Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill Commemorative

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Lastmohecken
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Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill Commemorative

Post by Lastmohecken »

Well, I got to handling a couple of 26" octagonal barreled Commemorative s ,lately. I looked at them over the years, and always kind of liked them, and I own a few other commemorative s, namely a Legendary Lawman Carbine, and an Antlered Game model, but those were later guns where Winchester had gone back to the older style shell lifter. And when I always looked in the top of the Canadian's and Buffalo Bills I always saw noticed that sheetmetal lifter that scared me off.

Anyway, I do love the way the 26" barreled Canadian and Buffalo Bill throw up, looking down that long sight radius, but my local dealer was just too high, I thought on a Canadian he has, so I casually started looking on gunbroker and you know how that went. Yep, I bid one too many times and won a shooter Buffalo Bill. But I got it cheap enough that I can probably get my money back out of it, later if I don't want to keep it a long time.

I have read that they were often good accurate shooters, and I know I could swap out the sheetmetal lifter if I needed to. Anyway, I am kind of excited about getting it.
Do any of you fellows own and actually shoot the Canadian's or the Buffalo Bills?
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Griff
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Re: Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill Commemorative

Post by Griff »

I have a Canadian that was converted to a "Trapper"... it still has the stamped steel carrier in it. No problems with it to date. I haven't ever really put this little carbine on paper. But, on wringing it out, I did a lot of shooting at steel @ 200 yards. After finding steel, it put all subsequent shots on same. On that day, I was shooting with my B-I-L who was shooting his '80s top eject Trapper. Both carbines performed in excess of our expectations!
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I also have a '66 Centennial, the 20" short rifle. I got it because it's previous owner thought the change out of the carrier was too difficult. Let me tell ya, it's a piece of cake. This one, someone had apparently tried to feed too long a cartridge thru it, bending the carrier in the process. Someone (either a not-very-knowledgeable gunsmith or home butcher), then attempted to straighten out the carrier. They successfully twisted it beyond the repair point. I bought a Wisner's Post '64 carrier and installed it. Rifle works perfectly.

I've replaced the sights on the '66 to a Lyman Tang sight and the Lyman 17A front globe. I originally purchased the front too short, and haven't been home to shoot it since the correct height one arrived. The target is from my one shooting session trying to sight in the "short" front sight... working from too high to getting a shot in the bull. I've fairly confident that the short octagon barrel will perform very well. Also involved was getting a shim under the rear sight to bring it up to "vertical".
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Shasta
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Re: Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill Commemorative

Post by Shasta »

I have a Canadian Centennial that I use for NRA Lever Action Rifle Silhouette. I put a Marble's tang sight on it and smoothed up the action, and I also had to have the throat reamed a bit to shoot Lyman 311041 cast lead bullets. I've never had a problem with the lifter after several thousand rounds. It shoots very well. The commemorative rifles are very popular with silhouette shooters.

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Pete44ru
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Re: Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill Commemorative

Post by Pete44ru »

.

The only Canadian commemorative I ever owned/shot/hunted was a .32 Special Canadian Pacific RR Centennial Commemorative.

I bought it because it was a relatively inexpensive way to obtain a fancy .32 Special Model 64



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Griff
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Re: Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill Commemorative

Post by Griff »

Pete44ru wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:09 pm.
The only Canadian commemorative I ever owned/shot/hunted was a .32 Special Canadian Pacific RR Centennial Commemorative.
I bought it because it was a relatively inexpensive way to obtain a fancy .32 Special Model 64
Image
.
Man, those are just SO good looking!!! :mrgreen: If they'd been in .30-30, I'd have one! I settled for the mdl 64A!
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Lastmohecken
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Re: Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill Commemorative

Post by Lastmohecken »

buffalo Bill 94 buttstock.jpg
Wow! you guys have some cool Winchesters. So, it looks like the sheetmetal shell lifter can be reliable and hold up, unless of course it doesn't. Looking forward to getting mine.
Buffalo Bill 94.jpg
Buffalo Bill 94 left recever.jpg
Buffalo Bill 94 barrel.jpg
Buffalo Bill 94 barrel inscription.jpg
Buffalo Bill 94 barrel inscription.jpg
Sorry for the double pictures, I messed up and I couldn't figure out how to clean it up.
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Last edited by Lastmohecken on Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:49 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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geobru
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Re: Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill Commemorative

Post by geobru »

I shot a Buffalo Bill rifle in the 70s. I was a darned accurate rifle. It always hit what I aimed at. The owner shot a trotting coyote with it at about 175 yards. He wasn't a very accomplished shooter either, but the rifle made it easy to hit what you aimed at. I think you'll enjoy yours.
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Malamute
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Re: Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill Commemorative

Post by Malamute »

Good choice.

Ive had one or two of the Buffalo Bills and maybe 3 of the Canadian Centennials. I never shot them on paper much but always enjoyed them quite a lot. William Iorg has worked with the 26" guns some with various loads, he has much good to say about them. They give a noticeable boost in performance with most loads (the factory ballistics were generally with 26" barrels, the more common 20" guns are usually slower). I believe he wrote that the 26" gun in standard 30-30 cal beat or nearly so his 20" 30-30 AI for velocity. I don't recall exactly. Perhaps he'll show up and have something to add to the discussion. He posts a fair amount on 30-30 and other lever caliber loads and uses on Shooters Forum. A search there of his posts generally turns up interesting reading about levergun loads.
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Canuck Bob
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Re: Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill Commemorative

Post by Canuck Bob »

here is agreat link on the BB as a shooter focused on cast bullets and tuning accuracy. There is lots of info on the BB link noted at the beginning of this article.

http://www.castbullet.com/shooting/accu.htm
Lastmohecken
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Re: Winchester 94 Buffalo Bill Commemorative

Post by Lastmohecken »

Canuck Bob wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2017 4:02 am here is agreat link on the BB as a shooter focused on cast bullets and tuning accuracy. There is lots of info on the BB link noted at the beginning of this article.

http://www.castbullet.com/shooting/accu.htm
Yep, that's a pretty good link to go to and read. The one thing I have always read, was that the octagon barreled Commemorative s were often pretty good shooters in the accuracy dept.
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