Cleaning up and repairing an old Winchester Model of 1894

 My friend brought me a couple of guns to look at, he said this one hadn't been shot in years and he wanted me to look it over before shooting it.

As soon as I had it out of the case I knew what it was.....an American classic.

An older Winchester model 94 in 30-30 with the crescent butt plate and an octagon barrel.

According to most experts (factory records for Winchesters no longer exist) this gun was made in 1910

Anyway, the gun had not been cleaned nor shot in a long time and he asked me to look it over. The action was very tight, which I thought was just the result of gummed up oil, dust and contaminants making the action sticky.

It also had some rust in spots and needed a good overall cleaning, the fuzz is from the old gun case it was in

Parts are now clean

Here is what the original 1910 finish under the forearm cap looks like

When I went to reassemble, I found why the one carrier pivot screw was buggered up, the unthreaded portion would not fit the hole and was just pushing on the carrier, making it not want to move. That same screw's head was also buggered from someone trying to force it in.

Luckily Homestead Parts had what we needed, so I ordered up two new screws (might as well replace both of them).

I also found out the plug screw that keeps the lever retaining pin in place (Finger Lever Pin Stop Screw) was not the correct screw, it was too small, it was basically just sitting in the slot, not threaded in.

So I ordered one of those screws as well

I finished the assembly, added a few drops of oil in the critical places and the gun functions smoothly as a vintage Winchester lever action should.

Once assembled and tested I cleaned up the small rust spots with some gun oil and 0000 steel wool.

I then applied some Rennaissance Micro-Crystaline Wax