New Winchester 94s?

M

Model12Win

Moderator
Gang I see Miroku of Japan is now making the 1894 Winchester .30-30 rifle.

How are they, gang? Are they better in quality than the current Marlin 336s?

The Winchester are going for about $950 which isn't so cheap, but if they are good I'll get that. I am hearing some bad things about current Marlins.

This will be as a desert defense and recreational truck gun when I'm out in the Mojave wasteland. Seems a good .30-30, or "Brooklyn Assault Rifle", would be right up my alley.

Thoughts?
 
A few of my thoughts on the Miroku Winchester 1894s:
* Metal finish is flawless, absolutely beautiful, glossy, with no scratches or blemishes. They are a world apart from the old New Haven 94s of the 1970s-1990s.
* The wood is very nice, clear-grained and often figured black walnut, much nicer than anything from New Haven except maybe some presentation rifles.
* The checkering is beautiful, as you would expect from the folks that do all the Browning guns.
* Fit and finish is very good. The forend fits the barrel without a sliver of a gap between the wood and the barrel or the butt stock and the tang.
* The action is pretty smooth right out of the box. Don't get me wrong, it can use a good slicking up, but nothing like the New Haven Winchesters that made you wrestle with the lever to get a round in the chamber.
* The trigger is pretty good, just not great. It's still the same trigger design . . .

Now the bad-
* The rebounding hammer makes the gun go CLUNK when you dry fire or drop the hammer. Hate it.
* I never liked the Angle Eject receiver. Still don't.
* The safety on the tang is like a pimple on a prom queen, it stands out and is ugly. And since I own a few very nice late 19th- early 20th Century Winchester 1894s, it just looks wrong.

Having said all that, if you want a lever gun, they are nice. And the price isn't terrible.
 
I'll take a tang safety over that abominable crossbolt safety unaffectionately known by my brothers and I as "the wart" found on New Have rifles circa mid 80s to early 2000s. I have a tang safety New Haven 94 Trapper and while I admit I prefer the original setup, I don't find the tang safety all that troubling. I just leave the safety off and the hammer down when sitting in the woods with it. The rebounding hammer is well clear of the firing pin in the uncocked position

Now, to buy a beautiful new 94 and use it as a truck gun??? Yikes!!!

Current lever rifles in order of my preference, Winchester, Henry, Winchester, Winchester, Winchester...
 
Don't let me talk you out of a new gun, especially Miroku "Winchester". I second all of Scorch's comments, they're wonderful, with a few caveats that he already mentioned.

However, for the money, and for your stated purpose, I think you can do better.
Reports on the new Marlins are getting better, and you can get your choice of 30-30 (336) or 44 mag (in the 1894) for around $500. That leaves plenty for plenty of ammo and an action job if you need it.

Another alternative, not that you asked :) is to scour used racks and pawn shops for an older Winchester or a JM Marlin (these are getting overrated imho) with a poor finish. Spend $3-500 on it up front and then send it to a hard chrome outfit for a refinish. You still come in well under $950 and you've got an ultra durable hard use lever gun rather than a highly finished one that you may be hesitant to use for your intended purpose.
 
Look at Simpson LTD gunshop online, Google it. They have a pretty wide selection of firearms to include everything from old/antique Winchester's, to post-64 more affordable specimens. Don't discount m94s from the late 70s and newer. I have a m94 Big Bore 375 made in 1978 and it is no ugly duckling by any stretch. Pre-64 or better yet pre-war 94s absolutely have that "something about them" for sure and my goal is to add at least one to my cabinet. But you can get a darn nice 94 made after 1964 for half the cost of a new Miroku or pre-war specimen and have a darn good shooter that you won't lose sleep over getting a couple bumps and bruises on.
 
I'd rather have my beat up old 79 model Winchester than a fancy dan with a lawyer safety and angle eject.
 
I don't know where I's would buy a currently made Win or Marlin lever anymore. There just so:~~ not appealing.

Not for me. But maybe for this OP a Rossi lever may tweak one's interest?

If Henry is all about originality?
Being a real early wildcat cartridge the 35-30/30 would be a dandy to bring to the marketplace. I'd buy two if they did. Excellent behind the seat pick-up guns. One for me and the other for Sundays.
 
Back in early early 2012, I was considering the same thing. I went to a gunstore near me that loves leverguns and got to finger a new Winchester '94. To be honest, the new Winchester '94s still have that floppy, sloppy action and trigger that they use to back when I had my first one in 1959. I'm not a fan of that so I decided to look at other options.

As the Remlins of the time were terrible, I looked elsewhere and soon found myself looking over a Mossberg 464. I liked the walnut stocked version with the pistol grip and was surprised at how crisp the action was, especially for a brand new rifle. The trigger wasn't bad either for a levergun and I liked how it shouldered. It came with a Marbles semi buckhorn rear sight and Marbles brass bead front sight, very nice sights for factory supplied. The carbine was produced after Mossberg corrected their early extractor issues and so I decided to give it a shot and brought it home.

I spent an hour or so watching TV, cycling the action and holding the hammer and pulling the trigger to loosen it up and smooth it out. Then I cleaned and oiled it thoroughly. The action is now surprisingly smooth for a 30-30 levergun and the trigger is smoother too. Currently I have just north of 600rds through it and I'm really pretty impressed with it's performance. It's more accurate at 200yds than my old 30-30, however, to be fair I'm handloading now whereas before I only used 170grn Peters Blue Box High Velocity ammo I bought from the local hardware store.

While I don't use a 30-30 for hunting here in the west where longer ranges and open grasslands are more common, I got my 30-30 for nostalgia and the fact that every good collection has to have a 'thudy-thudy' lever. It makes an inexpensive and fun plinking gun, especially when I load up some reduced power loads using X-Treme's 150grn plated bullets and some left over W760 I have. With those, the recoil is so tame that even my 5'0" wife likes shooting it.

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Personally, unconventional safety locations and different ejection configurations don't turn me off as much as it seems to do others (and I'm pretty conservative when it comes to firearm appearance and function), but I will say that Miroku, to my knowledge and in my experience, has never made any gun that wasn't well-made and finely finished.
 
How are they, gang? Are they better in quality than the current Marlin 336s?
Click to expand...

There's no comparison between Remlins and Miroku 94s. The Mirokus are vastly better made. They should be considering how much more they cost.
 
Ah... I see.

So the new 94s are are lawyered up with safety buttons and such?
Click to expand...

NOT TRUE! Dont believe everything posted on this forum. I dont blame you, I read the prior posts.

Go see for your self.

http://www.winchesterguns.com/products/rifles/model-94/model-94-current-products.html

The price has gone up since the company left New Haven but so has the quality. The opposite is true for marlin.

Things have changed. It is a real product that will evolve over time. Anyone into nostalgia, should man up and learn how to shop the used gun market. there are no shortage of 94 top eject guns with 3(?) million sold. The push button on the side has been replaced with a tang safety. I prefer that location for ergonomic reason not as a fashion statement. Well both, but looks is secondary. That safety messes up the tang for a vernier sight, but the receiver is more practical a location. The 94 is angle eject just like has been the past 30 years. People like scopes, dont blame Winchester. At the time, I am sure competition with marlin was a real issue.

Now, if it was up to me, I would try and sell a top eject no (external) safety model 94. The current 94 remains lighter and faster than any comparable caliber lever available today. That is a carbine, without a scope. I mean significantly lighter.
 
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I agree, not likely. If you want a 94 to actually hunt and have the power and range of 30/30 there is no better lever available. By better, I mean light weight and fast handling. With a no scope, assumption.

Same for the 92 in a 44mag class ctg. Amazing when you thing about how far back these go and what is new today. Same disclaimer on the scope. I suggest a 77/44 for a scope 44. They are back.
 
My Winchester has both the AE and the tang safety and the performance has been flawless. It is not a Moroku.
 
500 cash recently carried a unfired new in the box new XTR angle eject 30 30 out the door for me. it was the 1894 to 1994 marked receiver.
...cant see iron sights anymore so a 1 to 3 weaver scope fits good. and it matches the 375 win XTR gun well.
... I am in denial. being a new haven born boy I like my Marlins or Winchesters to come from there. with the internet, finding a unfired or like new older gun for half the out of town made guns is not that hard. bob
 
There are so many millions of lever-action 30-30's out there, you can generally find one that suits your taste at a reasonable price. Some folks simply must have brand new and nothing else will do. But the Winchester 94 carbines that have the features that I want were made from about 1937 to 1948, which includes the so-called war-time carbines. For a rifle version, I like them older, yet, with the solid-frame version of the model 55 being just about ideal. And I prefer the appearance of a well-worn but not beaten specimen over the like-new specimens. I like the workmanship that Miroku puts out; but I do think they ought to make their Winchesters in the USA.
Here's an observation: The Winchester model 94 is among the most abidextrous rifles ever made, but the later, angle-eject versions seem less so. What say ye, south-paws?
 
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