Winchester 94 AE, .45 colt

[rbgfishboy]

Hey everybody, I have a question - I have found a Winchester 94 AE in .45 colt, and it's about to bore a hole in my brain. Can anybody tell me about these? Reliability, value, anything. I'm not sure of its age, but it does have the rebounding hammer, but I don't think it has the tang safety. Every time I look at it, I sort of go into a trance and forget to look for the safety. It does say it was made in New Haven, CT. Anyway, I sure would appreciate any info about these, as I am seriously thinking of buying it. Thanks!

[J Miller]

I have one. Mine is a Trapper model and was made in the first year of production, 1985. It has the color cased receiver, no cross or tang safety. It also has the lightweight barrel.
Shortly after I got it the rebounding hammer went bye bye and was replaced with a old style half cock action.
In the almost 30 years I've had it I've put thousands of rounds through it with ZERO mechanical failures. It is quite accurate too.
The only things I dislike about it are the lightweight barrel and the angle eject. But it's a keeper and I won't part with it.

After 1985 they went to the blued receiver and in about 92 or so IIRC they went to the bull barrel.
Somewhere in the time line they made them carbines and rifles too.

Joe

[EdinCT]

A friend just bought one and was floored with how it cut one big hole out of the paper with a 454190 Lyman bullet and green dot. He isn't stoking it but enjoying shooting paper and experimenting with different loads. The loads he shot with the Keith bullet were has good has my Marlin 44 ever does and the Lyman is even better. It would do anything a 45/90 would of in 1890 with a 300 gr bullet if you wanted to hunt it also.

[Don McDowell]

Been using my trapper model since 1989, really likes 250-270 gr cast swc bullets, sized at .452. Powders it's not terrible picky, but does shoot well enough with 12.9 grs of bludot and the keith bullet to regularly swat the sillouette ram at 250 yds with ease.
When the granddevils were young and came around on a regular basis, I had to keep a good supply of rounds loaded with 8 grs of 231 and 200 gr cast bullets on hand, cuz them lil buggers could make that poor thing go full auto and do it with gong ringing accuracy at 25-50 yds.

[2ndovc]

I have one of the Trails End models. With .454 sized bullets it's a tack driver, anything smaller it's all
over the target.

jb

[Chuck 100 yd]

I have the long barreled model. (24" ??) It is an accurate rifle but rough to operate and the trigger is very poor. It was/is just like new and a great price so I let it follow me home one day. I haven't shot it in years.

[Model 52B]

I also have a 1985 Model 94 Trapper (#5,353,5xx) in .45 Colt. I like the case hardened receiver, I like the accuracy, and I like the reliability, but it's not as smooth functioning as a Model 92. It's also about an inch longer than a model 92, so the 16" trapper is only about 2 1/2 inches shorter than a 20" Model 92.

[J Miller]

Model52B,

Much of the perceived roughness is the way that rebounding hammer action works. It's just not as smooth as the half cock action.

The rest of the differences are because 94s are different from the 92s. Different rifles designed different for different cartridges.
Nothing wrong with that, just the way of it.

Those horrid rebounding hammer actions can be smoothed up, and the trigger can be reworked to a lighter and crisper pull. But they'll never be like a half cock action. There's just too many extra bits in there.

Joe

[Snaketail]

Use .454 boolits and you'll be much happier with the results - .452 is for .45ACP.
I load a 255gr Keith Style SWC and a RNFP 250gr cast boolits with 10.3 gr of Unique and my 20" Rossi really shines.

After a year of no-powder, make-do loading with all sorts of combination of powder and bullets I can say that my rifle likes the mid-weight .454 and Unique.

Michael

[new pig hunter]

Mine is a Trapper model, purchased new in 2003. I've had it all apart and smoothed up the action/trigger pull/etc, it is nice and smooth now, great trigger feel/pull. It very much prefers 250-gr +P ammo, which I've found to be very accurate.

Cheers,

Carl

[trapper45]

Get it. You'll like it. My Trapper 16" is first-year production, '85, with the case-colored/hardened receiver and no safety, tang- or crater-type. It feeds any and everything without a hiccup and has only gotten smoother over the years, with no polishing, modification or internal adjustments, just normal action smoothing from usage (28 years' worth, come December).

[JReed]

I have a 1994 trapper. it shoots about every thing great. i use if for CAS and hunting great rifle woill never get rid of it. Buy it you wont be unhappy.

[Model 52B]

Model52B,

Much of the perceived roughness is the way that rebounding hammer action works. It's just not as smooth as the half cock action.

The rest of the differences are because 94s are different from the 92s. Different rifles designed different for different cartridges.
Nothing wrong with that, just the way of it.

Those horrid rebounding hammer actions can be smoothed up, and the trigger can be reworked to a lighter and crisper pull. But they'll never be like a half cock action. There's just too many extra bits in there.

Joe

I may have noticed once of twice over the last 30 years or so that the Model 94 was designed for longer rifle length cartridges. I didn't mention it as I thought it was pretty obvious.

The toggle link that's used in the Model 94 to give the longer bolt stroke in a similar lever arc limits the smoothness of the action, compared to a Model 92. Even after you deal with the rebounding hammer issue, it will still never cycle like a well tuned Model 92.

The rebounding hammer itself requires a slightly stiffer hammer spring, which is felt when cycling the action to cock the hammer, as well as in the trigger.

And that's really the point here. While neither the Model 94 or the Model 92 were ever originally designed for the .45 Colt, the Model 92 is a much better host for the round. I think it's amazing that the Model 94 was able to be successfully adapted to it and feed and cycle it smoothly and reliably, but it has some built in compromises compared to the Model 92.

I bought a color case hardened Model 94 Trapper in .45 Colt for a lot of reasons, but performing better than my Model 92s in .45 Colt was not one of them.

[Nath]

Well I like the 94ae alot, it slicks up real easy and no timing issues. Hammers and bolts polish up a treat where they meat and I like the guts droppping out.

The triggers stone up well. All mine end up around 2lb on the original springs with the exception of a lighter first stage spring.

A rifle that feels like a shotgun to me, throw it up and it's there! My 9422 takes a little lining up but never any of my ae models.

Out of the safety models I prefere the crossbolts.

N.

[rbgfishboy]

Thanks for all the replies! I'm going to take another look at it tomorrow. Who knows, I may bring it home!