New Winchester 94 Trapper

[gcp]

My fellow forumites,

I'm a happy dude today because of this new spotless lever action (and my one and only), a brand spanking new Trapper in 44 mag, from my buddy that sold me the Vaquero.









Nice complement for my Supeblackhawk he sold me years back don't ya think?

Crisp action but a bit on the heavy side, 5-6lbs I'd guess. Any suggestions?

[Bullseye]

That's one nice looking rifle. A while back Toy posted a link to a W94 disassembly procedure. http://www.castbullet.com/misc/tdown.htm

Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye

[gcp]

Thank you Bullseye. I've been able to find a number of sites that suggest certain mods on the Trapper but I am taking my time reading before I tear into it. I'll shot it today and see how worthy it proves as is.

On the reloading subject, what's the best on-line place to order 240gr JHP bullets for this mag? It seems the prices have gone sky-high lately and my local guy is fresh out of lead as well as jacketed. Would you say that 240 gr weight is a good compromise round for both the pistol and the rifle?

[toyfj40]

Yeah... that was my "fun project" for 2007...
http://www.GunTalk-OnLine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=437

I had that one completely-taken-down and back a half-dozen times,
to get all the "poly" out/off of it... and the other couple noted problems.

I like that Large-Loop... you'll be another "Luke McCain",
(not to be confused with the current politician).

good luck with it... Do you ReLoad?
I found a pleasant Lite-Load ( eg. Gallery-Load ) that I like,
I forget the measure of H-335... but it makes for a nice practice load.
Using: http://www.BerrysMfg.com/categories/86-0.php
BE SURE TO CRIMP your .30-30s !!! else it makes for some really
ODD ( -AND- dangerous) shots...

take care, keep us posted. --toy

[Bullseye]

Luke McCain from the old Rifleman series. Toy you're dating yourself with that refenence. I always liked how he fired the rifle from the hip rapid fire by simply jacking the lever.

R,
Bullseye

[toyfj40]

Luke McCain from the old Rifleman series.
Toy you're dating yourself with that refenence.
I always liked how he fired the rifle from the hip rapid fire by simply jacking the lever.

dating myself... nah...
I won't bother to tell you about watching the original
Dragnet (Jack Webb), Queen-for-a-Day, Art-Linkletter, Millionaire,
Ted Mack's Amateur-Hour(Geritol),
Life-of-Riley(tv), Amos-n-Andy(tv), Elliot Ness, Mighty-Mouse, Fury,
Circus-Boy, Tom-Terrific on the original Capt-Kangaroo,
Ben Casey, Dr.Kildaire, Twilight Zone (Rod Sterling), Am.Bandstand,
Oral Roberts "healing tent revivals", Jack LaLane, Sky King (Penny),
To Tell the Truth(Tom Poston), Fulton Sheen (search: YouTube.com ),
Lawrence Welk / Lennon Sisters(adv: Dodge), Death Valley Days(RReagan),
Ann Southern Show, Sea Hunt, You Bet Your Life,
Tonight Show(Steve Allen & Jack Parr), Asphalt Jungle, M-Squad, Peter Gunn,
Edward R Murrow ( See It Now & Person-to-Person) and
Walter Winchell and Paul Harvey News... oh, wait he's STILL on the AIR !
and taking some of the original Salk-Polio-vaccine on a sugar-cube.

[Bullseye]

How could you leave out Lassie with Jan CLayton, who was later replaced by June Lockhart.

I haven't forgotten "Manfred the Wonder Dog," Tom's sidekick. Or the Knock, Knock joke that usually preceded Mr. Moose's ping-pong ball rain storm on Captain Kangaroo's head.

I guess we're both showing our ages. But I digress...

R,
Bullseye

[gcp]

Toy and Bullseye, mine is a 44 mag not a 30-30. And yes I've been a reloader for 27 some years now (that's dating me for certain and not rifle man who was a man's man on his show but a bit light on his loafers in real life )

Shot my own loads today (240gr/9.3 gr Bullseye, nice light load to shoot), as I do with every other caliber I shoot, except 22s. It's a continual quest for perfection don't you know

[Bullseye]

Sorry GCP,

I'm not much of a Cowboy Action shooter and I don't reload the 44 magnum. Besides, it has been quite a while since I ordered any lead. I still have plenty stocked up in my ammo locker. I had a friend who used to cast bullets especially for me. He had a casting business and supplied many gun stores with lead bullets. I took advantage of his abilities and he made me a huge amount of bullets, which I still have not exhausted. I do get a lot of factory ammo provided to me, so I do not have to reload much ammo myself anymore.

Maybe one of our other members have some good data advice for you. I wouldn't be able to give you any better advice on 44 mag than what you could find yourself using a search engine.

R,
Bullseye

[gcp]

...the trapper found a comfortable home in my hunting trailer next to his big brother, a sporter K98.

[gcp]

Guys, I just measured the 94's trigger pull and it came in at 5 lbs 7.5 oz (my guess was 5-6lbs, looks like my trigger finger over the years has been pretty well calibrated ) with the 18lb stock hammer spring. This am I ordered two 13 lb Wolff springs so I look forward to the reduced spring installation and the rifle's most probable trigger pull reduction....with a bit of polishing of contact parts of course.

Now on the reloading side, I have about two hundred 300gr lead bullets which I'd like to put to good use with my Bullseye powder . I've been told that I should keep velocities to 1,000 ft/sec or less so as to keep barrel leading/fouling to a minimum. Do any of you have a good recipe that would help me achieve my goal? Would this round be a potent hunting round as well as an accurate plinker?

BTW I was also told not to use the old trick of shooting a jacketed round after shooting lead rounds to help remove barrel lead. In doing so one only increases the barrel's pressure to extremes with possibly devastating results. Sensible food for thought I wanted to pass forth to our group....

[gcp]

Gents, I just finished replacing the stock hammer spring with a 13 pounder. It made all the difference in the world in the cocking action and the trigger pull but it took me close to 3 hours to complete this task . This project was not easy because I took the trigger group completely apart, as well as the hammer. Replacing the hammer spring was easy enough by using both of my hands for compressing it while my wife stuck a small size hex wrench into the hole. But putting it all back together properly proved somewhat challenging without a schematic.

The result is quite positive so I guess it was worth my hustles and scrached hands.

[gcp]

Interesting finding I thought I should mention to the group, while the action feels much smoother and the cocking action is lighter my trigger pull gauge indicates 5lbs 10oz vs my original 5lbs 7oz. It seems by disassembling and reassembling I've gone up a bit. Obviously the trigger work will need to be polished, when I get ambitious again 'cause right now I don't feel like tearing into it again

I reloaded a few rounds with 240JSP and 9.2grs of AA#2/large rifle primers, from the Lee reloading manual, over the weekend we'll see how well they'll behave through this rifle.

[slabsides]

gcp:
The trigger pull on your rifle isn't so heavy as all that. It's not a target rifle, after all. More important than the weight of pull is the smoothness of the letoff, and how well the trigger return spring cushions the backlash after the sear lets go. Then there's the safety aspect. It's fashionable these days to make fun of the 'liability trigger', but the reason people have sued over light trigger mishaps is because they aren't as safe as heavy ones.
I have an old Winchester with a very smooth solid trigger action that surprises me every time I fire it. Measures around 5+ lbs. I could 'fix' it, but at what expense? Primer impact is a known component of accuracy in shooting. You need a good solid whack on the firing pin, to get the primer and charge up to full power every time. There will be the occasional 'tough' primer, too, probably just as the buck of a lifetime walks by.
I'd shoot it 'as is' for a while, it might surprise you by a) smoothing up and becoming lighter as you shoot it and b) you might find that as a field gun, the heavier pull makes more sense safety and accuracy-wise.
Of course, that's just MHO.
BTW, I like the standard 240gr bullet for my reloading (I've mostly used the Hornady HP.) Seems like the gun will shoot best with the load around which it was designed by the makers, and not too many beasts will walk away from a 240 delivered at 1500 or so fps.

[gcp]

slabsides, all of your points are dead on, thank you for sharing. A solid whack is most desired, especially when the critter can hurt you. Letoff is decent enough on mine but it could use some polishing, when I get ambitious enough.

Happy new year!!