Winchester 94 will not feed cartridges from mag tube to chamber

U

ursavus.elemensis

New member
Hello from southcentral/southeastern PA. I picked up a really nice looking Winchester 94 .30 W.C.F. at a gun show in York last weekend. Serial number in the range of 1,500,XXX (made in 1949). Nice condition, with no obvious rust, dings, chips, etc. It looks to be in such great condition, that I thought it would operate nicely, too. I cleaned it and took it to a range today, and the rifle will not feed cartridges from the magazine tube into the chamber. When I open the lever mechanism, the cartridge comes into position to be loaded into the chamber, but then I can't close the lever and load the round. It seems to jam up and will not feed the cartridge into the chamber. I can get the cartridge out, and I can load an individual cartridge and fire the rifle. What's going on? Is this a common problem with these rifles? In other words, is this something a gunsmith can eaisly fix for me? The rifle is in such nice shape overall that I am really loving this rifle, but I need it to operate properly. What do I do next? I took it to a gun shop this afternoon, but they do not have a gunsmith at that store. They looked at it, but were not sure what to tell me. Another shop told me on the phone that it might be a problem involving the follower, and I know that somehow the "follower" is involved in moving the cartridge from the tube to be ready to be loaded, but I do not know anything else about the follower. Any advice or ideas? Please tell me that this rifle can be fixed...!
 
To check your follower and magazine spring there should be a small screw(flathead?) that holds the end cap on to the magazine tube beneath the barrel right below the front sight. The screw should be on the underside of the magazine tube if I remember correctly. Remove the screw but keep your face away in case the end cap is under pressure from the spring. Once its removed you should be able to remove the spring and follower from the tube. Inspect the spring for kinks or weak spots and clean both well. Try to use some kind of swab to clean the inside of the magazine tube also because that has probably never been cleaned and more than likely has gunk built up in it that can cause binding of the spring and follower. You may need to replace the spring and that is a simlpe operation itself. Cleaning the spring, follower, and magazine tube or possibly replacing the spring itself should help with your feeding problems. I also have a pre-64 model 94 and I was having a problem with the spring binding in the magazine tube and not pushing the rounds into the action. By removing the spring and follower like I said and cleaning and re-stretching the spring it fixed the problem and works like a charm. Congrats on your new purchase and hopefully you'll love it as much as I do mine. Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
If visually, the parts don't seem to be broken or bent when looking from the top of the receiver with the lever open, then i'd suspect that the spring on the inside of the receiver which positions the cartridge lifter, is probably broken or weak. If the lifter does not snap the front of the cartridge up to position it into the breech, then it will certainly jam, with the bolt hitting the side of the case instead of the shell base. If you can, also inspect the lifter to make sure that the leading fingers aren't bent or missing.
Pieces should be available on gun parts corp or even ebay..
If you need further help, pm me..
 
The cartridges go into the mag tube nicely. Then, when the lever was cycled (for lack of the proper terms, I call that "opening the lever and then closing the lever"), the cartridges will come out of the mag tube and onto the lifter. From there, I was having trouble. I could not "close" the lever because the cartridge appeared to somehow be jammed or blocked from being pushed into the chamber. But, I could finger load the chamber with one bullet a time, and fire. And, the spent case would be properly ejected. Without a cartridge in the rifle, the lifter seemed to be working OK, in other words it moves up and down.

I think we have figured out what is wrong, and maybe even fixed it, sort of. There are metal pieces along the walls of the receiver that have screws holding them in place. The screws go from the inside towards the outside, and you can see the ends of the screws coming out through holes in the outside of the receiver (the screws do not stick out, of course, but you can see where they end in the holes). Anyway, those metal pieces are along side (just outside) of the cartridge lifter. One of those pieces was loose and it apparently was interfering in the way the lifter positioned the cartridges to be pushed into the chamber. A buddy of mine looked at the rifle this AM and found this situation, and sort of tightened the screw, and we were then able to cycle cartridges through from the magazine to the chamber, and then out the top of the receiver with the subsequent cartridge going in nicely. Will try to take it to a range sometime either later this afternoon or next weekend. It probably needs a gunsmith with a right-angle screwdriver to get in there and really tighten the screw, because it's hard to get a screwdriver into position from the top of the receiver.
 
That is exactly the problem i had with mine several years ago. That rail screw is hard to get to. With mine, it would cycle new, and reloads of my brass, but wouldn't cycle scrounged brass until i found that culprit. You did good finding it that fast.
 
Those are cartridge guides, one left and one right.....and are different cutouts. They can cause havoc if not in position. I haven't had much opportunity to work on the pre 64s, but now i can understand why on the post 64s, those screws are on the outside of the receiver....
 
The guide rails were my first thought. They are critical to feeding, and they have to be positioned just right. They should never be removed for action cleaning & should not be messed with by the user. I'd suggest you get the Winchester to a competent gunsmith who knows how to set them up & tighten them in place, and that's no reflection on you. I wouldn't touch the rails on any of my 94s myself.
Good luck with your gun. I inherited a '51 that was my Grandpa's & value it highly.
Denis
 
I had 3 post 64 win 94s that guys had bought after market barrels in 38/55 from
Numerich Arms. They were having same trouble as OP. They didn't buy cartridge
guides for 38/55. I knew immediately what the problem was because I put several of these together myself. The only time I had run into this before was a
Pre 64 that a guy had took completely apart and didn't get one guide screw back
in tight. It took me a little time to figure out because gun would cycle sometime
and jam others. I never take guides out of 94s unless there is reason to. On post 64s it's not a big deal but still unnessary for cleaning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top