Winchester Model 1894

Winchester Model 1894 (also known as Winchester 94,or Win 94,) is a lever-action rifle which became one of the most famous and popular hunting rifles. It was designed by John Browning in 1894 and originally chambered to fire two metallic black powder cartridges, the .32-40 Winchester and .38-55 Winchester. It was the first rifle to chamber the smokeless powder round, the 30 WCF (Winchester Center Fire}. This round was later chambered by Marlin which designated it the .30-30, which used the black powder cartridge nomenclature of using the caliber as the first number and the grains of powder as the second.  Marlin used this nomenclature in order not to promote its competitor's products.  The 30-30 name finally became synonymous with the cartridge and Winchester ultimately dropped the 30 WCF nomenclature.  The 1894 was produced by Winchester Repeating Arms Company through 1980 and then by U.S. Repeating Arms under the Winchester brand until they ceased to manufacture rifles in 2006. The rifles are back in production today, being made by the Miroku company of Japan and imported into the United States by the Browning Arms company of Morgan, Utah.

The Model 1894 has been referred to as the "ultimate lever-action design" by firearms historians such as RL Wilson and Hal Herring. The Model 1894 is the rifle credited with the name "Winchester" being used to refer to all rifles of this type and was the first commercial sporting rifle to sell over 7,000,000 units.

Overview
The Winchester Model 1894 was the first commercial repeating rifle built to be used with smokeless powder. The 1894 was originally chambered to fire 2 metallic black powder cartridges, the .32-40 Winchester and .38-55 Winchester. In 1895 Winchester went to a different steel composition for rifle manufacturing that could handle higher pressure rounds and offered the rifle in .25-35 Winchester and .30-30 Winchester. The .30-30 Winchester, or .30WCF (Winchester Centerfire), is the cartridge that has become synonymous with the Model 1894. Starting in 1901, the Model 1894 was also chambered in .32 Winchester Special.

The Model 94's combination of potent firepower in a compact, lightweight, comfortable-to-carry, and quick-shooting package has made it an extremely popular hunting rifle, particularly for white-tailed deer in the dense forests of the Eastern United States, where most game is killed at relatively short distances. As a result, it was the first sporting rifle to sell over 7,000,000 units. The millionth Model 1894 was given to President Calvin Coolidge in 1927, the 1½ millionth rifle to President Harry S. Truman on May 8, 1948 and the two millionth unit was given to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953.

The United States government purchased 1,800 commercial Model 1894s with 50,000 .30-30 cartridges during World War I. These rifles in the 835800 to 852500 serial number range were marked atop the receiver ring with a flaming bomb and "U.S." The rifles were intended for United States Army Signal Corps personnel stationed in the Pacific Northwest to prevent interruption of spruce timber harvesting for aircraft production. The rifles were sold as military surplus after the war. Variants of the Model 94 over its long history included the Winchester Model 55, produced from 1924 through 1932 in a 24 in barrel, and the Winchester Model 64, produced from 1933 through 1957 in 20, 24, and 26 in barrel lengths. From 1964 through 1980, a version of the Model 94 carbine was also sold by Sears as the Ted Williams Model 100, as part of Sears' marketing arrangement with both Winchester and the retired baseball star.

In mid-1964, the manufacturing of the 94 was changed in order to make the firearm less expensive to produce. Generally referred to as "pre-64" models, the earlier versions command a premium price over post-change rifles. The limited number of early-1964 production models produced prior to the changeover are considered quite desirable, as they are considered by many to represent the ending of an era.

The Winchester 1894's design allowed the cycling of longer cartridges than the Winchester 1892 carbines could permit. When the lever is pulled down, it brings the bottom of the receiver with it, opening up more space and allowing a longer cartridge to feed without making the receiver longer. The mechanism is complex but very reliable. Complete stripping of the action is a multi-stage task that must be accomplished in precise sequence. However it is rarely necessary to completely strip the action. The largest cartridge that the 1894 action can accommodate is the .450 Marlin, which was chambered in some custom rifles and the short-lived Timber Carbine on a beefed-up 1894 "big bore" receiver.

Decades after the Winchester 1892 was phased out, the Winchester 1894 Models were manufactured in typical revolver calibers such as .38 Special/.357 Magnum, .44 Special/.44 Magnum, .45 Colt (or .45 Long Colt), .38-40 Winchester, and .44-40 Winchester. Typically, the tube magazine is able to hold 9 to 13 rounds of the previously mentioned handgun calibers. The magazine capacity depends on the length of the barrel, as the tube magazine (located below the barrel) typically covers the entire length of the barrel.

Handgun calibers are preferred by modern day Cowboy Action Shooters as it allows one type of ammunition for both rifle and handgun. A typical combination would be an 1873 Colt (Colt Peacemaker or clone) and a Winchester 1894 capable of shooting the same type of ammunition. The 1894 action, designed for smokeless rifle rounds, is much stronger than the action of the Winchesters (Models 1866, 1873, 1876) that were based on Benjamin Henry's toggle-link system, and can easily handle modern high-pressure revolver cartridges such as the .44 Magnum.

From 1984 to 1997, the Model 94 angle eject 20" barreled carbine and 24" barreled XTR rifle were offered in 7-30 Waters (an improved .30-30 case necked down to a 7mm bullet). In 2003, the rifle was offered in .410 shotgun and named the Model 9410.

The Winchester 1894 holds the record for best-selling high-powered rifle in U.S. history.

U.S. production ceased in 2006, at the time there were 14 versions of the Model 94 in the Winchester catalog. In 2010 Winchester Repeating Arms reintroduced the model 94 in two Limited Edition models to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Oliver F. Winchester's birth in New England in 1810.

Design changes
There have been 3 major changes in the design and construction of the Winchester 1894 since World War II, all of them tied to major changes in Winchester's corporate leadership and direction. The first and largest came in 1964, after the 1963 resignation of gun enthusiast John M. Olin from the presidency of the company he founded, Olin Corporation. The second came in 1982, after Olin's 1981 sale of the Winchester factory to its employees, who formed the U.S. Repeating Arms Company (USRAC). The third in 1992, after the 1989 bankruptcy of USRAC and its subsequent purchase by FN Herstal, who sought to market Winchester guns worldwide.

1964

Upon Olin's retirement, Olin Corporation's new chief executives sought to maximize profitability in its operations, giving corporate preference to its flourishing chemical business and cutting costs on its guns, which were unprofitable and labor-intensive to produce. To that end, Winchester ceased machining both the receiver and many small parts of the Model 94 out of solid steel as of 1964. The new receiver was machined out of sintered steel, the cartridge lifter was made of stamped sheet metal, and hollow roll pins were used in the action instead of solid steel pins. While the rifle's function, safety or accuracy were not adversely affected, the changes-in particular the sintered receiver, which, though just as strong as its solid-steel predecessor, did not respond well to a traditional blued finish-were conspicuous and came as Winchester made even more fundamental changes to its flagship Model 70 rifle. Taken together, the changes were seen as a retreat from quality production across the company's whole range, seriously damaging Winchester's reputation for making quality firearms in the process. In response, many users would use only rifles made before 1964 (pre '64), and Winchester firearms made before 1964 command a markedly higher resale value on the gun market to this day.

1982

One of the drawbacks of the original Model 1894 action in relation to competitors like the Marlin Model 336) was that the Winchester ejects cartridges from the top of the receiver and over the user's shoulder, rather than to the side. A top-ejecting firearm cannot mount a telescopic scope on top of the receiver-the most convenient location for the shooter-without destroying the function of the gun. A scope for such a firearm must instead be mounted either far forward on the barrel (where it must be specifically designed for the purpose), or offset to the side of the gun (which creates problems due to parallax), both of which seriously degrade the usefulness of a scope for such a rifle.

This was not a major concern when the gun was originally designed; the most common upgrade to guns of the pre-World War II era was the installation of a peep sight to the rear of the receiver, which maximized the accuracy potential of the factory-installed iron sights. Winchester had long had mounting holes pre-drilled in the receiver of the gun to accommodate such a modification, and it was by far the most common upgrade installed on the Model 94 for most of its history. Nevertheless, consumer tastes changed in the years after World War II as high quality scopes became both widely available and affordable. Commercial acceptance of the new scopes was likewise rapid, and by the 1970s the ability to use receiver-mounted scopes on hunting rifles had become expected by most gun buyers. With the competition able to mount scopes on its receivers without difficulty, this shortcoming was blamed for falling sales. In response, Winchester changed the design of the action in 1982 to angled cartridge ejection, which ejects fired cartridges at an angle that allows the rifle to function while fitted with a conventional receiver-mounted scope.

1992

Despite these changes, U.S. Repeating Arms did not flourish, declaring bankruptcy in 1989. It was subsequently purchased by Belgian arms maker FN Herstal, who set about improving the whole Winchester line, instituting modern CNC methods of production at Winchester's factory while also seeking to expand the sales and marketing of Winchester rifles worldwide. This effort would culminate in two major changes to the gun in 1992: the reintroducing of now-CNC-machined parts and solid pins back into the action, and the elimination of the traditional half-cock safety notch on the hammer in favor of a cross-bolt safety, which enabled the gun to be sold internationally.

Though the increase in build quality was noted at the time, it was the conspicuous presence of the new safety that generated the strongest opinions. It was widely reviled by American consumers and gun writers alike as a "lawyer" safety, who said it detracted from the overall look, feel, and operation of the rifle. FNH and Winchester responded in 2003 by moving the safety to the tang behind the receiver, which largely quelled the controversy. Both the last Model 94s to leave the New Haven factory before American production ceased in 2006 and the new Model 94s produced in Japan since 2010 by Miroku feature these tang-mounted safeties.