Cool old rifle!

Through a stroke of good fortune, I was recently able to aquire an old Winchester Model 1894 chambered in 30WCF. A close friend had it, as it was his grandfathers hunting rifle. He had no use for it, and was happy to sell it to me since he felt I would actually appreciate and shoot it. He gave me a very good price on it and I am very thankful to now own it. I fully intend on shooting and hunting with it. Serial number research puts it in either the 1911 or 1912 manufacture year. For a 105 yr old gun, I think it is impressive. It has many little hunting dings and blemishes, and the bore is good. And it is all original, with no drilling or tapping – a real piece of American history!

I thought some of you gun enthusiasts would enjoy a peak at it.

T

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I’d have a reliable gunsmith give it a good check-over and if everything is up to par, shoot and hunt it.

Those old levers are awesome history. I love levers and one that old would be a treat just to hold a while. About 55 years ago I had an old neighbor lady that had a golden retriever that I’d walk for her. One day she showed me a pair of very old, matching Winchester levers chambered for the 44-40 cartridge. One was her gun and other her late husbands. She told me of deer hunting together with him in the woods up north. She let me hold one of the rifles and showed me how the lever worked and how to aim one. I’ve loved levers ever since. What a find for you!

Thanks for the comments, Tom. I brought it to a gunsmith friend and he looked it over. His response was, “we can’t be friends anymore”…..lol. He insisted I bring it this coming summer for him to shoot.

My friend thought he also had the same weapon in .32win. I was set to buy both, but he then vaguely recalled that the 32 had burnt up in his fathers house fire about 45 yrs ago….ouch.

I agree about the old levers, they are just something special. When I hold this one and work the lever, I am a real cowboy for a moment….lol.

Very cool Timmy. I’ve got an early 1900’s model 1894 25-35 that’s been passed down to me too. Where did you look up the manufacture date? I’ve never thought to look up it’s age.

I’ll pull it out of the safe and post a pic later as well.

Will

A terrific rifle and it’s great that you rescued it from being unused in the back of the closet.

In this day/age of Magnumitius, I really like to see hunters find joy in hunting with the weapons of our forebearers. I just love to think of what those old guns have witnessed in the hands of generations past. It’s also a good “how good we have it” thought-prompter. My boys were facinated by the presence of an exposed hammer on my older shotguns…

BTW, in case anyone is scratching their head at the 30 WCF chambering of this rifle, that’s Winchester’s trade name for this cartridge It’s more commonly known today by the name that UMC and other cartridge makers gave it, the .30-30.

A terrific find and great save of a proud old hunting rifle.

Grouse

Nice!

I hunt deer with a Winchester Model 71 (lever) in .348 Win. It was my dad’s rifle and an absolute joy to hunt with. Pretty darn effective, too.

Beautiful piece. Nothing beats an old Winchester lever gun.

KwickStick wrote:

I hunt deer with a Winchester Model 71 (lever) in .348 Win. It was my dad’s rifle and an absolute joy to hunt with. Pretty darn effective, too.

Wow. Now that’s a chambering I haven’t heard mentioned for a while. What a rifle!

Are you shooting factory ammo for that or handloading? What bullet do you use?

I knew an old timer once who had a supply of ammo loaded with a 250-grain bullet he used as his “brush busting” load. It put a tremendous whollop on deer, it may not have been fast, but it sure hit hard.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

A terrific rifle and it’s great that you rescued it from being unused in the back of the closet.

In this day/age of Magnumitius, I really like to see hunters find joy in hunting with the weapons of our forebearers. I just love to think of what those old guns have witnessed in the hands of generations past. It’s also a good “how good we have it” thought-prompter. My boys were facinated by the presence of an exposed hammer on my older shotguns…

BTW, in case anyone is scratching their head at the 30 WCF chambering of this rifle, that’s Winchester’s trade name for this cartridge It’s more commonly known today by the name that UMC and other cartridge makers gave it, the .30-30.

A terrific find and great save of a proud old hunting rifle.

Grouse

I have a model 94 from 1946. My Dad bought it new when he was discharged from the military. Funny thing I never really noticed the 30 WCF on the barrel until you mentioned it but its there! I love that old gun and am not afraid to still use it. I have taken at least 4 deer with it. Sure is easy to carry compared to my modern scoped ought-six. Almost feels like a toy because its so small but it sure is nice laying across my lap in the stand. I just looked up the serial number but for several years they dont list them including 1946. It starts with 14 which is the range excluded from listing 1944-47.

Sweet, if only those old guns could talk!

The only problem with lever actions is they are grossly inaccurate, while shooting from the hip cowboy style!

suzuki wrote:

Funny thing I never really noticed the 30 WCF on the barrel until you mentioned it but its there!

It’s kind of an interesting part of firearms history. Many think of Remington as Winchester’s main competitor, but for a long time, thier biggest competition was Marlin. Especially in the lever action rifle space.

So Winchester, in 1894/95 comes out with the trade-named .30 Winchester Smokeless, the brass of which was headstamped .30 WCF.

Marlin must have very quickly realized that Winchester had hit a home run with the WCF because they started working on Marlin’s own version of the chambering for the Marlin Model 1893 just a few months after Wichester rolled out the WCF.

There was no way that Marlin was going to reference a Winchester trade name in their own rifles, they never did that and they weren’t about to start now. Marlin didn’t make ammo, so they went up the road to Union Metallic Cartridge company (UMC) and had UMC whip up Marlin’s own version of the .30 WCF. They named it using the old military convention of using the bullet diameter followed by the grains of powder.

But this got a little wierd. Since this all happened shortly after the “transitional period” from black powder to smokeless, I’m surprised the name didn’t backfire on Marlin / UMC. Because it takes fewer grains of smokeless powder compared to black powder, the .30-30 must have seemed relatively weak next to the old black powder designated loads like the .45-70, .45-90, etc. But apparently this didn’t slow things down a bit because whether you called it the .30 WCF or the .30-30, or the .30 Winchester Smokeless, it became one of the most successful cartridge offerings ever produced.

And it had an exceptionally long life compared to other transitional cartridges. It seemed like the road from black powder to smokeless was fraught with danger and so many of the chamberings that came out in this period were obsolete just a decade later.

We in the late 20th century were not able to replicate this feat until the short magnum craze in the last years of the century.

Grouse

If that gun could talk…. I bet it has some stories ! Now you get to make some more, have fun !!!

Re: the “if the gun could talk comments”…..

I made that exact comment when I was showing it to my dad. Me: “Boy, if that gun could talk”….
Dad: “It would probably start talking when a buck was approaching and scare it away…I don’t want a gun that talks….”

It made me laugh pretty good.

I enjoy just looking at old guns like wondering about where they were and what they shot. Every little ding and mark has a tale hidden.