Hello Campfire-

I recently acquired an old 30-30 that has seen better days. Any advice where to start? Is it worth trying to save it myself? Get professional help?

Thoughts on value in current condition (if any!)?

Is the bore good?

A friend of mine had an old Marlin given to him that had been left in a basement. The outside was horrible looking, but it had a good bore. So, he removes the rust and coats it with spray-on truck bed lining.

It actually looks good.

Oil and 0000 steel wool will do wonders for it. Hope it shoots well.

What are you planning to do with it? I bought this one to use as my truck gun. The outside had seen its better days (although yours is pretty rough) but the bore is shiny as a new dime. Just use a bit of steel wool, throw some oil on the stock, put a Williams Firesight on the front and a FP on the back, and you're in business.

Send me your address and I'll send you $75 for it. That should take all your worry away. powdr

You need to let a smith disassemble, clean and inspect before you try to run a round through that thing.

The outside can be fixed, it's the inside that would have me worried.

Chances are the magazine tube is full of crap, the spring is toast and there is the possibility of a rusted, protruding firing pin sending one down range as soon as you lever it...or it becomes stuck after firing the first shot and you get a surprise bang levering it for a 2nd...

An out of battery ignition isn't something you want to experience with a gun in that condition...Especially with a lever gun that has top ejection - Good bye nose and eye.

If you want to keep the rifle, spend the coin to have a smith give it a good going over.

Money well spent.

Looks fine to me.

Shoot it and see how it does. Even if the bore is rough, it may shoot just fine.

That's good advice, especially the possibility of a protruding firing pin. Always a surprise, never fun.

Things must be pretty tough in Yellowknife. lol you can probably fix it but you need to study on how to blue rifles and polish bores. Rework the stain and clear coat on the wood. Your on the right site for that.

Oil it up. Put a receiver sight on it. And throw it under the seat of your truck.

I have found using steel wool and hoppes does a good job removing rust

Lots of steel wool and elbow grease. If the bore is shot have JES Reboring open it up to 35 Maine Guide (35/30-30) or 38-55. Definitely strip the action and clean and inspect all the parts or have it done. Replace the mag spring. It's likely toast like one of the preceding posters stated. After all that go shoot some stuff with it. Everybody needs a good beater gun that your not afraid to use in any weather.

Mart

It would be way overboard expense wise, but after all the cleaning and replacing the needed parts, you could have the Birdsong company coat it with their Black-T...

Well fine steel wool and hoppe's # 9 will take most of it off, provided its not a lot of pitting damage - Check the bore first. It would be best to have a gunsmith buff it out for you, there might be a few parts that will need to be replaces. I

Clean it, shoot it, and next winter refinish it. I'd buy a gunkote kit for the metal, and refinish the stock and call it good to go.

I'd send end it to one of these internet genies who can magically proclaim it's safe based on 4 pics and let them shoot it.

I doubt anyone who would say this has much experience with lever guns or even understands what happens when an OBD occurs with one of these rifles.

Getting part of your face blown off with a $50 dollar gun takes the fun out of shooting.

^^^^^^^
What he said.

So you can magically decide it's unsafe from 4 pics? Did you notice how the pic with the lever partially open shows the internals to be devoid of rust?

I've seen much, much worse lever action rifles that were perfectly functional, and used often.

And if in doubt you can strap it to a tire and test fire it with a long string.


I would tend to strip it down, linseed the wood and run over the metal work with some breakfree and some used bore-brushes (bronze), then reassemble, test and use.

I did not read that in his reply, once you get past the abrasiveness the man has a very good point regarding keeping ones face intact.

I was giving the OP the benefit of the doubt that he would do a function test, make sure the barrel isn't full of dead bees, and give the internals at least a rudimentary spray down and scrub before he goes to blasting stuff.

PG, you know better than that man. A stuck firing pin in one of those turns into a bomb.

You can't see the bolt or much of the internals from those pics, chances are it's fine, but that's quite a chance to take.

I've seen OBD fling hammers off, blow the hammer spring through wrist of stock, not to mention the parade of brass shards and gas that pours out of the top.

Likely to break the digits in the lever as well.

I might be overly cautious, but if I can keep someone from getting hurt its worth it.

Thanks for all the tips, everyone - safety and otherwise. I'm pretty fond of my face and will try to not blow it off!

I have a 30-06 that's does all my hunting duty, so this isn't a necessary rifle that will see much action. I'm not even sure there is a gunsmith in town, or else I would have started there.

I'll also do a bore and mag check, and post some more pics.

If that was my gun I would disassemble it and soak the parts in a bucket of diesel fuel for a few days.
Then dry, reassemble and test fire.
If everything worked ok and it shot well, I.E. the bore was good etc...
I would disassemble again, bead blast and Cerakote the metal, refinish the stock and it should be good to go for at least a 100yrs.

I doubt there is anything seriously wrong with that rifle. Honestly, I've seen guys carrying and using 30-30s that looked worse than that. Their rifles lived under truck seats or on tractors in Arkansas and had more rust on them than that after the first summer.

What they both said. In spades.
B.I.F.

That is one rough looking rifle. Frankly, unless there is something special about that particular rifle, it needs more work than I'd be willing to put into it if paying a 'smith to do the work. I know prices have gone up but I paid $250 for a very nice Marlin 336CS in 2005 and I still see an occasional bargain.

When was the rifle made? Any historical or sentimental value?

I'd probably tear it down and clean that rifle up as best I could, then replace the springs and maybe the firing pin. If the bore is bad I might get it rebored to .35 as someone else suggested.

Not much sentimentality to the rifle. But it was free, so figured I could give it a good home. It was previously sitting outside in a shed for years.

I took some more pics last night, best I could, of the bore and some other parts. From tracking down the serial, it's a 1966. Serial starts with 29xxxxx.

Most of that fuzz in the bore is just dust I think, not rust. I haven't even ran a cleaning rod through the gun yet.

A 1966 Win 94 in good shape does not have very much value. Keeping that in mind, if it checks out mechanically and the bore is ok, consider using 0000 steel wool and oil to clean the rust off. Then degrease the metal and spray the metal with black Krylon and you will have a perfect "beater" rifle.

drover

I have made guns that looked worse than that, run and shoot fine with some elbow grease properly applied. If you are not too excited about the gun anyways, I will pay you a fair price for or trade you a good working gun for it then and use this one to build my long desired 30/30AI. This rifle is just the ticket to be the donor for a project like that.

7-30 Waters

Kroil and OOOO steel wool are your friends.

I'd not want to put money into a 1966 '94 as a donor for a project. They were some of the poorest quality '94's ever produced. Stamped sheet steel carriers known for mis feeding. Walnut stained hardwood furniture. Cast receivers that required plating because they won't take conventional hot salts bluing.

I'm in Canada, so that kills any transactions unless you are up here too. Thanks for all the offers though.

Sounds like a consensus is forming around dis-assembly to check some potential faulty parts, steel wool and elbow grease.

I had a member offer to send me some schematics to help. Once those arrive, or I find some online, I'll start tinkering. Thanks, everyone.

Easy to test. Run some primed brass through the rifle. If an OBD occurs, it will occur in a safe manner.

The best post was the fellow who said soak it in diesel (after removing the wood).
For several weeks over very low heat outside.

A 66' 94 is not worth spending much on. Once you get it functioning with dummy rounds, replace the magazine spring, polish the inside of the magazine tube, magazine follower and inside of chamber. Have the headspace checked, if okay, then buy a NECO kit and firelap the barrel. Then fire 20 factory 170 loads. (tie the rifle to a tire)

I would not waste a dime on the outside unless you have an old can of spar varnish or oil based paint around.

Way too much work for a rifle that was never much to start with but projects are always fun.

Free is good !