Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Model 94, hard to pass up

Didn't need it, but it was to nice to pass up. 1950 Model 94, long wood forearm in 32 Win. Special. SN 169xxxx
Gun is very clean, wood looks great, no chips, cracks, or dings. Blueing is nice, very smooth action, shiny bore, only thing missing was front sight hood.
I though $500 was about right.
Love these old Winchesters of my youth.

Thats a little dandy, 24 hour member "Portsider" used the same rifle at the 24 hour boar hunt last spring, the factory loaded 170 gr Silvertips done a real bang-up job on his hog.

Gunner

Whoa! That is too nice to pass up.

Good snag. Local gun shop?

donsm70

Very nice shape! I'd be tempted myself, except for my aging eyes fighting with iron sights.

Beautiful!
One of my favorite Winchesters,a 32 Spl. with the longer forearm. Killed my first Buck with that same gun back in 1971.

Wow, that gun is in great shape.

Congrats. $500 seems like a great price.

Beautiful little lever !!!

Congrats on the scoop.

Beautiful!

I have a prewar 94 carbine, also in .32 Win Special, in equally nice condition.

Should have gone for over a grand, easy.

Should have gone for over a grand, easy. Why? I just got 550.

got a grand? I'll find one, two, or ten.

I'm not a collector and not a .32 Win Spl fan, but I'd have a hard time passing that up for $500.00. Congratulations on a nice find.

Very nice!

It's a crying shame that good solid iconic American firearms that for decades could be found in hardware or sporting goods stores, have become scarce and pricey collector items.

I passed on one like yours not too long ago, a Model 94 .30-30 made in 1956, for $350. At the time I figured I didn't need one.

I find your pics interesting because I have been trying to duplicate the traditional "look" of the wood when refinishing some later Winchester and Marlins, and have found a method that works pretty well.

Paul

Please share it. I have a century old 94 that has almost no original blue left, and the stock finish is pretty much gone. I'd like to refinish it.

It is a variation of the procedure described here by Sitka Deer several times. It is incredibly easy to do, at least compared to many traditional finishes. I didn't want a fine glossy filled finish like you might find on a high end gun with fancy wood. I was trying for the look of the wood on a garden variety Winchester or Marlin you'd find in a hardware or sporting goods store decades ago.

Strip the stock completely. I never completely trust my own efforts with store bought strippers, but I start there. Then I take the stock to a furniture restoring shop. You have to get all of the old finish out of the pores. Sand to your satisfaction, I stop at 320, maybe 400. Stain the stock with a good solvent based stain. I used a powder called Winred that I haven't been able to find recently, mixed with xylol. A substitute would be Pilkington's English Red, or maybe Winchester pre-64 if you don't want so much red tone. Then, I apply Herter's French Red paste, or whatever Brownell's now calls it. My can is about 40 years old. Let set for three days, then another coat of stain. Sand very lightly. I use an ultra fine steel wool substitute. Now comes Sitka Deer's thing with epoxy. The best have found is West Systems' 105 resin with 207 hardener. It's designed for laminating and finishing, almost clear, with a syrupy viscosity. I like it a lot. Per SD, heat the stock in the oven until it gets quite hot to the touch. Rub on/in a good coat of epoxy, let the stock cool down enough to suck the epoxy into the pores, then wipe off as much as you can with paper towels. When hard, I sand lightly and apply and wipe off a second coat, but don't warm the stock in the oven first, or maybe just a little. You don't want to compromise the epoxy. When that is hard, I rub on and wipe off two coats of Watco Natural oil. That's it. Combines the durability and sealing qualities of epoxy with the warmth and traditional look of oil. Actually, it doesn't look bad with just the epoxy.

The pic shows the buttstock with two coats of epoxy, and the forearm with two coats of oil drying.

And, yes, to acknowledge the obvious, there are a gazillion other ways to finish a stock, including possible variations on what I did.

Paul

Looks very, very nice.

Thanks, John.

To emphasize a couple of important points. I'm not trying to review all standard finishing steps. Also, since Hawkeye asked in the interest of his 100 year old M94, I'm not sure this finish would be the best or even appropriate for various reasons.

Any finish starts with careful wood preparation. All old finish and any soaked in oil must be removed. Note that Sitka Deer does not endorse the epoxy method for previously finished stocks, I assume because of the difficulty of getting the wood absolutely bare. Careful sanding is absolutely essential for good results. There is no way to fix a poor sanding job.

The resulting color will be influenced by the color of the wood itself. Stain is particularly tricky. If possible, test it on the inside of the barrel channel, where it won't show.

Paul