The rifle in my case is a 1920 made Winchester '94 in .30-30, takedown, and it has a half round half octagon barrel with an original Lyman tang sight. Front sight looks to be an old Sheard replacement. Bore looks very good, not perfectly shiny but showing strong rifling with no pitting. Outside has rather poor finish with a lot of rust freckling on all metal surfaces. Wood has some shallow age cracking, but certainly sound enough to shoot. Asking price was $650 (he had just turned down an offer of $600), I really liked the fact that it was a half-round takedown, the rear sight alone is worth $100, and so the rifle came home with me.
Upon closer inspection after my purchase, I found that the rear sight blank was soldered in place, but even worse, the barrel threads were soldered into the takedown adapter flange. Hmmm... now why is that? And why did I not see such an obvious flaw at first sight? I got out my tape measure and the barrel measured 25 1/4" from muzzle to rear of takedown adapter flange, so it apparently has at one time had 3/4" cut off. It had to have been cut from the back side (thus the solder?) as the front sight is the correct 1" back from the muzzle, and the forend hanger, etc. are all in their original place. I should have measured that barrel before buying, and I should have noticed that solder, otherwise I would have probably passed on it at that price.
But wait, things still aren't adding up! According to Renneberg's book on the '94, the center of the rear sight dovetail on a takedown should be 5" from the receiver. Mine measures 5 3/8". The forend should measure 9 3/8", which mine does exactly. So now I'm thinking, how can the rear of the barrel have been cut if the sight dovetail is a correct distance from the receiver and the forend is also the correct length? I don't know what to think now!
Well, at any rate, it is mine now, and so one of these days I probably am just going to take it to my gunsmith and see what he thinks. I still like it and will shoot it if safe to do so. Another lesson learned, more unanswered questions. Here are the obligatory photos:
SHASTA
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