC=

The end of the spring that is kind of pie shaped ( triangle) has the top part warn down so it kind of only has 1/2 the pie so to speak.

Am I on the right track in figuring out that the carrier spring is pooched and needs to be replaced? Or is the something else I should be looking at also?
 
Because the cartridge carrier stays up, or down by going over center, the dimensions of The contact points are important.
The spring is the most likely culprit to have the most wear, however, the lifter is likely worn to some degree as well.
If it were me, I'd replace the spring and try it, then the lifter if there were problems.
 
John that was my first thought also, I dropped by Western Gun Parts and picked up a new spring and hopefully I will get time tonight and drop it in and see how it goes.

Since the rifle is 104 years old it wouldn't surprise me that the carrier has wear on it also enough to give me problems. I have another 30-30 and if after replacing the spring doesn't do it then I will take the known good one apart and compare the relationship of the spring and carrier to see if I can just build up what is needed for the repair.
 
Dropped in the new carrier spring and the difference was obvious, the warn one had the tip of the triangle so to speak warn down to a flat so the carrier would go up but not all the way down. Put everything back together and it works wonderfully, loads perfectly. Looking at the carrier it was just fine.

Thanks for you help guys and I definitely learned something new today. lol
 
Had the same problem with my Grandpa's 1894 38.55 and it was the carrier spring.You had to open the lever 1/2 way so the loading gate would open then you could filler up.I was in MT and called a smith who had one NIB for $6 Needless to say I grabbed it and picked up another spare off Flea-Bay.I can only imagine what WGP's charged........but if you need it you're stuck...............Harold
 
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