Winchester 94 cartridge load issue

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nez

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Hi Gunnutz,
I'm new to the sport other than .22s as a kid. Please forgive any lingo errors. I bought a 1957 Winchester 94 in .30-30 off my friends dad. He purchased it several years ago. He's cleaned it but never actually shot it. I took it to the range to test and it has issues loading the cartridge into the chamber. The carrier is not fully rising to line up the cartridge to push into the chamber. Without a cartridge the carrier does rise to the correct height. I manually loaded a cartridge into the chamber and if fired successfully. It loads the cartridge into the carrier and ejects the casing without issues.

I've checked the carrier and carrier spring for wear, but that seems OK.
From what I can tell, the casing is contacting the cartridge guides too soon preventing the carrier from rising fully. I read somewhere that these rifles also came as .25-35. I'm wondering if someone accidently replaced the cartridge guides with .25-35 instead of .30-30. Can anyone tell me what the clearance is supposed to be between the cartridge guides behind the rim slots? Mine is 9.40 mm.

I can't attach pics as my profile is too new, but hope the links below work.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Auc8yUxankCqhHRmmM0hPXxQaXsC?e=uYqVIB
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Auc8yUxankCqhHWq_63_os2GzA9f?e=8HEzmL
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Auc8yUxankCqhHNTRYjLJqdqNAxw?e=EXyz5K


Thank you.
 
Last edited:
The gap on mine is 3/8", also 1957 vintage. That converts to 9.525 mm.

Maybe somebody's had the guides out and didn't get them reinstalled properly. The screw heads are on the inside. They're hard to get to. Look at the outside of the receiver and check that the screw ends are flush with the receiver, or nearly so. I don't see a whole lot of difference between your photos and mine.

After a closer look, it appears that the lifter may be out of place.

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I found the issue. The carrier was different than anything I've seen on the forums or parts diagrams. I ended up modifying it with a dremmel and it's now working without any issues whether I actioning the lever slow "limp wristing" or fast. I'll be ordering a new carrier.

I forgot to take a picture before modifying the carrier. Hard to describe it. I'll try to do a moch up drawing of how it was before. The back of the carrier where the cartridge rim sits had a groove along the bottom and side for the rim to sit in. When the cartridge moved forward it would come up out of the groove causing the back of the cartridge to go up and the front to go down. I grinded out the material in front of the groove so it is now all the same level. Now when the cartridge moves forward it stays the same level and does not bump up until it gets to the grooves in the cartridge guides.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Auc8yUxankCqhHqK1nyM5UOkgge3?e=bOc03M
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Auc8yUxankCqhHhFBKEOmoE3wG9O?e=zQnzdU
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Auc8yUxankCqhHmBewM_HlTEDVKR?e=ucy08Y
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Auc8yUxankCqhHvlK_x1qNUFsO_n?e=4QleTs
 
Yes I checked those too. The guides are in spec. It has the wrong carrier. Not sure if my link to pics worked. Im not allowed to put pics in my posts yet. Works well after modifying the carrier but need to order a new one.
 
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