Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Was the 30-30 Win ever used in combat ?

I was talking to my dad years ago, he was on a navy ship at the end of WW-II and went from island to island in the Pacific that we bypassed. His job was to go with a shore party and tell the japanese there that the war was over. He said that the carried lever action rifles. He discribed it and it sure sounded like a 95.

erich

The Winchester 94 .30-30 was the issue rifle for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Dept., for many, many years, up until fairly recently (25 years ago or so) when they switched to the Colt AR 15. I have seen racks of those 94s still in the LASD Armory ... just a'waitin', just in case. That said, however, they might have been phased out by now, as the last time I was in the LASD Armory was in 1997.

L.W.

Fairly recently I read that there are still a lot of '95's in Russian warehouses and they are for sale. However they are demanding a high price and nobody has stepped forward to invest in them. It might have been in American Rifleman.

Geronimo used a winchester in combat but not sure of caliber. Here is a staged photo with an empty rifle probably given to him by a US soldier just for the photo after his capture. wonder where that rifle went?

I've seen more than a couple of those Russian '95's and every one has been in rather good to great condition. They didn't prove to be a really good military weapon, but they were very popular with the troops. Perhaps that's why they were taken such good care of.

Trapdoor Springfield carbine?

That fellow looks like someone you really don't want to mess with...

It was used in open plane warfare before machine guns were attached to aircraft. They simply took pot shots at any nearby plane.

Yes it was .Every year thousands of them hit the woods for deer hunting

Geronimo was a Capitalist.He made lots of money selling photos of himself.He would do Tours off of Trains and at each stop cut buttons off his clothes and sell them.He would then sew new ones on between stops.He died a rich man!!!Gotta love an opportunist.

I've always been under the impression tht the majority of the order never made it to Russia. That particular shipment made it as far a Great Britain before the Czar abdicated...... I can't remember if I read that in the Madis book or where????
K

W. H. B. Smith's book "Small Arms of the World" (fifth edition, 1957, page 61) says of the Model 95 in combat "These Russian 1895's were used in both wars (WWI and WWII). Captured German intelligence bulletins reported them as used on all fronts to some degree; probably indicating pressing shortages of small arms at the time of their use, of course."

My father-in-law served in the Navy during WWII/Korea on various tenders as a machinist mate and said that they had Winchester 94s (30-30) on board. Before the war, they had bolt actions (couldn't remember what make/model) but they were swapped out and given to front line troops shortly after the WWII started. Most of his time was spent around South America and the Solomon Islands, so it wasn't exactly front line stuff. He remembered being asked to make replacement parts on more than one occasion.

There were some US marked Model 94s used by guards in WWII here in the US.

Harold Camping was my math instructor.

It would not surprise me at all, if the Russians don't have a bunch of those 1895 Winchesters in storage some place.

1894s were issued stateside to guards during WW 2, especially early in the war, when arms were scarce...

as far as the 1895 Win, more production was made for the Russians then there were ever civilian models made...