Winchester 94 serial numbers

[roughcreek]

I have this cheat sheet (I forget where I got it) that I use at gun shows or wherever I see a 94 for sale. I am not completely sure it is correct or complete. For instance I don't know what S/N the side eject started.

500,000-1,200,000 flaking receivers (I'm assuming this is just the normal aging of a nickel steel receiver)
1,027,572 proof steel barrel starts
1,100,000 ramp front sight start
below 1,350,000 best workmanship
above 1,900,000 receiver drilled and tapped for peep
2,600,011 last pre-64
2,700,000 first 64 gun

I'm not sure when the alloy receivers started. The ones that don't take bluing.
When I call on one offered for sale, they sometimes know very little about the gun. If they give me the serial number I can pretty much decide if I want to make the drive to look at it and perhaps buy it. I realize I wasn't specific enough when I made the list, consequently when I look at it later I see it is not complete.

Any comment or suggests appreciated.

Thanks, Roughcreek

[Sixgun]

The ones that do not take bluing (they do, but a bit tricky) are the "Japanese Winchesters". They are NOT Japanese, but called that because they rattled a lot and were basically junk---although good shooters. Winchester started making that junk in '64 and it continued until the mid to late seventies. Can't help you on the serial numbers as most of what I deal with was made before WW2.

Here's an idea---Ask the guy (over the phone) to shake it, and if it rattles, tell him to take it to the scrap yard (Oh come on--just a joke!)------------------------Sixgun

[bbleverfan]

i have one that is made in 80 and it wont take blue on the reciever

[roughcreek]

I'll have to wait till I get my books out of storage, after we move, and then look some stuff up and make my list more complete.
Were any of the 94's ever made in Japan?

Roughcreek

[J Miller]

I'll have to wait till I get my books out of storage, after we move, and then look some stuff up and make my list more complete.
Were any of the 94's ever made in Japan?

Roughcreek

No Winchester 94s were ever made in Japan. That is one of those pre-internet old wives tales that was simply wrong to start with and refuses to die.

The receivers made from 1964 until about 1981 or 82 are made from a casting of scintered metal. Think early MIM. Powdered metal mixed with a catalyst was injected into a mold and then under heat and pressure the powdered metal melted and fused into a nearly completed receiver. The receivers were not any kind of strange alloy or anything else, they were steel. It's just the way they were cast instead of forged and machined makes them not take bluing properly.

Joe