Just purchased a 1894 win 25-35.

[Buckbrush]

I just purchased a 1894 26" oct barrel chambered in 25-35 made in 1902. The rifle finish is gone wood is dark. The seller says the action is tight no buggerd up screws in shooting condition. Bore is fair to poor.
I want to do a restoration on this. I paid 850.00 for the rifle. Anybody know if it would be a bad idea to resleeve the barrel to keep the original chamber. Or should I just leave it alone how far can I take it before it loses all collection value. Like putting case color back on the receiver. Rust bluing ect. I'm doing this just as a project to tinker with this winter. Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated.

 

[p_ham]

Cool gun, cool caliber!

If you want it for a collector rifle, leave it alone. Relining can improve or hurt the value, depending on the condition of the rest of the gun.

Now if you want it for a restoration, just know that if you plan to sell it then it's value will be based on the quality of work and collectors may not necessarily want a restored rifle. If you're restoring it to have a nice shooter you'll keep then go nuts and enjoy the process!

I'm sure @BrentD will be along shortly, he's the aficionado.

 

[BrentD]

yeah, here I am. Pretty much on cue... I'm a bit too predictable I think.

Tinkering is great. It's the only way to learn. You do not have a collector's rifle. Altering it's condition is not really important. Getting it shooting is important.

If the wood is dark and w/o finish, is it oil soaked? Is the wood to metal fit good - real good or sorta good? If it's oil soaked it can be deoiled (mostly) and then refinished. Probaby bedded at the same time. Then refinished eventually. (there are better and worse sequences of restoring). You can also find pretty inexpensive replacement wood that you can refinish yourself with very little extra fitting.

You can reline the barrel to any of the .38-55 parent cartridge cases. Nothing like a .38-55 lever gun in my opinion, but take your pick when you reline as long as it's a derivative of the .38-55. 32-40 is another sweetie (straight sided cases have some legalistic hunting advantages). Relining will replace the chamber entirely - that's good thing. Do it right.

Another, cheaper option is sending the barrel off to be rebored to a larger caliber. This can be done by outfits like "JES Reboring" (it will google). I'd go up two calibers at least - so from .25 to 32 or 38, but not .30. However, the .30 may be doable if you want a .30-30.

Is there pitting or deep dings on the metal, esp, the action? Can they be polished out? If you want to learn to polish correctly you can repolish the metal, even have some welding done to fill pits and then send it off for case colors. The polishing is the hard work.

Ditto the barrel, however, you can also do the rust bluing yourself with a very small investment for equipment.

So, there you ahve a short synopsis of the options. You can shoot for something like a "like New" final product or you can keep most of the patina and opt for totally functional, shoots like new, rifle that still looks like a 120-yr old piece of unknown, but not unimaginable, history.

Have fun and make it what you want. Not what someone else thinks you should do. If you put some sweat equity into it, you will find that everything you kill with it tastes just that much sweeter and is just that much more fun and interesting.

Life it too short to hunt an ugly gun, but it's also too short to hunt with a new, off the shelf gun that will never be interesting until you are done with it.

 

[Buckbrush]

Thank you for your input BrentD. I bought the gun off gun broker so I really don't know how bad the wood is oil soaked. I asked but he just said that it probably had some.
I have 3 days to look it over before signing for it.
I would like to keep it a 25-35 cartridge because I already have a Marlin in 38-55. Most likely would like to keep it as original as I can. But as you say it's not really a collector.
So I might try my hand at case Harding it my self. That's mostly why I bought it. I have rust blued rifles and built a flint lock rifle. So I have some experience with gunsmithing.
And I have been a tool and die maker and machinist for 30+ yrs. Metal work really doesn't scare me but you always can learn new and become better at a trade. And gunsmithing is definitely a skill set of machinist, blacksmith, woodworking and art sprinkled with magic. That's what I love about it. Thank you again for your insight.

 

[BrentD]

If you are going to cc, check this

Color case hardening - Marlin Firearms Collectors Association

 

[p_ham]

And keep us updated!

 

[Buckbrush]

If you are going to cc, check this

Color case hardening - Marlin Firearms Collectors Association

Very good info with some absolutely beautiful work.
Thank you for sharing that. I'm along ways away from getting the oven for cch. There's a youtuber that has started his own gunsmithing shop. Called the cinabar. He did a 22 receiver but he did not give any details on how he got his colors. I need to start investing in more gunsmithing books and knowledge as most of my skill set is in mass production of modern machining practices.

 

[2rocky]

As a fellow Aficionado of the 25-35 I welcome you to the club of non standard leverguns

I have a Model 64 25-35.

 

[Buckbrush]

As a fellow Aficionado of the 25-35 I welcome you to the club of non standard leverguns

I have a Model 64 25-35.
View attachment 243972

Thanks. I would love to take a pronghorn with mine if I could ever draw a tag. Sweet gun also.

 

[Buckbrush]

And keep us updated!

Will do. As soon as I get a hold of it.

 

[44hunter45]

I just purchased a 1894 26" oct barrel chambered in 25-35 made in 1902. The rifle finish is gone wood is dark. The seller says the action is tight no buggerd up screws in shooting condition. Bore is fair to poor.
I want to do a restoration on this. I paid 850.00 for the rifle. Anybody know if it would be a bad idea to resleeve the barrel to keep the original chamber. Or should I just leave it alone how far can I take it before it loses all collection value. Like putting case color back on the receiver. Rust bluing ect. I'm doing this just as a project to tinker with this winter. Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated.

First thing you do is use a product like Sweet's to really clean it good. You will see an unbelievable amount of crud come out of that bore. When your patches finally come out clean, take it to the range. I completely disassemble mine so I can feed patches and nylon brushes from the breech end. No steel or bronze brushes. DO NOT remove the screws from the feed rails, just what you need to drop the lever and bolt.

My 1916 1894 30WCF looks scary as hell in the bore scope, but shoots about 3 MOA off sandbags with the tang sight. That's better than I can see the sights, so I think at least 2 of those MOA are me.

 

[Don Fischer]

Before changing it you might want to shoot it. I have a 1903 built by Paul Jaeger in 1945. Guy I got it from shot a bunch of corrosive primer's through it and didn't clean it very well. barrel is pitted pretty bad but thing still shoots just under 1 1/2" at 100 yds. have killed three elk with it in three shots. Pitted barrel be dammed!

 

[Buckbrush]

Yeah I definitely gonna shooter first. Anybody know if the older 94 shoot cast boolits well. That's one reason I may want to reline the bore if they don't. But I don't have a whole lot of experience with these old lever boolit slingers.

 

[44hunter45]

Yeah I definitely gonna shooter first. Anybody know if the older 94 shoot cast boolits well. That's one reason I may want to reline the bore if they don't. But I don't have a whole lot of experience with these old lever boolit slingers.

Paper patching is your friend

 

[Buckbrush]

Paper patching is your friend

I paper patch my 38-55. No thanks one rifle is enough of that for me.

 

[Don Fischer]

Yeah I definitely gonna shooter first. Anybody know if the older 94 shoot cast boolits well. That's one reason I may want to reline the bore if they don't. But I don't have a whole lot of experience with these old lever boolit slingers.

I'm a bolt action guy but do like the looks of some of the older lever actions. Have thought for a long time that those older type lever's would be about perfect for cast bullet's. My bolts that I've shot cast in worked very well! Good thinking I think!

 

[elkduds]

yeah, here I am. Pretty much on cue... I'm a bit too predictable I think.

Tinkering is great. It's the only way to learn. You do not have a collector's rifle. Altering it's condition is not really important. Getting it shooting is important.



Have fun and make it what you want. Not what someone else thinks you should do. If you put some sweat equity into it, you will find that everything you kill with it tastes just that much sweeter and is just that much more fun and interesting.

Life it too short to hunt an ugly gun, but it's also too short to hunt with a new, off the shelf gun that will never be interesting until you are done with it.

The 1st gun I bought I found on the wall in a pawnshop. The wood was bare of finish, off brand Interarms Mark X, crap glass. That was 40 years ago. I finished the stock, fit and bedded the stock, upgraded the trigger and glass, learned to reload w it, took almost all my big game w it. It is my rifle in a way no other gun is mine, and none will ever be. Because I made it my own.

 

[Buckbrush]

The 1st gun I bought I found on the wall in a pawnshop. The wood was bare of finish, off brand Interarms Mark X, crap glass. That was 40 years ago. I finished the stock, fit and bedded the stock, upgraded the trigger and glass, learned to reload w it, took almost all my big game w it. It is my rifle in a way no other gun is mine, and none will ever be. Because I made it my own.
View attachment 243982

Wish I still had a couple of my first rifles. Sadly the ex stole most of them. But at least she left

 

[Mustangs Rule]

Leave as is, use it as is. Nothing you can do to it will be better that what time has done. Trying to undo time or improve on time never goes well.

 

[p_ham]

Leave as is, use it as is. Nothing you can do to it will be better that what time has done. Trying to undo time or improve on time never goes well.

Disagree.