Sears 54 30-30 **a few pics added**

[Joe S.]

I picked one of these up today at lunch, and I noticed right away that the action is a little bit different than their Winchester 94 brethren. Has anyone actually compared this side-by-side with a 94? What are the differences in detail? It is a clean little lever gun.

http://imageshack.us/a/img540/8894/Ze5IpO.jpg

Even came with a green Sears case that you can barely see.
http://imageshack.us/a/img908/5715/6IFScy.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img540/907/ZWuM9V.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img909/5531/zEiWsY.jpg

[Pete44ru]

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AFAIK, most of the metal parts are the same as all post-64 Model 94 Carbine's, but with less attention to polishing prior to coloring (post-64 "bluing" isn't - it just looks like it) - the magazine tube & spring are a bit shorter.

The stock wood, and forend treatment is also different, to Sears & Roebuck's contracted specs.

The fancier Sears guns (Ted Williams models ? ) are stocked in walnut, the standard grades in another hardwood (most likely birch).


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[Joe S.]

Thank you! I wonder how different the internals are… Because the locking lugs look a little different to me. But maybe not…

[Hagler]

Joe,

Did it have all of these holes & screws (the 4 small ones, along the top edge of the left side):



...for this 3X J.C. Higgins scope & mount?:



Shawn

[Joe S.]

Yes those holes are there.

[Pete44ru]

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Apparently some large/chain customers demanded that vendors D/T their rifles where they aren't already normally so scope-prepped.

Besides (apparently) Winchester, here's a Marlin letter that a fellow board member once posted (Thanks, David ! ), about Marlin D/T-ing 4 holes in the LH/rear barrel side of some Marlin 39a's in 1954-55,




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[Joe S.]

I had a '55 39a Mountie for a little while that was D&T'd there.
A fun lil gun.

[Pete44ru]

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Joe, I noticed that you're using imageshack to host your pics.

Please check your PM's


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[1894c]

Here you go Joe---very nice levergun... :)

Ze5IpO.jpg

6IFScy.jpg

ZWuM9V.jpg

zEiWsY.jpg

[Joe S.]

Thanks 1892. Sorry i didn't say so sooner.

Got to messing with this thing while ago. It's rough as a cob.

Has anyone installed a barrel band on these? Or does anyone know if it's possible? That firend cap bugs me...

[Griff]

That carbine appears to wear a "flat band". Is the carrier stamped, or ?? I haven't seen a Sears with that forend treatment... makes me wonder if it hasn't been modified. All I have seen before, (admittedly, very few), have been standard Winchester carbines, with birch stocks vs. walnut.

[Joe S.]

Not sure about the carrier?

The ones i have seen on Gunbroker have looked the same so i think it is a factory (ugly) band.

[Pete44ru]

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Sears specified the forend tip treatment to distinguish a Sears gun from a JAW (Just Another Winchester ).

Since Sears carried Sears / Winchester leverguns from 1964 through 1973 (when Sears stopped selling firearms @ retail), your rifle is a post-64 version, with all the changes of 1964.

There are more/others, but the bulk of those changes are:

* A stamped sheet metal carrier/lifter, ILO the previous (pre-64) forged/machined steel carrier.

* Hollow roll action pins, that replaced the pre-64 solid pins.

* A receiver made of sintered metal ILO the pre-64 forged/machined receiver.

* Receiver coatings/colorants that, beside Black Chrome, only look like conventional bluing, Silver, Pewter, Gold, Brass & case-hardened colors - which makes refinishing very tenuous, and not something just anybody can accomplish.


After 1970, another yet different method for coloring the sintered metal receivers with "bluing" was adopted, and the guns would also have a 3rd/new carrier that looks like a pre-64 carrier, but is in fact a cast item (look for the mold's seam line running down the center of the carrier).



I've never done it, but AFAIK the Sears forend treatment can be converted back to standard treatment (forend barrel band), but it'll take reworking the wood to accept the bbl band and most likely filing a cross-groove in the magazine tube & bbl underside to allow the barrel band screw to pass through from one side to the other.



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[Joe S.]

Man that is some GREAT information!! Thank you so much!!

I know this one had a definite finish on the reciever so i just wasnt sure when that was started.

I am going to pull that forend apart and look into changing that up. I really dislike it. The side of the reciever looks like a pegboard with all the screws but at least they all have filler screws so i can live with it. May try to slick the gun up some while i'm at it.

[Griff]

Thanks Pete, I didn't know that Sears only carried them for such a short period.

Joe, I shoulda said front band, as in the photo it looks like a post WWII "flat" band, not rounded as on other carbines.

[Pete44ru]

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You're welcome, gents - Thanks for the kind words.

Joe - I would opine that, because your rifle has the stamped carrier, would have been made sometime between 1964 & 1970.

I'm sorry, but I cannot drill the DOM down further - but if you want to know it, I would suggest you telephone Winchester Customer Service with the SN, as they might be able to quote as to when it was made/shipped to Sears.



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[Joe S.]

Man thats perfect.

Much obliged!