I recently acquired a winchester that's been rebarrel to 458x2" at an auction for what seemed to be a pretty good deal. Nice looking wood, nice bluing etc... Problem is once I got home and took it out to shoot, I'm having problems where it's not keeping shells in the tube, essentially making it a 2 shot lever gun. Anyone have suggestions on a remedy?
I have no clue who did the work on it. It was an auction buy that I figured was well worth the gamble. I believe it's on a standard 94 action but I'm no winchester expert.
If I'm reading this right, it jambs up when you put more than one cartridge in the magazine? If so it sounds like they didn't modify the carrier for the shorter cartridge length. You may have to load them a bit longer to get it to work.
I’d suggest having a reputable gunsmith that works on leverguns diagnose and fix the feeding issues for you. I’d also supply the smith with some dummies loaded to the correct length for him to use for trialling the feeding.
I would hesitate to guess as to why you’re having this problem. I will say that your magazine spring under multiple cartridge loading tension and tapping off 458x2 rounds may be a problem. Full power loads and recoil in a little lever action repeater are notorious for loosening things quickly, especially the tube magazine and forend.
In many cases throughout several tube feed lever conversions to larger bores, the magazine and forend have been a real problem if not secured correctly under the conversion. A light carbine chambered for a powerhouse like the 458x2 will absorb 45-50 ft-lbs of recoil under heavy loads, that’s 375 H&H full power recoil. Even loaded light it will generate 35-40 ft-lbs. That is 250 grain 338 Win Mag territory.
Check for any magazine out of alignment issues or loosening throughout and see a gunsmith to go through the firearm for resolve. It would help to know if it was previously a std 30-30 that was converted or one of the Win Big Bore XTRs in 307 Win, 356 Win, 375 Win or 444 Marlin.
This is a good visual of how the 94 feeds from the tube. The cartridges are held by the lever, the carrier and the lever link at various times during the cycle. Depending on when during the cycle it's jamming is where the problem lies. I'm guessing the carrier isn't set up for the shorter COAL of the .458x2 vs the .30-30.
tmitch - that’s an excellent video of the working mechanism. Good find.
Without knowing more about the problem, I’m tempted to suggest it might be the tab at the end of the link is not the correct height or shape to retain the cartridge in the mag until the lever is closed. That also happens when the link is worn - it then needs to be built up (by weld metal) and filed to shape in order to work again.
I have tig welded that tip on a few post 64 94s it don't take much and file to shape .the old GS that I did it for said the post 94s were not heat treated as good, and the tig weld was harder and lasted longer then him brazing steal rod on it JFE is right if that is the prob.
It appears it's going to be related to that tab. As soon as the shell is pushed in and past it, they pop back into the carrier. To the welding shop she'll go. It's a fun little carbine but definitely a bit more to handle than the 30-30. Thanks to all the replies.
If while the lever is closed, cartridges are backing up beyond the loading gate so you can't load another behind it, that points to the ledge in the lever. The tab on the link only comes into play when the lever is open to hold the cartridges ahead out of the way as the carrier comes back down.