REVIEW: Winchester 94 30-30 16" Compact

Grapeshot

New member
Well, after looking everywhere for a review of one of these and not finding it, I decided to take the plunge and find out for myself what these are like. I wanted a short, light carbine, powerful enough for deer but also usable in a rural defensive situation. I chose the 30-30 since it has more range than a .44.

In short, I'm very impressed with my new "Cowboy Assault Rifle", despite a few nagging concerns.

I bought Winchester's el-cheapo Ranger Compact model, notable for its plain hardwood stock. I expected a lot worse when I opened the box.

The gun looks quite nice, having a non-shiny "waxed" look to its dark hardwood stock. Metal work and bluing were excellent, just what you'd expect for Winchester. Weight was surprising, not feeling as light as 5 7/8 pounds should. Then I remembered how COMPACT the little gun is, a lot of steel in that small package.

The gun fit me well, having a 1' shorter stock (I'm 5'7") with a nice rubber but pad. I could lever it with the gun still at my shoulder.

Trigger pull seems to be about 4-6 pounds, but with a very crisp let-off which makes it sweeter than I expected, about the same as my Browning BLR.

Levering is smooth (for a 94) except that every 20th time or so when the lever is extended, I start to pull back on it but it won't go, as if it's jammed. This occurs with and without ammo in the gun. Trying to extend it again before pulling it back solves the problem, but I am bothered by this. Additionally, on several occasions the lifter would neglect to pick up a cartridge and unbeknownst to me nothing would be loaded into the chamber. Could these problems be me not extending the lever hard or far enough ("short-stroking" it), or does the gun need servicing? This remains to be seen.

Since I have to scope all of my rifles due to poor vision, I threw a cheap Tasco 3-9 on it and began firing with my handloads using Sierra 150 gn flat nose bullets. Oddly, I couldn't get the dies adjusted so that the reloads would slip in and out of the gun's chamber; instead, they would get stuck in there during the last 1/8 inch of insertion. When I realized that the gun would cylcle them anyway, I went ahead with accuracy testing, knowing that the gun's sometimes dicey feeding could be my fault.

Recoil was not horrible as some would lead you to believe. My shoulder never hurt in 50 rounds of testing/sighting in, though you always felt that any more recoil and it would start to hurt. It didn't come back into my shoulder so much as it jumped up a little. Muzzle blast was more like a loud, throaty roar than an ear-splitting crack like my Mini 14 used to make, thanks to the relatively low velocity bullet.

Accuracy was surprising. At about 75-80 yards, my worst 3-shot groups were around 2 inches. Most groups however were around 1 to 1 1/4 inches, with several 1/2 inch groups. That's right, 1/2 inch groups. To check myself, I fired 3 Winchester 170 gr. Silvertips, which also went into 1/2 inches. And I think the gun could do better, or at least could be more consistent, since the nicest thing my rest could be called would be "makeshift".

A skeptic, I did not do any "breaking in" of my barrel, either. And that barrel sure does get surprisingly hot, though it didn't seem to have any effect whatsoever on the groups; if anything, they got better.

I will do more testing of this gun when the euphoria wears off. I nearly bought a Marlin 44 mag instead, but I had had one several years ago and the best it would do was 4-5 inches at 100 yds. Whew, did I make the right decision this time!

Final thoughts - if I can figure out the dicey action, I think this gun will be perfect for me, being accurate and mild in manners. Also, reloading that tube magazine kind of sucks because you can't insert each round fully or else the next round won't go in at all. So your rounds just kind of hang half-assed out of the hole until you press the next one in. My problem was that I ALWAYS seemed to accidentally shove the 3rd or 4th in TOO FAR, effectively making it a 3-shot magazine. This is a real flaw with the design.

Bottom line - I could hardly be more satisfied. The Winchester impressed me, being accurate and of excellent quality. The fact that it wasn't a Marlin didn't seem to bother it or me at all. And it was downright fun to fool with, unlike any assault rifle I've ever owned. I will try to work out the bugs and may write more on my experiments with it if anyone's interested.
 
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