Winchester 94AE 44 mag Trapper

[paul s]

Bought one of these the other day, nice looking rifle. Any body have experience with these? Do they handle cast boolets ok? Paul S

[Lonegun1894]

I have two of these, but mine are in .357 Mag and .45 Colt. They shoot well, and I have no cast boolit specific problems. My only issues are due to the 1894 action being too long for function to be as good as it is with my 1892 actions. Makes the guns somewhat picky on OAL and nose shape.

[30hrrtt]

I have the same one with the slower micro-groove barrel. It slugs for .431. I use both .431 or .432 with no difference in accuracy. I shot 240 xtp's when I first got it. It shot consistent 1 1/2" groups at 100 with the bushnell 1x4 circle turkey scope. With cast it's not quite there but is consistent 2". I would really like to try it with a better scope. It is my favorite deer rifle. I hunt woods and hills and never shot at a deer over 100 yards. With a heavy loaded Rcbs 240 gas checked boolit, it is point blank out to 150 yards. Did I say it's my favorite rifle?

[robg]

mines a 357 at the range on sunday shot a 15round group at 50meters 1.8" centre to centre. my94 is my favourite rifle.

[upnorthwis]

I had one in .357 that I used to shoot cowboy with. The problem was that the lifter would send the first shell completely out of the gun, leaving you short of bullets. Would have to carry extras in belt. Sent it back to factory and they couldn't fix it either. So I sold it.

[Shuz]

I own a Winchester Trapper 94AE in .44 magnum and I love it. It feeds many designs of .44 boolits very well and is not finicky to AOL like my Marlins were. I load 8.3g of Green Dot, 225g boolits and achieve fine accuracy. Velocity runs 1222 fps.

[725]

I've got one and it didn't shoot for beans. Rebarreled it because I love the gun and now it's a nail driver. Made sure not to have any dovetail cuts in the custom barrel (front sight is an applied ramp / no rear sight on the barrel - Lyman peep on the receiver). Just shot it yesterday with Hornady plastic tipped 225 gr's. over some H-110. Wow. What an accurate rifle.

[starnbar]

Get about 10 rounds of every type of boolit you want to shoot through it mine shoots the semi wadcutters as fast as you can cycle the action I let the grandkids shoot it with a 250 keith design and it hardly kicks at all. Good rifle and you won't be disappointed. Just try all the different designs to see which one works best for you.

[dead dog]

My pack rifle likes the Lee c429 swc and H-110 . I use hard ball alloy and 2500 lube . A peep sight and recoil pad helped a lot.

[jlchucker]

I had one of the angle eject 44 magnum trappers-the variant made just before they started with that ridiculous safety button. It was my truck gun for about 10 years, and I used it mostly for plinking at my club range. I had a Williams receiver sight on it and my best load was 20 grains of 2400, pushing a Lyman 429215 boolit cast 50-50 wheelweight/pure lead. I never seriously shot at targets for groups that I recall, but I'd pretty much plink every week at my club range, and was able to easily smash clay pigeon fragments that had landed on the 100 yard berm from the adjacent skeet field. Many people overlook the 429215 boolit, thinking they need something heavier. Heavier means more recoil, and may or may not mean better accuracy. I never did hunt with that little trapper--it had a lever that fit into an undersize link, and rattled when carried--too much for my tastes. For all round casual use, though, it was a great little gun.

[Greg S]

I just sold a 94AE in 45 Colt when I replaced it With an 1892. It was a fine gun and was factory throated (beveled the bottom half of the chamber entrance like a 1911) and ate 255 Keith nose style bullets with ease. I did have to adjust the right cartridge guide a smidge to get the lifter to rise alittle more. Congrats and enjoy.

[redgum]

My buddy has one in 44m and he just broke the cartridge lifter in it. I contacted a gunsmith who deals with cowboy shooting comp guns, and he has a 45 Colt and a 357m there, both with the same problem, and he says he cant find spare parts...... anybody have a clue where I might get a lifter for the 44m?

[Lloyd Smale]

one I had was a shooting machine with cast. Much better then any marlin ive owned in 44.

[dead dog]

Try Homestead gun parts for a milled lifter.

[fastdadio]

Quick question folks. You describe the model as '94ae' What does 'ae' stand for? I'm lurkin in here because I just inherited my dads 94 trappers. one in 30-30 and one in 45lc. Both mint with some fine quality custom checkering done. Can't wait to get them out there.

[OnHoPr]

AE = Angle Eject

[Shuz]

AE = Angle Eject

That is correct, and it is supposed to mean that you can mount a scope on the top of the receiver because the spent cartridges are flipped out the side. In actual practice, I have 2 ea AE Winchesters in .44 mag and they both occasionally have a spent case flip upwards, hitting the bottom of the scope and lying in the action. To sum up, AE does not mean you can mount a scope on top of your rifle and not have an "issue" on occasion. Perhaps if I mounted
the scope with taller rings, the issue would go away, but then I think it would look butt ugly. YMMV.

[glicerin]

Some 94AE in pistol calibers have a problem with cartridge stop. If you pause/hesitate with cycling or hold rifle horizontally while cycling; a cartridge can jump the stop, go under ctg lifter, jam the rifle and possibly break lifter! Our local gunsmith had a fix for my buddy's .44 mag, my .45 LC is still functioning as is with caution not to cycle as mentioned. Accuracy good with 454190.