converting a win 94 into a single shot.

[olafhardt]

I have a hankering for a light weight centerfire single shot. It appears to me that I could take a pre angle eject 70's or 80's model 94 Winchester take out the carrier, magazine tube and front barrel band and have a lightweight 30-30 single shot. Has any body done anything similar. I don't really have a good reason to do this. I don't plan to do any thing irreversible to the gun.

[triggerhappy243]

Why not just get one of those handi-rifles. They are cheap.... Supposed to be accurate.

[Hickok]

I guess it could be done, give it a try. Strip it down little by little and see if it will function.

With a T/C Contender frame with a 30/30 barrel and iron sights, (or caliber of your choice), and you have a really light, portable single shot.

[GoodOlBoy]

You going to do what to a pre-80s model 94 in 30-30? :shock:

I think..... I think I need to go lay back down.... next you and mr ackley will be thinkin' you can improve somethin' that don't need improvin'

GoodOlBoy

[Tatume]

Single loading the 94 without the guts will be clumsy. You might be happier with a button magazine conversion. You can then decide whether or not you want it to be a single shot or a two shooter (put one in the magazine, or don't). Personally I think the 24" button magazine 94 rifles are the prettiest of the genre, but the 20" gun might look good too.

[cuzinbruce]

Find a Savage 219. They came in 30/30 and are just what you are trying to create. Light, handy, accurate. And probably not as much $$$ as a Win 94. Which isn't going to gain any value with these mods.

[bob208]

with the cheap or should I say low priced single shots out there. why waste a good 94?

[Tatume]

How is it a waste to remove parts? The parts can always be reinstalled.

[Treeman]

I really don't understand why.....You always have the option of loading one at a time whatever the magazine capacity happens to be......and the magazine on a '94 adds little weight or bulk. ???????

[OverMax]

Yep!! a one shot shooter. Sounds reasonable but not practical. But I'm OK with its doing. No harm done to the rifle that's for sure and for certain. Hopefully you'll post a pix or two after the work is completed. Who knows you may the one to start a new fad olafhardt.

[KLR]

Life is short. If a project like this makes you happy; do it. If the Winchester 94 Preservation Society cares enough they can buy them all with their own money rather then telling you what to do with yours. ;)

A few practical thoughts:
1. I know the mag tube is light, but much of its weight is out front. You'll be surprised how much lighter the gun feels with it gone.

2. I'd leave the carrier in. You won't have to worry about sticking a round in the chamber that way. Just throw it in the action and close the lever. If you have a bullet with a large flat point you may have to build up the front of the carrier to align the bullet with the chamber, however.

3. I'd make a short magazine tube stub that bolts in the receiver and holds the forearm. That would allow you to free float the barrel. I'd also make a new smaller forearm.

4. Save all the original parts for later conversion back to original. Then again, if you bought a pawn shop rat, you may be able to make $50 selling your removed parts. I've seen nice 94s offered for $275 around here. If you got one for $250 and sold the parts you'd have a $200 single shot.

5. Post pics of your project.

Good luck!

[richhodg66]

Find a Savage 219. They came in 30/30 and are just what you are trying to create. Light, handy, accurate. And probably not as much $$$ as a Win 94. Which isn't going to gain any value with these mods.

Good advice. I don't have a 219 in .30-30, but mine is a really nice handling rifle. I have a couple of older H&Rs in .30-30 and those are good too and lighter and handier than what you're considering.

[olafhardt]

OK, I guess I owe a little more explanation.
1) I already have a 30-30 Handi.
2) I have a Savage 220. This is the old hammerless model shotgun made on the 219 frame. With its 20 gauge barrel it is a delight to carry and shoot. The few I have tried with rifle barrels felt like bolt anchors. Since I have become a clumsy old fart I fall a lot in the woods so I try to stick to guns with hammers.
3) I have a good 94 of this time period. I picked up another for $250 which was made later but may have some issues.
This is just something I want to do. I don't plan to make any permanent changes in the parts. I think we occasionally lose track of the fact that guns are toys and fun to play with.

[triggerhappy243]

Next time you find a win-94 for $250. Bring me along please.

[olafhardt]

One more thing. Price Handi's. They are approaching the price of a decent post 64 win 94 if you can get them. They aren't making them any more.
)The shop where I got the 94 for 250 also had several for $300.

[Bzcraig]

I guess it could be done, give it a try. Strip it down little by little and see if it will function.

With a T/C Contender frame with a 30/30 barrel and iron sights, (or caliber of your choice), and you have a really light, portable single shot.

This or the Handi give you the option of many different caliber choices, but as mentioned your gun, your choice.

[texassako]

A single shot with a lever that top ejects. Sounds like you are trying to turn a Winchester repeater into a Martini single shot.

[Frank46]

I think there was an article if the Fouling Shot the CBA newsleter. He basically did what you are trying to do except I think he used a marlin 336. Don't remember what cartridge ue used but it was 30 caliber as he used a springfield A3 barrel. Took off everything forward of the receiver and fit up a new forend. I posted something like this on the assra forum sometime back. Got one positive response and the rest well let's say that the others were not so happy with the idea. I have a 1.250 308 barrel about 24" long. Cut off two inches leaves me 22" and can fit a homemade forend. If it makes you happy go for it. I would stick with the good old 30-30 as plenty of good molds for it exist. Don't have a 94 to experiment with but have an old 336 that didn't cost that much. About the only action mods I thing machining off the shoulders on the front of the receiver would be needed to fit a barrel of that 1.250 diameter. Course the machining of the barrel threads plus the chamber end on the marlin would cost some bucks. The 94 is easier to fit a barrel to. Frank

[LtFrankDrebbin]

It would make for an interesting comparison I think. If you were to do the conversion. I'd like to see grouping capability of the gun with the full magazine set up then group test after the conversion.

Would be good to see how much affect the magazine and all the tube clamps have on overall accuracy. You may just have a sub MOA 94 in the making.

[BCRider]

So you'll remove the magazine tube spring and follower. But you'll need to leave the elevator in place or risk the round falling into the guts of the action.

It would be nice if you could put in specially made cartridge guides that are a bit wider so the round can't fall into the guts of the gun. Since they don't need to guide the round up between them and ramp the rim up at the right place they would be just simple flat bars that fit in there and which only leave enough room between for the lower portion of the ejector to fit. The tighter bars of the correct shape would let you drop the round in place then close the bolt with zero care needed. It would just need the pointy end to face forward... :D

It would be interesting and a puzzler for anyone that you run across that sees no magazine tube.

[dikman]

What Tatume said. I have a Model 92 button mag, and often use it as a single shot at the range - and I didn't have to do anything to it. It loads single (round flat-nose) boolits real easy. Bit like having a Martini without actually having one.......:grin:.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Why not just dig up a model 64 or one of those other half magazine models Winchester recently with syenthic stocks. That would be the way I`d go.Robert

[Gtek]

I have a pile of Marlin parts and have been toying the same thing with a 336. I picked up a SS 700 1-12 .308 barrel to cut down and thread. Do what you want and what makes YOU happy, maybe those that it disturbs could/should buy us the rifle we should have.
Some people leave Winchesters leaning against the bushes and walk off, can't be that nice.:kidding:

[Antietamgw]

I'd agree with Tatume. How were you figuring on securing the forearm? Years back a friend did a button magazine conversion. It still held 1 or 2 rds, loaded easy and the mag tube and internal band kept the forearm where it belonged. He also shortened the barrel to 16" or 18". It was a handy little carbine, "felt" lighter than the weight it actually lost. I don't think you could get much lighter than a Contender carbine though, I sure like mine.

[olafhardt]

Don't anybody take this personally, but I think the Tompson-Center break actions are among the ugliest guns ever made. The front barrel band locks the foreàrm on the 94.

[runfiverun]

I have been mulling doing this to a model 92 copy in 45 colt.
I was thinking of free floating the barrel and attaching a much shortened and thinned fore-arm piece to a false magazine tube.
the internals could be locked in the up position so the cartridge lifter is always in place.

[KLR]

I have been mulling doing this to a model 92 copy in 45 colt.
...internals could be locked in the up position so the cartridge lifter is always in place.

I thought about this too, but the cartridge lifter is pushed back down by the bolt. You'd have to modify the bottom of the bolt too.

[olafhardt]

You guys are showing me I may not be as screwed up as I was accused of being in earlier replies. I don't know about 92's but with my 94 it seems as though the magazine is not what holds the forearm on.

[KLR]

You guys are showing me I may not be as screwed up as I was accused of being in earlier replies. I don't know about 92's but with my 94 it seems as though the magazine is not what holds the forearm on.

You're not. ;)
Anyway, on my 94 the forearm slips (loosely) in the receiver and is held on with a barrel band on the other end.

[runfiverun]

I am thinking more a solid rod bent down and then flat with 2-45* angles and a wooden piece attached to it to act as a place for it to sit on the front bag.
low enough to clear the barrel but not so low as it affects off hand shooting.

[BCRider]

On the 92 for sure you cannot leave the elevator in the raised position. But there IS room to make up slightly wider cartridge "guides" that don't have the tracks shaped for the rims. These guide rails would act as a cartridge floor and let the bolt slide the round into place just fine. It's a slightly modified way of how we do it already for loading a last reload shot in cowboy action. Just drop it in the top and close the bolt.

My 94 is apart at the moment but it looks like it's a variation on this same theme. So once again slightly wider guide rails to stop the cartridge from falling through. Possibly with a slightly machined bolt for clearance to the rails if needed. Then just leave out the elevator.

A stub tube for a forearm mount would certainly turn this into an interesting project. To make it so the barrel is free floated though you'd want to drill something into the receiver so you can pin or use a set screw on the tube stub. Then I'd thread the other end and use a machined up "nut" to tension up the fore stock and really hold it tightly back against the receiver. With that sort of tension NOW you can use the forestock for support and avoid it needing to be held to the barrel.

Will this be needed? Hard to say. I think I'd try it this way then pad the free float area with a slip of cork and re-mount the barrel band and try it again. Lots of rifles shoot very well with a correctly point loaded barrel like this. Is it the right point to load it up? Hard to say. It would need to be tried to see.

And I'd go with tubing for this support for the fore stock over solid rod. A big part of this project is making a light rifle even lighter. It defeats the purpose if the support for the fore stock is a solid rod.

[runfiverun]

the guide sounds the correct way to go.
I was kinda thinking of removing the innards and making something similar to the leaf spring arrangement the mauser rifles use.
I dunno if it would stay out of the way of everything or not.
if not, I'm not too concerned, the carrier can go up and down it's just a little extra weight in between the hands.
I'm not gonna be carrying it around anyway I have another one just like it, and a carbine version too.
it's just well,,, you know,, another idea.

[Gtek]

Marlin in my head has a sled that is engineered into block using loading spring area for attachment above floor. For forearm making sized dowel that would be about a <.0005" press into mag hole shouldered and be secured internally from rear with a 1/4" NF bolt and this would strengthen the weak 6 o'clock area. Machine sides/bottom of forward dowel flat for easy made and attached short floating handguard leaving steel exposed on front for easy sling button attachment. That along with the repurposed 1-12 stainless barrel leaving at receiver width and with the 308 muzzle reamer applied to use up some of the 200 307 virgin brass I have. I also have a spare stainless lever to match barrel, no I have not thought about it at all!

[Good Cheer]

Hmm, so would the 336 be better than the '94 for chamber seating boolits into the rifling?

[KLR]

I removed my magazine and forarm last night. It's not much weight, but it's amazing the difference in feel without that magazine tube and plug way out there at the end of the barrel. If a guy wanted a quick and easy single shot then just reattach the forearm and barrel band that holds it in place. Add a wood plug at the end if you want. Of course, the barrel doesn't free float that way, but that hollowed out forearm weighs next to nothing.
I might go for a compromise, however, and reinstall a short mag in the forearm. Two rounds plus one in the chamber would be enough to hunt with yet let me keep that light feeling.

Or not. But it's fun to think and tinker.

[olafhardt]

The cheapy l bought for 250 had a scope side mount stuck on it with one screw and lots of epoxy. The epoxy got into some screw holes. I drilled, tapped, broke one tap, dug out and applied heat. I also stoned every spot that had rub marks. It was dropped and the tangs are slightly bent so the tang screw won't go in. I kept trying to put the carrier in the wrong place with the wrong screw. Decided the screw was buggered and the mainspring to stout so l ordered replacements. While I was at it I ordered a new mainspring. Now I have parts. The mainspring was too long, had to wack it off. Discovered my box of parts had been kicked over. In short this easy conversion is not finished yet. As was putting it together incorrectly, I figured that the carrier may do more than lift cartridges

[olafhardt]

I completed the project and decided I didn't like it. Also I couldn't decide where to put the leftover parts. So I just put it all back together into a 94. Now I don't need to worry about any more.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I agree that it could be done, and is likely to produce improved accuracy, without that long tube anchored to the barrel. I have always been a little surprised Winchester didn't produce a single shot based on the 86 action, in the days when few people wanted to fit scopes. But I also agree that about all the advantages could be found in the button-rifled 94 or the Martini (I've got mine, in both cases.)

I'm sure there are derelict pre-sintered metal Winchesters which are unloved by the collector, and suitable for this conversion. If I was doing something similar, I think I would glass-bed a new forend after moulding a button magazine around a dowel rod, waxed to permit extraction, so that there would be no tube at all.

[nekshot]

I shoot all my lever actions stripped of tube and front wood when I first get them to know how they shoot. Also when I shoot them for load developement I load them all as a single shot. Sure you can do it and they are lighter with that stuff off and kinda look like those spencer (I think) old lever rifles with no front wood.

[BAGTIC]

Ithaca used to make lever action single shots like this in rimfires and shotguns.

Why not remove the magazine tube and block the hole. Leave cartridge follower/lifter alone. Gun should still function as single shot.

[Patrick56]

My choice for a conversion of the 94 would be a stronger half magazine threaded into the receiver and a collar or ring nut holding the front wood, thus the barrel totally free floated.