what's my very sad,5-digit model 94 worth.

[Throckmorton]

I have a 38-55 model 94 that keyholes all bullets terribley.The gun its' self is sad looking,light rust and some pitting on the reciever. I inherited it this way,my feeling is my late brother bought it for a parts gun.
wood is dark but farily solid.

to me this is a wall-hanger,as such,what would its value be ? I know I could have the b ore relined,but curious what the old gal is worth as is.







as u can see,the barrel was cut off at some time,so we've now shortened the mag tube to match its' length.

[JHeath]

Others can speak to the market value. But it's not condemned to be a wall hanger and it's a beautiful old rifle. Breathe life back into it. Fix the keyholing problem. It could be simple/cheap as needing larger diameter boolits, or a re-crown. Worst case is a barrel re-line. That rifle could give another century of good service and deserves the chance.

[Throckmorton]

big bullets didn't help,niether did a re crown. I may look into a re-line. actually a local 'smith was able to get a liner (for my other one) but not the drill/reamer. odd caliber ? I'll check with him to see if it ever showed up.

[runfiverun]

the 38-55 is not an odd caliber.
at the worst a 375 barrel could be adapted or a liner for it could be used.
if you just want a decent rifle to shoot and stuff a 30-30 barrel could be screwed on without any changes.

[wgr]

Man what story's that gun could tell

[autofix4u]

Another vote for reline or rebarrel. Still a lot of life left in that one. I would rebarrel and," age, "the new barrel to match the patinaon the rest of the gun.

[square butte]

Measure the barrel length. From the photo, it appears that you might have an extra long barrel which would have been a speacial order feature. That would add to the value. What is the condition of the bore. The 38-55 winchesters were notorious for oversize bores. Slug it and find a mold that is size appropriate to your particular bore. Do all this before you consider a reline. Also a possibility that the barrel was NOT cut - and the magazine tube is a non standard replcement tube - especially since your barrel appear to be longer than standard length. Could just be an optical illusion - But measure the barrel length and let us know what it is.

[yooper]

You never did mention what the bore is like. Because you didn't I would assume it's pretty grungy. I think Bill Weddle is pretty much on base with his valuation. Unfortunately Redman's, the alleged best of the relining firms, would charge more than the gun is worth to reline it. If oversize cast boolits didn't do anything good, I'd try getting some Barnes jacketed in their largest diameter (they used to make several diameters of 38-55 bullets due to the variation in rifles) and give it one last try before hanging it up. Like an earlier poster mentioned, it sure would be nice to hear this old girl's stories.
yooper

[OverMax]

It's a Winchester. Shoot-able or not it does have value. Many would give a pretty fair price just to have it as a wall hanger. Then again it may have sentimental value too. Either way its a win win.

[Gtek]

Life is so very short, but I would have a hard time doing anything to that one other than trying to make it shoot. Bored or relined, will it not look/value the same after you spent a lot of money? If I were to pass on to the range in the sky, my brother would order a custom mold just to show me. I know the smirk he would use as he looked up and went, shoots just fine! Gtek

[oneokie]

big bullets didn't help,niether did a re crown. I may look into a re-line. actually a local 'smith was able to get a liner (for my other one) but not the drill/reamer. odd caliber ? I'll check with him to see if it ever showed up.

How big did you go on the boolit diameter? I have a 5 digit one and it loves .381" boolits. You should also try different powders. Mine hates either of the 4895's. Keep velocities below 1350 fps.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
Have two 5 digits 38-55's and both need .383+ to shoot smokeless with any accuracy. The worse one gets COW under the boolit to keep it 4 inches at 50 yards.
Those same rifles with a casefull of 3F and a fat soft boolit will shoot a little better. Nothing stellar but they would take out corn crunchers out to 80 yards realiably. If there is rifling and the barrel is not bulged bad somewhere it will perform.
Have a 32wcf 1873 that needs at least a .316 to start to be with in minute of groundhog at 35 yards. So do not give up yet. Chamber the fastest soft boolit possible in front of some 3F and touch it off. You will be surpried what good ol BP can do.
Mike in Peru

[JHeath]

Unfortunately Redman's, the alleged best of the relining firms, would charge more than the gun is worth to reline it.
yooper

That's the standard economic argument and in cases like this I don't get it. He inherited the rifle so his investment is $0 in a rifle that is worth $200. Say he spends $400 total on a re-line including the shipping. He'll be $400 into a neat old .38-55 Winchester with a brand-new bore that he can have endless fun with and tote through the countryside guilt-free if he dings it. Say $600 investment if you count the current value.

What other rifle can he buy for that money? A Rossi, which is a decent rifle but I'd rather have this relined old Winchester. He would have to spend 2 - 3 times as much to get a Cimarron or a clean Winchester.

Suppose he invests the $400 in it, but the re-sale is only $300? So what? It's not like he bought a house for $400k and sold it for $300k.

Why worry about "losing" $100 or even $200 bringing this rifle back to life? That's the cost of trip to the grocery store.

Bring it back to life, take to to the field and get your money's worth out of it. When you're too old to carry it, pass it to somebody who can get another lifetime's joy from it.

[dtknowles]

I am not a gunsmith so my idea may be nonsense but why can't a barrel maker just run/pull a button down the barrel to repair the rifling? I don't know a lot about this but if the button was designed to form very deep grooves would not it actually push material back toward the lands reducing the bore diameter? I think that would be a great way to restore barrels intended to be used with cast boolits. The barrel might need to be lapped as well but that should be cheaper than relining and would not be too obvious a modification for a collector.

Tim

[rhbrink]

I'd give you $200 for it.

RB

[Rangefinder]

As is without a rebarrel or lining... Have you tried or considered paper patching for it?

[bob208]

i don't know about that $200 price. around here any old winchester rifle not carbine would be in the $500 range.

i have a 5 digit 94 in .38-55 in about the same shape with a good bore. i have to use soft bullets unsized and black powder to get it to shoot.

[Throckmorton]

largest bullet I"ve tried is .380,I will try to find some a tad larger,we drove one of these down the barrel,and it was a loose fit compared to my 1920's area mate to this one.

the barrel has indeed been cut down,the mag tube screw hole is half gone to the point u1 can see the screw's threads.

If anyone has a line on some larger boolits i'd sure pay whatever it takes to get some more experimenting done.I do have some Goex 2F and 3F on hand I could try too.

thanks for all the thoughts and ideas. I'll keep working with it.

[JHeath]

Can you "beagle" an existing mold to get a large enough boolit? Paper patching was a good suggestion. I think you still haven't told us the bore condition, but you said it's been re-crowned. If the bore is unsalvageable, fitting boolits won't answer. If the bore is not gone, fitting boolits is a better answer than a re-line, unless you do not care to bother with casting/patching.

[Throckmorton]

OK,found a supplier who will sell me a hundred bullets to try out,so next week most likely we'll load 'em up and see what happens.These are .382,med soft,flat based,from Rim Rock Bullets.