94 Winchester/mfg 1911

[TooManyMisses]

I have my Great Grandfather's M94 Win that he acquired in a "group buy" when the Toronto Mounted Police sold of their 94's in the early part of the 20th Century. It will key hole a cast bullet at 20 yds because the barrel looks like a dirty stove pipe, you can make out the rifling although I know what the term dark bore means now. It doesn't shoot factory loads too bad but with the amount of knowledge I have witnessed on this site over the past months I was wondering what the best route would be to keep the rifle historically accurate to pass it on to my son and also to get it shooting better. Is relining the bore an option? Any suggestions would be welcome.

As stated previously this is a great site and has given me quite a few laughs over the months as well as contributing a great deal to my education and hopefully will be able to cast better bullets and shoot a little better if this white stuff ever goes away. I just heard last night the snowmobile trails are supposed to stay open for 3 more weeks, that will put us over half way through April. Can't remember any thing like this even as a kid in the 50's.

Saw 8 turkeys about 5 of them jakes today :castmine:

[MtGun44]

You could have it bored out to .32 Special. It would be like new inside, in an
original W94 caliber and would be an excellent range shooter or hunting
rifle. I have heard that there are several skilled rebore guys out there,
and prices are "reasonable" but I have no idea what that means
exactly. I'm sure somebody here has a rebore expert that they can
recommend.

The .32 Winchester Special has a bore diam of .321" so is just a slight
overbore from the original .308" (nominal) diameter. I think brass and
dies are still pretty common, but not sure.

Oh - and the winter weather was caused by Al Dork's global warming -
the biggest scam that has ever been run in history.

Bill

[felix]

Bill, that's groove diameter, not bore diameter. Most 32 specials are 315 bore. ... felix

[corvette8n]

Try making and using an electronic bore cleaner just google it.
You wouldn't beleive the crud I got out an old military rifle.
then scrub with JB bore paste, clean and use hardcast bulllets
sized at .311 or .312.

[MtGun44]

Felix -

Of course you are right! I was just getting sloppy with terms, which is a bad
idea with gun stuff as it is important to say what you actually mean.

Thanks for the correction.

In any case, assuming .308 groove diam original barrel, even if in pretty bad
shape, should clean up to the .315" bore diam of the .32 spl. I suppose
that there might be pits over .0035" deep, half of the .007" diff between
the groove diam of the .30 cal and the bore diam of the .32 cal.

It would be interesting to know how deeply pitted a "really bad" pitted barrel is.

Bill

[felix]

If I am not mistaken, I think PRS or Gussy got a couple of 32 winnie barrels when they had them on sale several years ago. Something under 80 bucks, I think. ... felix

[ra_balke]

See if your local Canadian gun shop can get you some stuff called M Pro-7. I use this, and it has taken a shot out barrel and made it right again.

You know, yur bbl may look like a smoke hole, but back in those days, they used cupora nickle bullet jackets, and that left a ton of crud in the bbl.

Truth is, if yur gun shoots jacketed ok, then it should shoot even better with cast.

First, clean out the bbl with m pro-7, and soak it out good, it will take at least a week. Then..... if you still have a bad bore ( and I'll bet you dont ) then try shooting an oversize cast bullet thru it, I'd suspect you will be suprised with it's accuracy.

For the bullet, use the Lyman 311041, with a gas check, and load it with 2400 powder.