Lever gun and a story

[OntarioHunter]

Buried in the Philippines. I do have copies of a few photos my grandmother and other uncles had.

View attachment 229396

View attachment 229397

Handsome lad.

 

[300stw]

i have one like that, not as good of a story though, long barrel model, its my doe harvesting equipment, gets a few everyyear, good luck

 

[mtmuley]

Hunting Wife, have you decided on the bullet you ate going to use? mtmuley

 

[Hunting Wife]

Hunting Wife, have you decided on the bullet you ate going to use? mtmuley

Not yet. Need something factory. We aren’t set up to reload rifle.

It liked the round-nosed bullets noticeably better than any others, so maybe I want to try those good ole’ 170 gr Core-Lokts? I like the classics anyway.

 

[mtmuley]

Not yet. Need something factory. We aren’t set up to reload rifle.

It liked the round-nosed bullets noticeably better than any others, so maybe I want to try those good ole’ 170 gr Core-Lokts? I like the classics anyway.

I'd stick a Core-Lokt in anything. I have some for my 94. If I can't get the Hammers to shoot, Core-Lokt it is. Looking forward to how it goes for you. mtmuley

 

[Hunting Wife]

I'd stick a Core-Lokt in anything. I have some for my 94. If I can't get the Hammers to shoot, Core-Lokt it is. Looking forward to how it goes for you. mtmuley

Good to know! I see a lot of people turn up their nose at them, but they’ve never let me down.

More worried about my knee getting the job done than the Core-Lokts.

 

[Nick87]

No idea how I missed this, beautiful rifle..very jealous.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I believe you can safely shoot pointy tip Leverution (sp?) ammo in a '94. Might give a bit more range for flatland shooting. Can anyone one here shed more light on this?

 

[Hunting Wife]

I believe you can safely shoot pointy tip Leverution (sp?) ammo in a '94. Might give a bit more range for flatland shooting. Can anyone one here shed more light on this?

Yes, by Hornady. They have that plastic pointy tip. My other rifles love Hornady so we did try some of those. I was not impressed with them out of this rifle. They did not seem to be as accurate as some of the others we tried.

 

[p_ham]

@Hunting Wife did you get to use this rifle this past season any?

 

[Hunting Wife]

@Hunting Wife did you get to use this rifle this past season any?

Ha. That’s turned into a whole sequel.

So, nope. For one, after blowing out my knee and losing most of my season, it wasn’t realistic this year.

But secondly, upon bringing it home and taking it out to shoot targets at hunting distances, I could not get it to group. Like at all. It was flinging lead all over the place. I messaged @BrentD for troubleshooting advice, and we eventually discovered this.



Bulged right at the front sight. Didn’t even notice it before. Probably explains why it sat in the safe for 50 years.

So after thinking it over, I decided to have it repaired. Bought a liner and sent it off. I really want to be able to use it. I think it’s almost done and I should have it back sometime soon.

So we’ll try again this fall. Really looking forward to seeing how it shoots.

 

[p_ham]

Ha. That’s turned into a whole sequel.

So, nope. For one, after blowing out my knee and losing most of my season, it wasn’t realistic this year.

But secondly, upon bringing it home and taking it out to shoot targets at hunting distances, I could not get it to group. Like at all. It was flinging lead all over the place. I messaged @BrentD for troubleshooting advice, and we eventually discovered this.

View attachment 264123
View attachment 264124
Bulged right at the front sight. Didn’t even notice it before. Probably explains why it sat in the safe for 50 years.

So after thinking it over, I decided to have it repaired. Bought a liner and sent it off. I really want to be able to use it. I think it’s almost done and I should have it back sometime soon.

So we’ll try again this fall. Really looking forward to seeing how it shoots.

Well that's a bummer! I do recall seeing about your knee. How is that doing?

Good call on getting it relined. That's saved a lot of guns.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Knee is doing pretty great. Hoping the gun has the same kind of recovery.

 

[44hunter45]

I have a Winchester Model 74 semi in .22 short. c.1939

It was a police seizure that I got free. I had to get a new operating handle from Numrich Arms for about $1.50

Winchester Model 74 Review - Shooting Times

Fed by a 14-round magazine in the buttstock, the Winchester Model 74 features a top-side crossbolt safety.

www.shootingtimes.com

These were regularly used as gallery guns. Mine came to me with a 4 inch bar drilled and tapped into the left side of the receiver. This was used to chain them to the counter top on the carnival midway.

These gallery guns were de-accurized by cutting a ring in the rifling about 3 inches in from the muzzle. (far enough to not be seen by a casual observer.). I thought that my specimen had leaf cutter bee damage or something. I have since bore scope a few and many of them have this ring in the barrel.

I did not want to sleeve mine, so I counter bored it down to the ring with a 5/16 drill bit in my hand drill and then polished it shiny inside. I used ball headed knitting needle (Don't tell MRS!) to reach in and do a "Screwhead crown" on the new rifling end.

I filled the screw holes in the received and re-blued it.

It shoots clover leafs now. Total investment $1.50 plus shipping and some elbow grease. 21 rounds of pure joy in the tube magazine!

Everyone else is on the hunt for cheap .22 LR ammo. I have a lifetime supply. I spend my time scouring for .22 short. This gem has paid for itself in grouse breasts.

 

[Howie]

Sweet

 

[Hunting Wife]

Since this has turned into some kind of saga, I figured I would post an update.

Got the rifle back last week. It looks great. He managed to press the bulge out enough to alleviate the contact between the barrel and magazine tube. The new sleeve is pretty much unnoticeable. We put it back together and took it to the range. The improvement is night and day, even just off shooting sticks. Now I just need to practice!



I’m hopeful that this year I can complete the mission. The great uncle that gifted this rifle to me took a turn for the worse and passed away a couple of months ago. I really wish he could have seen the next part of the story.



“The memory book lies open, and the hand still writes.” - Neal Bascomb

 

[BrentD]

I expect you will have some exciting hunts getting close and bringing home the bacon in the end. There is nothing like hunting with old guns, and especially old guns from the family. This one obviously has some stories that you may never know, but can always imagine. The bulged barrel is just one of them. Now you can add some of your own. Write 'em down and pass them along with the rifle when you are done.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Now that it finally stopped snowing, we took the rifle to the range for some real shooting. First three shots at 50 yards, using good old 150 gr Core Lokts.



Moved the paper out to 100 and shot some more. Fighting the ever-present spring prairie winds today so I kept hitting left. Also figuring out how to aim open sights at that distance.

Hunting Husband: “Where are you holding?”

Me: “ I don’t know. It covers the whole paper”.

Walked it in and eventually added a couple more to my first three shot group. Fun day. I think I should be able to kill something with this rifle.

 

[BrentD]

Now that it finally stopped snowing, we took the rifle to the range for some real shooting. First three shots at 50 yards, using good old 150 gr Core Lokts.

View attachment 274021

Moved the paper out to 100 and shot some more. Fighting the ever-present spring prairie winds today so I kept hitting left. Also figuring out how to aim open sights at that distance.

Hunting Husband: “Where are you holding?”

Me: “ I don’t know. It covers the whole paper”.

Walked it in and eventually added a couple more to my first three shot group. Fun day. I think I should be able to kill something with this rifle.

View attachment 274022

Sure wish you were closer and we could do a trip to the range. That vertical looks like it could be aiming error.

Some things you might wan to consider would be to use a different target. Seeing that orange/red on white at 100 yds is challenging. Albeit your eyes are a lot better than mine now, but repeatable aiming is essential obviously. I'd suggest about 6-8" black, round bullseye. You might cut a stencil out of cardboard and get a couple cans of spray paint so you can run out and paint them on your 6x6 bull also. But seriously, a more contrasty target would help a lot.

Then several ways to aim open barrel sights. I assume you have a post and bead profile on the front an a "V" notch rear sight on a leaf ramp. They lend themselves to a couple of different alignments for different distances, but generally you do not want to cover the target with the front sight since, as you point out, you cannot tell where it's pointed with any precision when you do that.

Maybe I can do a full wllm and make some power points of sight pictures or something

 

[Deleted member 52098]

I just needed to comment so I’d get email updates. I am obsessed with lever guns (watch too many westerns ha) and this is one with a great story. Really hope we get to see if bring down a nice animal!