A few years ago I picked up a 357 mag, 1894 for a song in a shop. I figured it had to be a problem gun, sure enough!
It would run flawlessly with some 357 round nose rounds but anything with a flat tip bullet would hang up, well, I polished, I shaved, I sanded, I polished more! I added metal, I shimmed, and made micro adjustments here and there to the lifter. I adjusted (bent) the ejector to and fro. back and forth, up and down, in and out, shims, no shims, etc etc etc for 3 days, I must have assembled it at least 20 -25 times easily! Absolutely NO change in any way, no matter what combination of things I tried.
Finally I gave up and figured the lifter must just be worn out in some place that is just not ringing a bell with me, and i'm just not seeing something, SOOOO, I broke down and ordered a new lifter from Midway, dropped it in the gun, cycled it and UGH it jammed just like before! I played, I tinkered, I lubed and polished, no good I was at a loss to say the least, I mean out of any more thoughts on where to go from here! Anything with a flat tip hung up and that was it, no getting around it, slow cycling, fast cycling, and any speed in between just didn't matter. The gun extracted perfectly, ejected like a champ, just would not feed.
Well, I was cleaning up the bench to get a fresh start the next day and I noticed the bag the lifter came in and under the paper there was something else in there I hadn't noticed, it was a new ejector, I knew mine worked flawlessly so there was no point in placing the new one in, oh what have I got to lose at this point? why not! So I tore it down yet again , put the new ejector in, with the new lifter, reassembled it and put in some 357 SWC 358429 rounds, they cycled through that gun like greased lightning! I mean snot on a door knob SLICK!! I tried every variety of 38 and 357 rounds I had loaded, with a large variety of flat tip boolits, and still had the same flawless feeding! At this point I just had to know, so one last time I tore it down, put my original lifter back in with the new ejector and i'll be darned if it wasn't functioning flawlessly!!! I put the new lifter back in just because I had paid for it, and it sits there running flawlessly til this very day! No matter what I feed it, slides through beautifully! I would have bet anyone $1000 that the ejector was in NO WAY the problem, and I would have lost the bet!
Moral of the story, don't overlook that ejector if your 1894 isn't feeding well, and you just might not need to spend $70 on a lifter you do not need.
Safe and happy shooting!
MagLvr