Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors 1894 Winchester, 38-55

Picked up this Winchester in 38-55 at last weeks gunshow. Have been looking for a Winchester or Marlin in 38-55 for awhile now . Found this one that has been bubba'd, but was looking for a shooter grade anyway.
What and why is this pin, rivet, whatever for ? Also wondering what the correct rear sight would be for this one ?
Good news it has a decent bore, and chambers and ejects fine. Date of MFG is 1898.
Also, rifle is mostly silver, is there anything I could use on the metal to give it a brown, patina look ?
Looking forward to firing it !

Fine looking rifle. I hope that you can get your questions answered and it shoots well.

Nice. Fitting you live in Winchester. I live not far away but have never been there to my recollection. There's one just like it I saw recently in my little burg.

Well... Definitely some sort of adaptation. Honest assessment, "bit crude". Sorry! Hope you can get rid of it in present receiver clutter format!
Below a pix of my left side Model 94 of 1937 vintage. Offered simply as exemplar. 'Appears' a pin and the location as perhaps a cartridge guide plate left affixing pin. Just a guess but you should have some expertise soon pending.

Suggest self-help of seeking Model 94 parts-diagram on Internet!
Good luck & best!
John

Is it a crude repair for a stripped out cartridge guide screw hole? What modifications are visible on the inside of the receiver?

I have a 1906 DOM 1894 rifle in 38-55. The worn bore slugged at 0.380". It shoots good with Vollmer 255 gr. JSP ordered in 0.380" diameter. For cast bullets, I use a Rimrock Bullets 245 gr. cast bullet sized at 0.382". Anything smaller keyholes badly.

Enjoy your new rifle.

I believe that is a repair to a stripped or drilled out carrier spring hole. That screw can be accessed through the loading gate hole after removing the gate. It can be difficult for an owner to remove and might have been drilled out. The screw in the photo appears larger than the original screw.

It's not uncommon for that part to wear out. A worn part will cause the carrier to stay down when working the lever.

If it's drilled out, it will need to be welded up, redrilled, and threaded.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Might just leave it alone and shoot it, or I do have some options on another stripped reciever.

Last year I picked up an old Winchester bullet mould for the 38-55. Probably contemporary with these old rifles more than likely.

Thats pretty cool ! Whereabouts are you located? You said fairly close.

I have the same rifle, but it is a 1906 believe. Mine has the original screw in the side plate.The rear sight appears to be a type that had a little slider in it that could be adjusted. Someone lost or removed it and filed down what was left. I put another buckhorn type on it. Front sight appears as your. It is in a dovetail, but locked down with a small screw. I replaced it with a globe type and put a tang mounted peep sight on it. That front dovetail is oversized so I had to epoxy the globe sight in place.

Same with bullet diameter. I use a .381 diameter powder coated cast 250 gr, that gives it a tad more.The bore is in poor shape, but Dyna Coating helped it quite a bit (Thanks MD for that advice) About a 3" group is the best it will do at 100 yards.

I use the shorter 2.080 brass, Starline. It will not cycle the Ballard type bullets with a shorter ogive but likes a longer taper on the ogive.

My load is 14.5 gr of 2400. The old Phil Sharps manual calls for keeping the pressure 25,00 or less for these older rifles.

One thing I had a problem with reloading using Lee dies was the expander stud was too short. It only expanded the case down about 1/4"and I needed about 1/2". It was also sized for the newer .375 bullets . Trying to seat a .381 bullet caused a significant bulge in the case neck and it was usually off center. These loads would not chamber. Better quality dies might not have these problems.

I made another expander plug that gave me the correct diameter for my bullets and increased the length it expanded the neck to.

Then I had to send the seating die back to Lee to have them open up the top diameter to clear the .381 bullets. I sent them the bullet I use and there was no charge.

With my rifle I have to be pretty snappy working the lever t keep it from jamming ( Probably form wear).

Thanks the guys on Marlin Owners 38- 55 Forun for helping me thru all those problems.

Lotsa info, thanks. Still need to buy a set of dies and some bullets. Have a box of Winchester 255 gr cartridges I will try, and about 80 Winchester cases.
A 3 inch group at 100 yds sounds great, I would be happy with that !!

Outside of Wallace

Ok, we visited Wallace a few months ago. Went to that trading post store . Interesting.

FWIW. If you buy Lee dies , they make a .379" diameter expander plug. Winchester brass has .010" neck wall thickness and one can have problems trying to chamber bullets larger than about .377" diameter.

Starline brass has .007" neck wall thickness and l can load a .381" bullet and still fit into the front end of the chamber which is about 0.395”. For .382" bullets I trim Starline brass to 2.040" and crimp the case mouth into the front edge of the forward lube groove. This load chambers freely.

Exactly why I bought Starline.