1897 Winchester 94 ...

B

BillS.

Inactive
Hi gents,

This is my first post, and I'm relatively new to the gun world. I started actively shooting only 6 months ago and have made very few purchases of firearms. The one I absolutely had to purchase was the following Winchester Model 1894. I live in north western New Mexico (a border town to the Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni reservations), and have a good friend who's lived here for 50+ years. When I started to get into shooting he was very helpful, and when I mentioned Winchester 94s he asked me to stop by his shop. He had three; the one I purchased (shown below), a very nice 1940s example, and a post '64 model. When asked if he'd be interested in selling the early example, he told me to do some research and then come on back. I spent several hours on the internet over the weekend and decided it was a "must have". Returning, he was happy to hear of all the info I uncovered and then let me set the price.

The serial number (and a call to Winchester to confirm) dates this firearm to the year 1897. It's a carbine, with octagon barrel (apparently a $1.50 option at the time), nickle steel barrel, and chambered for the newly released 30 WCF cartridge (Winchester Center Fire - later to be renamed: 30-30). The 1894 was Winchester's first use of nickle steel, which was said to be used in the US Army's Krags (The Krags were also smokeless small bores, but not on the market). I sure wish this old gun could talk, as it looks to have led an interesting life. I'll certainly enjoy owning a small piece of local history.



If I'm measuring the barrel correctly, it's a 16 inch carbine:











...to be continued
 
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The rear leaf sight is pinned, enabling it to be laid flat:





The hammer is checkered, but unlike the later models (or those I've seen at least) the checkering is heart-shaped of sorts.



The steel butt plate is crescent shaped and screwed to the top of the stock:





...to be continued.
 
The rifling looks good as well:



Last, but not least, is the serial number from which the dating was achieved:



I've already ordered the factory letter from The Buffalo Bill Historic Society; which will confirm how (configuration, etc) and when it left the factory. I hope to be able to track down a bit more info and would be happy to share it here, should it be of interest.

Thanks and kind regards, BillS.
 
It is really hard to beat the nostalgia of an old Winchester and you have a great looking one. Old lever guns are among my favorites. Hope you enjoy it for years to come.
 
From the butt plate style and fore end cap I'd guess what you have is a rifle, a short rifle but a rifle none the less.
 
Oh yeah and the rear sight looks like it has two setting allowing the short range sight to replace the long range sight when folded up or down. The 16" or less barrels were called trapper models but don't know if the factory called them that. If I lived in your area around ship rock, monument valley, had towns with names like rattle snake and owned a sweet looking shooter like that I'd feel pretty lucky. The first thing I'd do is turn you Winchester into a cast bullet gun and never look back.
 
Salvadore is correct, carbines, in Winchesters old terminology, had barrel bands around the fore end and magazine tube/barrel, rifles had a capped fore end and a magazine ring mounted under the barrel.

From the looks of it, I believe you will find your gun has had the barrel shortened. Winchester didn't mount the magazine ring that close to the muzzle on short rifles (they were normally about 3 1/4 or 3 1/2" from the muzzle, no matter the barrel length), and generally used a shorter fore end on shorter rifles. It's an interesting old gun, but it unfortunately isn't in original configuration.

The rear sight is what was called an express sight, and should have 3 leafs, not just two. The leafs are somewhat fragile and tend to get broken. It's pretty common to see them with a broken leaf, or more accurately, half a leaf broken off. It looks like yours has had the middle leaf filed off. The lowest was for 50 yards, the middle for 100, and the last for 200. They were marked 50, 1 and 2 respectively.

Back in earlier years, Winchester didnt use the term "trapper" on short guns, that was a term that came about later from collectors. There were other terms, "pony carbine" and "baby carbine", but I believe Winchester just termed them "special order short carbine". They made special order short rifles also.

If you can lay hands on a copy of "The Winchester Book" by Madis, it has scads of interesting information on every model of Winchester.

I just checked the better number info, I'd guess your gun will show as being made in 1901. There was more research into Winchester numbers in recent years, the older info can be off by up to 4 years.

Here is some of the info about it, and listing of numbers.

http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29545

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Malumute is correct - the barrel's been shortened.

Short Rifle models were made with both short & long forends, and both the Standard & Short Rifle versions with the long forend should have the rear sight dovetail center 5" from the receiver & the center of the front sight dovetail 1" from the muzzle - but the "tell" is the magazine hanger that close to the muzzle.

Your hammer's checkering pattern is a first version (of three), consistant with the 2nd model receiver (with the guide screw heads on the inside ILO the outside of the receiver.


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