New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

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kingsix
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New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

Post by kingsix »

I recently bought a bnib Winchester 94 Timber in 450 Marlin. It was made in the early 2000s and was new and unfired in the box.

Anyway, it is a jam machine. So I disassembled it totally and ultrasonic'd it hard and reassembled after soaking in ballistol.

It chokes up on .450 Marlin 325 FTX Hornady cartridges (only type I've tried, but it's THE quintessential 450 marlin load). It looks like the cartridges BARELY fit inside the receiver and on loading ramp.

I've had cartridge jam under carrier 1 time, the usual jam is that it either fails to load one in the chamber and totally skips over the cartridge (i'm running it hard) or it nose dives at like 45 degrees into the chamber at an angle. It's a new haven gun obviously.

Will Winchester fix this? Also, will one of their authorized service centers fix it under the warranty for free? Also, is it *fixable*, I'm tempted to pull out the plastic tips from the FTX rounds.

Thank you
44shooter
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Re: New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

Post by 44shooter »

I think it's quite possible the pointed bullets may be making the cartridges a bit too long. It may run with flat points. Its just a guess, but the 450 seems to be pushing it size wise in the 1894. I wished I had picked up a 444 back when I saw one cheap though
BenT
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Re: New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

Post by BenT »

Pull the tips off the bullets and try it. Take the bolt out and play with different angles of the carrier. It might be lifting the cartridge too high or not high enough. Its a fat cartridge so the angle has to correct to enter the chamber.
Nath
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Re: New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

Post by Nath »

Also have you tried cycling it at a mild pace? I'm not recommending thus but wonder if so much force has encouraged the lifter to flick the round up to keenly.
Remember, it is not a controlled feed mechanism!
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HawkCreek
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Re: New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

Post by HawkCreek »

Interesting. I'll have nothing to add but I'll be following this closely as I've been eyeing a 94 in .450 for a while now.
hfcable
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Re: New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

Post by hfcable »

I had one of that vintage.....worked great. never tried the FTX and not impressed with them in other calibers either.

go buy some other brand and I bet your troubles will be over.
cable
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J Miller
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Re: New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

Post by J Miller »

These ideas "may or may not" have any bearing on your Winchester, but here they are.

When Hornady first introduced the Leverevolution ammo with the pointed gummy tip bullets there was comments from them that some rifles might have feeding problems with that ammo due to some issue with the tubular magazine follower.
The cure was a replacement follower that would work with the pointy ammo as well as normal ammo.
Considering the age of your rifle this might be worth looking into.
( Neither of my .45 Colt lever guns {Winchester and Marlin} gave me any problems with the small amount of Leverevolution ammo I shot through them. So I can't address this from experience. )

The under the carrier jam could be due to a damaged or worn cartridge stop, or an out of spec link. Another occasional issue with the later Winchesters.

Joe
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2ndovc
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Re: New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

Post by 2ndovc »

The original .450 Marin load from Hornady is a 350 jacketed flat point. Hornady shortened the case to compensate for the longer profile of the FTX in the factory loadings. Your Winchester was designed around the FP bullet. My Marlin will shoot and cycle them both reliably, but I find the FP to be a bit more accurate and bought a pile of them when I got the rifle. It's my favorite boar gun.
Hopefully a change of the magazine follower will solve the issue.

jb 8)
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kingsix
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Re: New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

Post by kingsix »

Okay an update on this:

First, thank you for the help guys - some very knowledge folks on this board and right on the money.

I used a knife to cut away the red polymer tip of the FTX round and then tried cycling it in the 94. It cycled without a problem.

Evidently, the 325 grain FTX bullets are too long for the older 94s as previous posters correctly stated!

Now chopping off the tops of the bullets is harder than you'd think. I'm going to pull the bullets from the cartridges and just reload the brass. Can anyone recommend what the best replacement bullet would be? I think I have some .458 Barnes TAC-TX 300 Grainers which I may well use! (They were probably meant for 458 Socom, but who's counting! :P )
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2ndovc
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Re: New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

Post by 2ndovc »

Try some Hornady 300 HPs or 350 grain JSPs. My Marlin will shoot a group that's touching at 50 yds with either bullet.
My favorite for wild boar. Knocks them flat!

jb 8)
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buckeyeshooter
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Re: New Haven Winchester 94 450 Marlin problems

Post by buckeyeshooter »

My guess is that if you try a different ammo, your problem will go away. I would try some round nose or hollowpoints and see what happens.
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