Advice on Winny 94 30-30 hack, reblue, redo, something......

[TCB in TN]

OK a little while back I came across a little rough 1970 something 94- 30/30 that was in need of a lot of TLC (ugly stock, no finish on the receiver, much of the blue worn off the barrel and tube etc), it just followed me home somehow.... you guys know how it is.

When I found it I was thinking about my own hilly billy assault rifle with black stock, shortened barrel and tube (16 1/2 in) and making it a good truck gun. Yesterday I decided to clean it up, and get the gunk off the stock and well minus the gunk the wood is real nice. The barrel and tube have an appt. to get shortened, but the wood is really just to nice to put back black. SOOOOO I am looking at trying to at least make it look respectable. I have refinished a lot of stocks and have even made a few look pretty presentable so I have that covered, and years ago I home blued a few guns, and they didn't turn out half bad, BUT what is the best way to handle the WInny's reciever? I know I am not coming out of this with a NEW looking gun, but again that isn't the point. Just want a nice handling, decent looking gun.

I tried to do a search and was surprised to not really find anything, so I guess my search-foo is off. So any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
TCB

[Hillbilly]

wow... several of those dura coat kinda products are out there...I have always like a nice parkerized finish on working guns too... sorry... too many choices.

Looking forward to results!

[Pete44ru]

Check out Brownell's Gun Kote system.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1150 ... GUN_FINISH

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[FWiedner]

I have an older Winchester with one of those impossible to blue receivers. Got mine powder-coated.

Didn't do it at home in the wife's oven. I hired someone to do it for me.

Extremely durable. Not bad looking either.

[RKrodle]

FWiedners 94 is sharp looking. He had it on the hunt this past weekend. Really setup nicely.

[shooter]

I'm in the process of doing the same thing to an early 70's 94. I refinished the stock and it looks pretty nice. I tried bluing mine a couple weeks ago, and it didn't work. I picked up some Blue Wonder Gun Black this weekend. The guy told me he used that instead of the blue for Winchesters, I hope he's honest. If that doesn't work out I'm placing an order with Duracoat. I really like their products. I wanted to try to make mine look really nice before I put an epoxy type finish on it. I really like the Duracoat, but it doesn't look as nice as a well done blue. I've also considered rust bluing the gun. I like lever actions to look as close to original as possible, but as far as functionality, I really like the Duracoat.

[Pete44ru]

FWIW, every wife don't have their own oven - but, some have the permitted use of their man's, though.

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[BenT]

I tried this stuff last year on a mid seventies Win 94. It's still holding up. All the other name brand stuff ends up wiping off after a while. I will be sticking with this product.

Van's Instant Gun blue. 715-568-2612

It's different from other blueing stuff I've use. It's a clear liquid that is oderless and no fumes. I purchased it from the owner at a gunshow. It is applied on a rag with a buffing motion. Just keep applying and buffing until desired darkness. It takes a little while to work. This seller told me his grandfather came up with the formula in the 30's. You can get a deep blue from it.

[kimwcook]

I'm going to throw my vote to send it to Mike Hunter, if he'll do it and have him CCH the receiver. I've had some bad experiences with coated finishes. Too soft and not durable enough. Plus, for me, I just haven't warmed up to the looks of a painted finish. Now I have seen some end results that looked okay, especially some that have been shown here. Just not my cup of tea.

[Malamute]

I used I believe one of the Brownells cold blues on a 1960's 94. it didnt exactly "blue", but it took. It looks more like a slightly browning, color case hardened finish. I sort of like it, certainly more so than modern paint type finishes.

[salvo]

TCB, here is a link to my carbine conversion in "The one sticky"
Instead of trying to make cold blue look like hot blue on a 1980 receiver, I figured I would try to make the receiver look old.
I ended up using two coats of Birchwood Casey Super Blue liquid and 0000 wool between coats and it's holding up fine. Kinda looks like faded CCH.

http://onesticky.levergunscommunity.org ... rsion.html





I also refinished a 1965 Model 94 with the same Birchwood Casey Super Blue and it turned out pretty good!

[shooter]

Salvo, that's some nice looking wood on that first rifle! Both are nice guns, but that wood on the first one makes me drool.

[gak]

Beautiful job! +1 focus on making it look older, although the other (dark "blue") example looks great too.

[Hagler]

TCB in TN,

I second the Birchwood Casey Super Blue. Here is my response to another forum memeber:

viewtopic.php?t=24596&p=303829

...3rd response.

Shawn

[Griff]

I'll second the sending it to Mike for CCH. He didn't do my 1979, but he knows the CORRECT method of doing it.

[Rusty]

I made myself a trapper one time and after I'd shortened everything the way it needed to be it had some tool marks that needed to be hidden. Since I'd always liked the looks of a browned muzzleloader I did just that to my 94. Stripped everything off so no springs wold remain and heated the barrel and receiver in the oven, then put on some Birchwood Casey's Plumb Brown. It came out looking like a Trapper from the 1930's with all those years of natural age on it.

[oltimber]

I made myself a trapper one time and after I'd shortened everything the way it needed to be it had some tool marks that needed to be hidden. Since I'd always liked the looks of a browned muzzleloader I did just that to my 94. Stripped everything off so no springs wold remain and heated the barrel and receiver in the oven, then put on some Birchwood Casey's Plumb Brown. It came out looking like a Trapper from the 1930's with all those years of natural age on it.

Would you have a pic of the plum brown trapper? I am doing one for a friend right now but have quite a bit of finish work to do.
Thanks Ron

[TCB in TN]

Wow guys, thanks for the ideas, love the pics too. This is making me very excited about my little project. Tore it all down last night, and am going to run the barrel and receiver to the smith today to get the barrel shortened (he said he would get to it in the next week). It was the first time I ever took a 94 apart, and the old girl fought me at every step! Finally got it all apart though. No offense to you winchester guys but taking this one apart made me like my marlin's even better! LOL! I do think it will be a great little gun by the time I am done, and I do love the clean lines of the straight stock better than the pistol grip. I have never understood why Marlin went exclusively to the pistol grip.

[Malamute]

Something you may want to give some though to while its taken apart and you're going to refinish it, is the bevel on the lower edge of the receiver. That's one of the things that was changed on the post-64 guns. The earlier ones had a more pronounced bevel, and were more comfortable to carry in the hand. I worked the bevel on my post-64 down to where it was just getting into the link screw head a little.


I agree that the Winchesters are more complicated to take apart, but in actual use, there isnt much reason to take them apart, even over many many years of hard use. I very much like that they are thinner (in the hand) and lighter than a comparable Marlin.

[TCB in TN]

Something you may want to give some though to while its taken apart and you're going to refinish it, is the bevel on the lower edge of the receiver. That's one of the things that was changed on the post-64 guns. The earlier ones had a more pronounced bevel, and were more comfortable to carry in the hand. I worked the bevel on my post-64 down to where it was just getting into the link screw head a little.


I agree that the Winchesters are more complicated to take apart, but in actual use, there isnt much reason to take them apart, even over many many years of hard use. I very much like that they are thinner (in the hand) and lighter than a comparable Marlin.

It is a little rough, so that is one more thing to take care of while I have it apart! After I get it back together I think I will be real happy with it. I really don't worry to much about taking things apart and putting them back together (just fun to pick at you winchester guys on here LOL). It is a fun challenge to me, taking something that looks like dirt and making something pretty or at least serviceable out of it is great. I did put a few rounds through it when I first got it and it shoots pretty well ( a lot better than it looks), so I am excited about getting this thing done and seeing how it handles and shoots.

[shooter]

It is a little rough, so that is one more thing to take care of while I have it apart! After I get it back together I think I will be real happy with it. I really don't worry to much about taking things apart and putting them back together (just fun to pick at you winchester guys on here LOL). It is a fun challenge to me, taking something that looks like dirt and making something pretty or at least serviceable out of it is great. I did put a few rounds through it when I first got it and it shoots pretty well ( a lot better than it looks), so I am excited about getting this thing done and seeing how it handles and shoots.

That's the same way I feel about the one I'm redoing. I usually don't care if my guns are a little scratched up or whatever. I carry mine in the woods too much not to get some of that. The one I'm doing is a great shooter, but I just wanted to clean it up a little, and I like to always have a little project going. I'm going to try that Blue Wonder Gun Black on it this weekend. I'll post pics and let you know how it turns out. I had the same problem taking mine apart the first time. If you want to get good at it, just take it apart and put it back together a few times. It gets easier and isn't really that bad once you figure out the proper order to put everything back together. I did a search and found a step by step. It was a lot easier once I followed the steps.

Here's the link: http://www.castbullet.com/misc/tdown.htm