That little piece on Win 94 AE 357s that breaks.

[Tycer]

It keeps the small case head from wedging against the loading gate. Where it passes the ejector it wears thin then curls, tears, and makes a mess.

Any ideas on a better design or better steel?

[Griff]

And, here, all this time, I thought that little part screwed onto the carrier.

[J Miller]

That strikes me as a bandaid part. A "fix" for a poorly conceived chambering. The .357 might work great in a 92 style action, but it should have never been put in the 94.

JMHO

Joe

[M. M. Wright]

Give that Joe $64 and a box of Mars Bars!

Maybe no one here old enough to remember?

[Griff]

Maybe no one here old enough to remember?

Or, too old to remember!

[earlmck]

That is a disgusting little band-aid thing. I'll bet Alphawolf or rbertalotto could come up with something vastly more professional.

[J35]

Mine is a mid 90's production bought new, never had a problem with that part to date, who know;s maybe tomorrow.
Many thousands of round's thru it.

2010 i did have the ejector fail.

Good luck -- J

[Tycer]

Mine is a mid 90's production bought new, never had a problem with that part to date, who know;s maybe tomorrow.
Many thousands of round's thru it.

2010 i did have the ejector fail.

Good luck -- J

If you get a chance can you drop it out and document the wear spots on it?

[olyinaz]

Mine is a mid 90's production bought new, never had a problem with that part to date, who know;s maybe tomorrow.
Many thousands of round's thru it.

2010 i did have the ejector fail.

Good luck -- J

Same for me, I guess mine doesn't know that it's supposed to be junk. But I get it - I don't shoot mine in cowboy action etc. So the engineer in all of us looks at that and is put off by it. What they needed to do was make a .357 specific lever, no? Wouldn't welding it up permanently would be the proper fix? Maybe while having the lever color case hardened.

If the rifle were popular enough I suppose that an aftermarket supplier would have met the demand. Kind of reminds me of the constant wish for different types of Ruger grip frames. If you want one you really WANT one, but you may be one of only a hundred guys who's thinking it.

Some day 3D printing will solve all of this for guys like us. Put your lever in the machine, scan it, make your changes on the computer, and print the replacement ready for heat treating.

Great pix! Thanks!!

Oly

[J Miller]

I don't know when USRAC introduced the .357s in the 94. I'm sure the early ones worked very well even though it was a miss match situation.
But the later ones I think were so badly made and fit that this little widget just exacerbated the problem with the design.

Joe

[Mescalero]

Tycer,
A suggestion,buy some casenite, read the instuctions and do the treatment.
If the steel is not junk it should harden it up.

[Nath]

I love the 94 but that aside from my limited experience with them (3) any ae after the cross bolts safties I will not buy.

I noticed the widget thing recently and now wonder if it causes my gate to stay shut sometimes and restrict topping up the mag by not controling the incoming round correctly!

I may have to make my own version one day if so.

It is cheap and tackie'!

Should the Win 94 357 be condemed? No, I don't think so.

Excellent photo's

N.

[El Chivo]

I saw it and decided to replace it and ordered three. That's the tinfoil thing I talk about. When I compared the new ones I saw about 1/3 had broken off.

They should have made a whole new lever for .357 with that part integrated. That would probably be the best fix - a new lever done by CNC after market.

Maybe JB Weld under it and around it would help it stay solid.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another thing to worry about with the .357's is a broken ejector. If you compare to 30-30, the ejector is kind of small. It has a head and a pin handle. The pin is thin and the head shears off - this happened to me and several others I heard about on this forum, including one from the UK who posted he couldn't get the part.

The reason it happens is, because of the size and fit, the head scrapes against the left side guide rail which is attached to the inside wall. Eventually the side pressure breaks the head off. The rail is oversize and unfinished.

The prevention is to smooth down the rail so it doesn't rub against the ejector. Nath you might want to do this before your ejector pops off. Helps smooth the action a little bit too.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Borregos]

I had one break a couple of years ago, should have ordered more than one replacement I guess

[Nath]

I will check that out, thanks

N.

[Mescalero]

BTT,
I want Tycer to see this.

[86er]

Based on this post I bought several cartridge stops. I am going to try to color case harden one, Kasenit harden one and temper the other. I'll then run a few hundred rounds through each while plinking - might take a few months - but I can then see what seems to hold up best and get yet one more to repeat the process and save. Thanks for all the input here!

[Mescalero]

86er
I am real interested how the kasenite works out.

[earlmck]

I think if I had one, besides ordering up a spare, I'd go with El Chivo's JB Weld idea. Fill in all the spaces and gaps with JB Weld and she'd probably last for the duration.

[Griff]

They should have made a whole new lever for .357 with that part integrated. That would probably be the best fix - a new lever done by CNC after market.
Maybe JB Weld under it and around it would help it stay solid.

The .357 mdl 94AE does have it's own distinct lever. Ir has a screw hole to attach that stop. If the stop weren't detachable, would the lever fit thru the slot in the link?

[El Chivo]

If the stop weren't detachable, would the lever fit thru the slot in the link?

I'd have to say yes, because I believe I did it with the lever out. There might have been cursing involved.

[El Chivo]

Ok, here's a closeup of that rail - if you look at the edge you can see where I smoothed it.

legacy rail.jpg

Here's my tray of Winchester parts (I need to get another order together, had a sheared off screw and had the right one in stock, but now it's gone).

tray.jpg

Not trying to compete with OS and his personal pics, but here's my buddy:

buddy_sml.jpg

and it was a tight squeeze in the jacuzzi one night:

3_frogs_small_web.jpg

[retmech]

The .357 mdl 94AE does have it's own distinct lever.

The only difference is the addition of the hole to attach the cartridge block. I put a lever from an old 30-30 in my .357AE because it was .025" thicker than the original that rattled around in the link like a piece of junk. In fact there is very little original in my AE. Hammer,tang,trigger and lever are from an old 30-30, I had to weld the cartridge stop on the link and I'm on my 3rd ejector! If the darn thing didn't shoot so well I'd have gotten rid of it long ago. It HAS taught me all about assembling 94's.

[El Chivo]

The .357 mdl 94AE does have it's own distinct lever.

The only difference is the addition of the hole to attach the cartridge block. I put a lever from an old 30-30 in my .357AE because it was .025" thicker than the original that rattled around in the link like a piece of junk. In fact there is very little original in my AE. Hammer,tang,trigger and lever are from an old 30-30, I had to weld the cartridge stop on the link and I'm on my 3rd ejector! If the darn thing didn't shoot so well I'd have gotten rid of it long ago. It HAS taught me all about assembling 94's.

Did you smooth down that side rail? I heard once that was done, the ejectors last. I am on my second ejector, when I changed it I did the smoothing and am curious to know if that info was accurate or if I can expect more ejector heads to pop off.

[retmech]

Did you smooth down that side rail?

Yes after the second one broke, also cut a slight bevel on the hole where the "tail" slides in and out. Have only put a couple hundred rounds through since the change so I don't know for sure if it helped. The ejector is a cheap,brittle, cast part that is nothing but c**p!