I recently had the opportunity to purchase a Trapper chambered in .30-30 Winchester. I’d had one once, traded it away and had long regretted that rash move. I wanted another.
As you know, Winchester began offering the modern Model 94 Trapper with its ultra-short 16-inch barrel in 1980, and made it available almost continuously until 2006. The Trapper I recently purchased is an early one. It was made in 1981. It features top ejection and no exterior safety. Later Winchester Model 94s sported angle ejection and either a receiver or a tang safety.
My new Winchester Model 94 Trapper is exactly what I was looking for – a sound, reliable, used Trapper with a bit of character.
This gun came out of south Texas. It’s hunt-worn and the receiver is polished and browned by time, much carry and by plenty of brush-country deer hunts.
Buying a used rifle, especially one that’s nearly 30 years old, is always a bit of a stuff shoot. You never quite know what you’re going to end up with. I simply hoped for a rifle that still shot well. As it turned out, I was not disappointed.
I’ve now made a number of trips to the range with my new/old Trapper. But before I fired the first shot, I changed its sights.
Winchester equipped the Model 94 Trapper with conventional iron sights. Those sights work well, but I personally prefer a hunting–oriented peep sight on such rifles. Making the switch was easy. Using a delrin drift pin, I tapped the factory rear sight out of the rifle’s dovetail rear-sight mount. Then I filled that barrel dovetail with a Lyman Slot Blank. Next, I installed a Williams FP Receiver sight. This is a superb rear sight, conveniently adjustable and rugged. My M94 Trapper was factory drilled and tapped for this sight. I’ve used the Williams FP rear sight on a variety of other lever-action rifles and have always liked it. I left the plain, factory-standard upright front post as is. Also note the rifle’s rather romantic saddle ring.
There are two reasons why I prefer the Williams FP sight on the Winchester Model 94 Trapper. First, the use of a receiver sight dramatically increases the sighting radius of the Trapper. With the factory rear sight in place, the sighting radius of the Trapper – with its compact 16-inch barrel - is just a shade over 10 inches. By changing to the Williams receiver sight, the sight radius jumps up to almost 19 inches. That a huge increase. A longer sight radius makes for more precise aiming.
Second, I find it easier to shoot well with a quality peep sight than I do with a conventional-blade rear sight. That’s me, YMMV. For me, a good peep sight seems somehow more comfortable to shoot. A lot has been written about how to shoot a hunting peep sight, and usually the writer rambles on about how the rifle’s front bead or post “naturally” centers itself in the circle of the rear peep. I won’t go that far in my description. While the front sight does, for me, tend to seek the brightest part of the circular peep (the center), I still must be VERY deliberate and careful to get it exactly centered. In doing so, I work hard to establish a firm and precise relationship between the front and the rear sight. Only once that relationship is accomplished, do I then actually begin aiming the rifle. It’s hardly a natural process, but it works for me.
When shooting any iron-sight system, I keep both of my eyes open, and I try very hard to relax and trust the sight picture. That sight picture is nowhere near at clear or as precise as with a good rifle scope. Often, the front bead or post appears to cover a good bit of the target at any distance over about 75 yards. That occurs even though I often sight my iron-sighted rifles in using a 6 o’clock hold. With this Trapper, for example, I’ve sighted things in so that the spot I want to hit at 100 yards appears to sit right on top of the post front sight, which is centered in the peep. At fifty yards, I aim the same way but expect the bullet to hit two inches high.
Shooting my new/used Trapper proved quite the experience. Recoil is what I would describe as snappy. There is a bit of muzzle lift at the shot, I suppose because of the short, light barrel. The trigger breaks cleanly for a lever-action rifle, probably due to a fair amount of use. Accuracy, thankfully, proved surprisingly good with the right ammunition.
To date, I’ve experimented with four factory loads for this rifle. From a good bench, those loads tested out as follows. These figures are the average of repeated three 3-shot groups fired at 50 yards on a sunny day with little wind.
Federal 150-grain Soft Point - 1.62 inches
Winchester 150-grain Silvertip - 1.37 inches
Federal 170-grain Soft Point - 3.50 inches
Winchester 170-grain Power Point – 1.12 inches
After that testing, I selected the 170-grain Winchester Power Point load and moved back to 100 yards. At that distance, five 3-shot groups averaged 2.37 inches. To be honest, that’s about a good as I’ve ever been able to shoot with iron sights at that distance. This Trapper shoots!
The other thing I did was shoot each of the tested loads through a chronograph and record the results. I wasn’t really sure how much affect the abbreviated 16-inch barrel on my Trapper would have on bullet velocity. Here are the results. These figures are the averages of 4-shot strings with my 16-inch-barrel Trapper on a 45-degree day.
Federal 150-grain Soft Point: 2,218 fps (this load is advertised by the factory at 2390 fps with 24” barrel)
Winchester 150-grain Silvertip: 2,162 fps (this load advertised by the factory at 2390 fps with 24” barrel)
Federal 170-grain Soft Point: 2,020 fps (this load is advertised by the factory at 2200 fps with 24” barrel)
Winchester 170-grain Power Point: 2,002 fps (the load is advertised by the factory at 2200 fps with 24” barrel)
I believe I’m going to like this Winchester Model 94 Trapper. It measures barely 34 inches from end to end and weighs just 5 pounds 15 ounces. And, it shoots with reliable and pleasing accuracy.
There is something quite special about the Winchester Model 94 Trapper. The truth is that it’s easy to wax poetic about the romance of firearms of this type. Maybe it shows that I’ve been drinking the lever-action Kool-Aid of late, but the following sort of photos seem awfully easy – and fun - to set up. Let me know if you enjoy them.
Who else has a Winchester Model 94 Trapper, and how does it shoot?
Thanks for sharing the pictures and the range report!!! 
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