Welcome again when you have been following alongside! Final time round, we coated the variations of the Winchester Mannequin 1894 in Part II, and earlier than that the historical past in Part I. Immediately, we’re tackling what could be the trickiest a part of proudly owning a Winchester 94: courting it. Let’s get into it!
Curious Relics Protection on AllOutdoor
Welcome to our recurring sequence of “Curious Relics.” Right here, we need to share all of our experiences, data, misadventures, and keenness for older firearms that one may categorize as a Curio & Relic – any firearm that’s at the least 50 years previous in keeping with the ATF. Hopefully alongside the best way you’ll be able to garner a larger appreciation for older firearms like we do, and concurrently you’ll be able to train us issues as nicely by sharing your personal experience and ideas within the Feedback. Understanding the firearms of previous, their significance, and their growth which result in lots of the arms we now cherish as we speak is extremely fascinating and we hope you take pleasure in what now we have to share, too!
Relationship: Winchester Mannequin 1894
Relationship Winchester Mannequin 1894 rifles comes with challenges. Over 7 million weapons had been produced throughout 130+ years. A good portion of Winchester’s manufacturing unit information had been destroyed in a 1959 hearth. The toughest half is that getting verified info entails spending cash, particularly for manufacturing unit letters from the Cody Firearms Museum.
Let me provide you with a private instance. This particular gun has all the time been in my household’s lore. It’s “Grandpa’s 32-40.” As youngsters, me and my cousins all the time heard about it. When my grandfather handed, the oldest grandson inherited the 32-40. I made an effort to get the Cody Firearms Museum documentation, and since all of us care about this extension of him, I pursued it.
The Cody Museum can present manufacturing unit letters for Winchester firearms primarily based on their surviving warehouse information. They cost charges primarily based on what information can be found. At the moment $80 for full configuration letters on pre-1907 weapons, $40 for date-only SNA information on later weapons, plus delivery. For this particular rifle, the letter advised us:
- Kind: Rifle
- Caliber: 32-40
- Barrel Kind: Octagon
- Set off: Plain
- Obtained in warehouse on November 04, 1905
- Shipped from warehouse on November 10, 1905, Order quantity 36635
Restricted info however nonetheless way more particular than only a 12 months subsequent to a serial quantity vary. We now have all the time puzzled if this particular gun was modified from a rifle to a carbine, if it had an extended journal tube, or different adjustments. All of which might have occurred earlier than my grandfather got here up with it within the early Fifties. Winchester made customized orders fairly easy so it’s arduous to say what might need been modified after it left the manufacturing unit.
The Manufacturing unit Data Scenario
Based mostly on analysis by Winchester collectors and historians like Bert Hartman who’ve studied the Cody Firearms Museum archives, here’s what really exists:
- Serial Numbers 1 by 353,999: Full authentic manufacturing unit warehouse ledger information exist on the Cody Firearms Museum. These are correct and might embrace particulars like barrel sort, sights, caliber, ship dates, and so on.
- Serial Numbers 354,000 by roughly 2,600,000+: Destroyed within the hearth. These weapons fall right into a black gap the place now we have to depend on much less dependable sources, educated guesses, or conjecture.
- Sprucing Room Serialization Data: These survive as much as serial no 1,352,066 dated December 29, 1945. They offer dates weapons had been serialized however apparently not configuration particulars.
- Submit-1964 Data: Higher documentation exists for weapons made after 1964, however even then it isn’t excellent.
The George Madis Scenario
A bit awkward of a subject however value touching. If in case you have ever seemed up Winchester serial numbers on-line, you might have in all probability encountered info that traces again to George Madis. He printed “The Winchester E book” in 1961 and later “Winchester Handbook,” each of which included serial quantity date charts. Right here is the problem: his info has confirmed to be notably inaccurate when in comparison with the precise manufacturing unit information. Off by years in lots of circumstances. Typically off by a decade or extra.
“The Winchester E book.” AbeBooks, www.abebooks.com/Winchester-E book-MADIS-George-Artwork-Reference/31839859274/bd. Accessed 13 Oct. 2025.
Researcher Bert Hartman spent years on the Cody Firearms Museum evaluating Madis’s printed serial quantity ranges in opposition to precise manufacturing unit information. Regardless of this, Madis’s knowledge has been copied and republished for over 60 years. It reveals up in books, on web sites, in PDFs. Even Winchester’s personal printed serial quantity chart was primarily based on previous Madis knowledge. The CFM will all the time be the most effective wager and higher yt any cash you throw their approach the higher trigger they’re nice.
What Sources Truly Work?
Cody Firearms Museum Manufacturing unit Letters: This is the gold standard. They cost a payment, at the moment ~ $80 for full configuration letters on pre-1907 weapons or $40 for date-only SNA information on later weapons plus delivery. You submit images and serial quantity info. In case your gun falls inside their surviving information, you’ll get the knowledge they’ve out there within the type of a Winchester Manufacturing unit Letter. That is what I did for my grandfather’s rifle.
Winchester Arms Collectors Affiliation (WACA): Membership will get you entry to raised serial quantity info and educated collectors who may also help date your rifle. I learn that they’ve finished in depth work correcting the Madis errors.
They even have their very own knowledge enter part. This website seems to make use of precise file info fairly than Madis knowledge. After I cross-referenced my grandfather’s 32-40, WinchesterCollector obtained it proper at 1905. OldGuns.internet who’s my typical go-to first cease when on the lookout for courting assets, referred to as it 1903. That two-year distinction issues if you find yourself making an attempt to determine when you have obtained a authorized vintage or if you find yourself courting transitional options.
Ought to You Get a Manufacturing unit Letter?
If in case you have a Winchester 94 that issues to you, whether or not it’s a household heirloom, early manufacturing rifle, or only one you’re interested by, contemplate a Cody Firearms Museum factory letter in case your serial quantity falls inside their surviving information. In case you are exterior that vary, use the most effective out there assets like WinchesterCollector.org or join with the Winchester Arms Collectors Affiliation.
Specs: Winchester Mannequin 1894
Winchester made a ton of those rifles over a very long time. Which means specs are topic to variations, customization, and adjustments throughout totally different eras. What follows are basic specs, however perceive that your specific rifle may differ primarily based on when it was made, what configuration it’s, and whether or not it was customized ordered.
- Years Produced: 1894-2006 (authentic Winchester manufacturing), 2010-present (reintroduction below totally different possession)
- MSRP (from 1899 catalog): $18 (~$703 in 2025)
- Quantity Manufactured: Over 7.5 million
- Working System: Lever motion
- Customary Calibers: 30-30 Win, 32 Win Particular, 38-55 Win, 25-35 Win, 32-40 Win, 7-30 Waters (plus others in restricted manufacturing)
- Barrel Lengths: 20 inches (carbine), 24 inches, 26 inches (rifle), customized lengths out there
- General Size: carbines round 37-38 inches, rifles 42-45 inches
- Weight: 6.5-7.5 lbs
- Journal Capability: 5-8 rounds (pending barrel size and caliber)
- Inventory Types: Straight grip, semi-pistol grip, varied wooden grades
- Sights: Buckhorn rear/blade entrance (commonplace), tang-mounted peep sights (optionally available), varied different configurations
- Motion: High eject (1894-1982), angle eject (1982-2006)
Specs: My Gun
- Yr Made: 1905
- MSRP (from 1905 catalogs): ~$12 (~$450 in 2025)
- Barrel Kind: Octagon
- Working System: Lever motion
- Customary Calibers: 32-40 Win
- Barrel Lengths: 20 inches
- Journal Capability: 5 rounds
- Inventory Types: Straight grip
- Sights: Buckhorn rear/blade entrance
- Motion: High eject
After Market Components & Equipment: Winchester Mannequin 1894
Right here is the place issues get monumental. Winchester made these rifles for thus lengthy and in such amount that principally each dependable components useful resource has one thing out there. The problem shouldn’t be discovering components – it’s discovering the best components in your particular configuration.
Pre-64 and post-64 components aren’t all the time interchangeable. The 1964 redesign modified inside dimensions and manufacturing strategies. If in case you have a pre-64 rifle, keep on with pre-64 components when potential. Mixing eras can result in perform issues or becoming points. All the time test-fit earlier than you begin modifying something everlasting.
- Midwest Gun Works: Has loads of new copy components. Good supply when you want purposeful replacements and aren’t nervous about sustaining collector-grade originality.
- Numrich Gun Parts Corp: That is the mountain. Numrich has an absolute pile of Winchester 94 components in the meanwhile. Primarily targeted on post-64 stuff, however they’ve an honest quantity of pre-64 components as nicely. Verify their website steadily as a result of stock adjustments.
- Jack First Gun Parts: Has a ton of components. Similar to Numrich however much less hyper-specific on mannequin designations past primary pre-64 and post-64 distinctions. Good if you already know what you want however don’t need to wade by fifty sub-variations.
- Homestead Firearms Parts: Onesie twosies of used components, however they’ve fairly particular hard-to-find items. Consider this as a extra organized eBay. Good useful resource if you want that one bizarre half no person else has.
- Old Arms of Idaho: Related idea to Homestead however with a greater organized web site. They’ve extra generalized components and the positioning is less complicated to navigate if you find yourself making an attempt to determine what matches what.
- CFN Parts (cfnparts.com): Has a great number of half listings, however loads of them are out of inventory. In all probability the components you really want. Nonetheless value checking as a result of once they have one thing, it’s normally appropriate.
- eBay: All the time value looking. Unique components, copy components, full actions, random small components – it’s all there. Simply know what you’re on the lookout for and what it ought to appear like.
Equipment for the Winchester 94 are form of infinite, though they are typically extra trendy in trend if that is sensible. Not gonna see a bunch of cool classic type items out on selves.
- Shares: Boyd’s makes substitute shares in varied configurations. Midwest Industries and Ranger Level Precision each make tactical-style furnishings if that’s your factor.
- Sights: Skinner model peep sights are fashionable upgrades. Crimson dot mounts can be found. Overhang scout scopes and lengthy eye reduction scope setups are frequent. Conventional tang-mounted peep sights can nonetheless be discovered.
- Leather-based Items: Amazon has all types of leather-based slings, butt cuffs, cartridge holders, and saddle scabbards. High quality varies wildly.
- Basic Equipment: Sling swivels, recoil pads, journal extensions, lever wraps – when you can consider it, anyone in all probability makes it for the Winchester 94.
Finish of Half III: Winchester Mannequin 1894
Nicely, girls and gents, we’re closing out the third a part of our Winchester Mannequin 1894 sequence. Relationship these rifles is genuinely difficult on account of destroyed information and unhealthy info floating across the web. Components and equipment are plentiful, however you might want to know what configuration you might have and what period it got here from. Subsequent time we’ll wrap this sequence up with vary time and remaining conclusions about why this rifle earned its legendary standing.
In closing, I hope our Curious Relics phase knowledgeable in addition to entertained. This all was written in hopes of continued firearm appreciation and preservation. We didn’t simply notice how weapons had been imagined to look and performance. It was a protracted and tedious course of that has formed the world we dwell in. So, I put it to you! Is there a firearm on the market that you just really feel doesn’t get a lot notoriety? What ought to our subsequent Curious Relics subject cowl? As all the time, tell us all your ideas within the Feedback under! We all the time admire your suggestions.
Trending Merchandise
