winchester 94 loading gate problem

J

jambrdly

New member
Hello:

I just bought a 2nd hand 94 in 30-30. All seemed well when I was checking it out at the gun show but now I find that it will only let me load one cartridge at a time in the magazine. After I load that one cartridge, the loading gate simply will not yield to a second cartridge!

It cycles cartridges through the action, no problem, so I am at a loss as to what the problem could be. Any ideas?

Thanks

JCB
 
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Most likely, the back of the loading gate's leading edge is too sharp (IOW, no bevel there) to allow it to cam the last cartridge in the magazine tube a bit deeper into the tube when it's pushed in by the nose of the bullet of the new cartridge being loaded.

The cure is usually to use a round file and/or stone (aka: rattail file) on that inside leading edge to chamfer it a bit to remove any sharp edge there.

That can be done either via removing the bbl bands, forend wood & magaxine tube/spring/follower/etc & working through the magazine throat hole in the receiver's forward wall; or disassembling the action (dropping the lever/lower link, etc - and remove the loading gate to work on it outside the rifle.


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I'd take it out of the rifle to work on it. The answer above is correct, the rib on the back of the gate is burred and needs to be cleaned up, the back and edges smoothed out.

Care must be taken to get the screw in straight when reassembling, it's easy to get it cross threaded and damage either the screw or gate, or both. If the front of the gate is allowed to be out of the hole just slightly when barely starting the screw, once it's in and cleanly cutting threads, wiggle it around and get the front in the hole behond the opening before snuggling up the screw.

Soneone will likely be along and say its normal, that if you just don't push each round in all the way, you can load more. Yes, that works, but when properly fitted up, the gate should operate slickly and smoothly to load more rounds. My older guns do so, and ones I've smoothed up also are simple load more into without drama. There's no good reason to put up with the gate not operating well.
 
I have an older,(1958 rifle) that will not hold the loaded round in the magazine. It slides back under the loading gate. After doing this you cannot load another round. I could probably get it fixed, but I've learned to not push the loaded round all of the way in. I can fully load my magazine, by leaving the previous cartridge partially on the loading gate. As the last round is fully loaded it slides under the gate. Once I do this it is impossible to top off the magazine.

A minor quirk I've learned to live with that could be fixed. I've just learned to use it as is. Sounds like you might have the same problem. If so you can get around it as I have until you get around to getting it fixed.
 
I have an older,(1958 rifle) that will not hold the loaded round in the magazine. It slides back under the loading gate. After doing this you cannot load another round. I could probably get it fixed, but I've learned to not push the loaded round all of the way in. I can fully load my magazine, by leaving the previous cartridge partially on the loading gate. As the last round is fully loaded it slides under the gate. Once I do this it is impossible to top off the magazine....
Click to expand...

Thats normal, the cartridge rests against the front of the lever when the action is closed, and moves back when the lever moves so it can be raised by the carrier (lifter). The back of the loading gate has an angled rib that cams the cartridge forward enough to load another one. Thats what the above posts addressed. It's the way the action is supposed to work, but as time went on, the fit and finish wasn't as nice as earlier rifles. Much is made of pre-64 guns, but the fit and finish had been slipping for some time before that.

The fix is very simple, and makes the guns a joy to use compared to the roughly operating ones. When properly functioning they work slick as can be to load more rounds.
 
I can push cartridges all the way in and load more but it is stiff to do so. I usually push the cartridges in with the next one and the last one with my pinky finger. Mine was made in 79 and the only real problem I've had with it is the cartridge stop wore down and if you didn't cycle it hard and fast one would pop under the carrier requiring the link to be dropped to clear it. A new link fixed that right up and now you can take all day to cycle another round in and it wont jam.
 
I think there is more to the problem with my rifle. The rim of the cartridge is all the way back near the back of the loading gate once the loading gate is allowed to close. There is simply no way you will open the gate enough to force the cartridge forward since the front of the loading gate is hitting almost 1/2 way between the rim and where the taper is on the cartridge.

Other than that it feeds and functions just fine. If it were a rifle I actually used a lot, or if it gets worse, I might attempt to get it fixed, but it works fine for now.
 
How can you tell how far back it sets?

When the action is closed the front edge of the lever holds the cartridge in place until the lever is opened. The rim is slightly behind the front edge normally, and the rib on the back of the gate cams the rim forward when another cartridge is pushed in. Any roughness or burr makes it difficult to push the gate in and move the cartridge forward.
 
If it was going to the back of the loading gate it would be under the lifter and would have to be partially disassembled to remove it. See my post about dropping the link.
 
`I took a closer look and it was not as bad as I had remembered. After re-reading your post, and taking a fresh look at my rifle, I now have a better understanding of the problem. I was working from (flawed) memory instead of getting the rifle out and looking at. For now, it is not a big enough problem to get fixed however.

Thanks JMR
 
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