Win.94 Trapper - Information Please...

[Thump]

I have a 'Trapper' in .45 Colt, and with 335 grain Corbon ammunition it would be an ideal little rifle for whitetail hunting here in the thick woods of Georgia. However, the trigger pull is absolutely miserable; it feels like something on the order of ~10 or 12 lbs. I am looking for a good gunsmith to lighten the pull to ~ 3 or 4 lbs.

If anyone can provide me with contact information for a professional gunsmith (especially if they live in the South), they may have used to fix a similar problem, I would really appreciate the information.

[J Miller]

Thump,

The only gunsmith I've done business with I'll recommend is:
Steve Young aka Nate Kiowa Jones here on the forum. He's a gunsmith in Texas that specializes in CAS guns and all things with a lever.
His web site: http://www.stevesgunz.com/

Joe

[Pete44ru]

Welcome to the fire- AND - our home page has links to Winchester Articles containing tutorials, should you wish to clean it up yerself.

.

[pwl44m]

I was wondering if Thump ever had a formal welcome, if not- Welcome, if so - disregard except from Me. Good Luck with Your Trapper, I don't even recall how My trigger is.
Perry

[1894c]

welcome Thump--enjoy the view from Georgia--i used to own a Win.94AE Trapper in 30/30 for 9 years, never did get that trigger smoothed out--had a gunsmith buddy of mine try, in-the-end i sent it down the road, but if anybody can Steve Young can...again welcome to this forum :)

[Tycer]

The AE 94s are very over sprung due to the rebounding hammer design. You can get away with a lower power spring if you lop off the lower legs of the hammer strut, doing away with the rebounding hammer. Wolff offers lower power springs. You can also, and this may sound jury rigged, superglue thin shim stock from a feeler gauge set to the hammer where it contacts the sear to effectively reduce the depth of the sear notch to reduce creep. By trying different thickness shims, this allows you to play with different sear depths to find the right amount for if/when you have a smith work on the sear. I have over 1000 rounds of 357 in several years on one that still has the shim glued to it.

Swapping out the whole trigger, sear, hammer, mainspring, mainspring strut from a pre-rebounder will fix it and get rid of the long take up.

[Thump]

Thanks to one and all for the greetings and the information. I will contact "Steve" and see if he can assist me. I believe that the Trapper, within 50 yards, using Corbon 335 grain 45 Colt ammo will do a job on whitetail here in Georgia. - - I have done a tad of levergun hunting. I used my Marlin 'Cowboy' in Agentina to take an Asiatic water buffalo, and my Wild West Co-Pilot in Africa for Hippo, Eland, Kudu and Cape buffalo. - - All were taken with Randy Garrett's 45/70 Hammerhead ammo. The hard cast 540 grain projectile works wonders on big game.

[J Miller]

Thump,

If you are mechanically adept at all you can do what you want yourself. About all I won't do myself is sear engagement work.

The load you are mentioning is actually over kill for white tail. But you are right, it will do the job.

Joe

[Pete44ru]

NAW ! ! - The onlyest way to overkill a Whitetail is to hit it with yer truck, and bloodshot all the meat, aka: Bumper Bambi . .

.

[handirifle]

Years back I had a 94 Trapper AE in 44 mag also. I converted it to a half cock rifle, from a rebounding hammer. Trigger pull was lessened by at least half. Nothing else was needed.

I got the parts from Numericks, and I can send you a .jpg of the parts list, if interested. I had it on my web site but it's not showing and I can't repair the site, for some unknown reason.

[Griff]

If you go to Marauder's Rifle Tune-ups page, in the fourth section down you find a couple articles on "how to's" to tune up the Winchester 94 yourself. Tycer's post above is about the BEST solution to a correction for which there was no problem... In addition, on the "home page", there's a list of levergun gunsmiths, along with bunches of other useful info and links to levergun specific articles.

And Joe's right... that Cor-Bon 355 is way over-kill for any whitetail! But, yes... it will do the job; and on grizzly, moose, or just about anything in North America inside 50 yards!

I do have to ask, have you tried to feed that overall length ammo thru your gun? Sure hate to see a fellar buy that "high-priced" stuff and not have it work in "his" gun. Even tho' the Winchester 94 is designed for rifle length cartridges, they have modified the internals to feed shorter length ammo. As with other leverguns, they are length sensitive. The reason for this is the "feed gates" machined into the guide rails. The lifter or (officially know as the carrier), has a shortened stop so that the cartridge can only move so far back from the magazine, the cartridge must then clear the bottom of the breach and as the bolt moves forward the nose of cartridge moves into the chamber and the rim rides up thru the guides and then fully into the chamber. A "too long" bullet will either hang up on the receiver or might get caught in the chamber without enough room to make the transistion from the approximately 45º angle the cartridge is at on the carrier, to horizontal in the chamber.

Sometimes bullet shape also plays in interfering factor, even in cartridges inside the spec'd cartridge OAL of 1.572 to 1.592 inches. And, as always, manufacturing "stack up" of tolerances might also come into play if a partricular gun does or does not feed a specific cartridge.

Good luck, and as always, and Welcome to THE Forum! when you get that whitetail... as we're wont to say... PICTURES... PICTURES... PICTURES!

[JB]

You're not going to get a benchrest trigger on that 94 (at least not a safe one), but I agree with the others that it's not too hard to smooth it up a good bit with just a little work.

[Nath]

I am not going to shoot down other highly respected members on this wonderful board but I would not lessen the hammer spring weight!

Been there done that and it is a very poor cure, my trapper and it's 6lb trigger lasted a week before I got it down to 13/4lb trigger on the standard hammer spring and full re-bound. It is not witch craft. Small fine sharpening stones that very slightly alter the angle of engagement alow it to slide with less weight. By doing this you end up retaining full sear engagement as opposed to the shimming idea.

Apart from many other rifles two AE's and a 336 have all had this sucessful treatment, oh and my 9422.

Nath.

[J Miller]

JB,

My 1980 TE 30-30 Trapper has a nice crisp perfectly safe 2.5 # trigger pull on it. Been there since 1980.
But that is a pre-rebounding hammer action.

I know you can get the rebounders down to a nice 3# pull. I used to have one. You just have to work with them, polish everything that contacts anything and make sure it's all set up right and nothings binding.

Joe