winchester 94 issue

[whitetailwoodsarcher]

buddy of mine has a old 94 the lever is jamming shut on his gun. he said it just does it randomly. i was wondering if anyone could suggest what is wrong or if they could point me in the direction of a good gunsmith in the Viking Alberta area.
thanks

 

[Manners]

Like it closes and it won't open?
Mine was hard to lever cause the bolt and hammer were rough. it would kind of jam in that you really had to force it to open. Plus the spring was super hard to flex.
It cleared up a bit by polishing but it doesn't move like the Marlin or the Henry.....

Maybe there is grit inside the mechanism.

There's a lot of Youtube videos detailing taking apart the Winchester 94. I was apprehensive but it's not that hard really.

Good luck!

 

[just having some fun]

try a grease on the locking lug / bolt area

 

[slug]

Some lever rifles have to be operated with some vigour.
Operating the action slowly can cause some malfunctions.
For its first seventy years, the 94 was a rifle that was designed right and left alone.
If it's a pre-64 and not abused, it should work as intended.

 

[Winz]

Per above, the Win 94 is a great rifle and can operate quickly but by virtue of its pivoting linkage action design, its never going to feel like a Marlin or Henry (rotating on a single point). In fact, I would say the Win 94 must be handled with some vigour to reliably feed since the lifter moves up at the end of the downward stroke.

Without knowing what the specific symptoms of jamming are, questions to be ask may incl the fol:
-Does this happen only when firing live rounds?
-Does this happen when using dummy dry fire rounds?
-Does this happen if the hammer is manually cocked prior to cycling?
-When the bolt and receiver rails are cleaned/lubed, does this still occur?
-Have you checked the extractor claw and recess?