Winchester 94
 

Dear Friends:

Does anyone know when Winchester started using decent
parts in the model 94 Winchester? I was told that the early
post 94s were cheaply made and not necessarily accurate,
but they started producing better quality rifles at some
point.

Thanks,
Boltaction

After 1972 they started putting forged parts back into them, specifically the followers. From '64 til '72 they sounded like BB guns when you worked the action.

Thanks Wingbone.

Have another question. A couple of friends have Winchester 94s. One was made in 1964 and his other was made in 1966. Both of them have well-defined very sharp "thick" rifling in the barrels. The other friend has one made in 1970. It has a shiny bore but the rifling is not as "thick" and well defined. Did Winchester redesign
the barrels or do something differently after the 60's. Does sharper rifling affect accuracy?

Thanks for your patience and answers,
Boltaction

Don't know about the barrel manufacture. I think the heavier rifling would speak more to barrel longevity than accuracy. Although I've never heard of someone wearing out a 30-30 barrel. Marlin has been using "microgroove" rifling on their 336 models for many years and I've never heard of accuracy problems associated with that.

On rifles that old, I'd bet the difference had more to do with the extent of use than the original manufacturing quality... Just my opinion...