Cross posted in another forum on here, but figured it would go well in the lever forum...


Wife's grandpa passed away about a year and half ago. He had some health issues, and was a big man, but we really weren't expecting it... She took it pretty hard as she was very close to him. Hell of a nice guy the few years I knew him...

Fast forward to this Easter weekend. Her grandma has moved to a new smaller house and is getting ready to have a garage sale to clear out their old home. They have been letting his kids, then grandkids, go pick out a gun in his safe to keep if they wanted one.

My wife and I went over with her grandma to look at everything. Several old semi-auto and bolt action 22's, a few old revolvers, and a few other longs guns we left.

She decided on a nice looking J. Stephens side-by-side 12 gauge. Pretty clean overall, very cool dog engraving on the side. After a little research, I figure the gun was made in the early 40s.

Her grandma knew I am very interested in guns and had me look at a Winchester Model 94 30-30 lever gun. Someone noticed a "crack" in the metal so everyone was afraid to take or shoot it. After looking at it, the "crack" area was on the case guide (metal plate that angles the new round into the chamber). Don't know if it's the correct terminology for that part, but I thought that's what they called it when I was looking it up last night.

I told her it was probably nothing to worry about as it wasn't anywhere around the round when it was fired. Also, it looked as if it was the actual steel itself when it was forged/pressed. It wasn't rough like a crack would be, looked too smooth and it didn't go all the way through the metal.

Regardless, she said she wanted me to take it since I knew about it and knew I would look into it. I offered to pay her a few hundred dollars for it (or look up what it was worth), as it wasn't mine to take. But it was hers to give I guess

So I ended up leaving with the Model 94 as well. Beautiful gun, just a few tiny spots of surface rust. Hands down best condition of any of them. After some research, appears to be made around 1970.

Took them both home, cleaned all the grease out of them, oiled them up, and stuck them in the safe. She was pretty excited about getting them. Oh, and had to order some (more) ammo for each so we can shoot them. My wife has a pretty great family and a few more nice firearms in her possession. Grandma will be getting a nice Christmas gift this year

Will post pictures of each later tonight once I get home.

Edit: sorry, cell phone pics don't do the guns any favors, but they are in pretty damn good condition!

J. Stephens 5100 12 gauge, early 40s make






Winchester Mod 94 30-30, 1970 make




Very little wear, doubt it has over 100 rounds through it.



This is crack i was talking about. I believe it was Probly from the original casting of the metal and don't think it would cause the gun to be dangerous to fire. If anyone had better knowledge of this, please chime in. I will be doing more research before firing.



In the other thread, we discussed it is most likely just the forging and there is no actual crack in the metal. But I will be replacing it down the road just so it doesn't cause issues later. Here's a link for a new one right around $60

Mod 94 Carrier

Also will be looking into the Lyman rear sight that it is tapped for. There is some slight surface rust on the receiver, which some oil and brass or copper wool will be tried to remove it. Possibly steel wool if I don't come across any of the other type. Really a beautiful clean gun

Anyways, thought everyone here would be interested in seeing a new part of our family

Nice rifle.

Nice shotgun, too. Mine has been shortened to 20". (It's a handy little thing)

Nothing I really know about but I would bet that "crack" was there the day the gun left the factory.

Sorry your wife lost her grandfather , nice that the family is getting a crack at his guns.


Not sure when they changed over but check the length on the shotgun chambers , some of the older guns had chambers that were shorter than the 2 3/4 that we shoot today.

The 2 3/4 may fit in the shorter chambers but the crimp can't unfold completely when fired and this spikes the pressure.

Yeah , Lyman sight is the way to go

Be aware that Model '94 receivers were made of sintered metal during that period, according to what I have read.

I haven't researched what that is yet, but if you are referring to being able to re-blue it if I mess it up.... I came across that info the other day as well. It won't take the normal cold bluing products available.

I may be way off, I'm about to leave work so I skipped the google step in writing this

I've got one of those Stevens.  16 ga, single trigger.  My father bought it in 25 for 35 dollars or in 35 for 25 dollars.  The interior of the bores are a mirror finish.  You don't see that any more.

In those days, $25 or $35 was a pretty good week's pay, back when the dollar was worth something.

25 silver dollars is worth 315 FRN dollars.

I used a 5100, chopped to 22" that I used for CAS. Down, dirty, fast and guaranteed to do the job.

The receiver may not be rusted.  It may just be the copper color of the "base coat" showing through the blueing.   You may just make it worst by attacking it if that's the case.  I'd be inclined to leave the "rust" alone.  The "base coat" was some sort of plating or copper wash that took the blueing since as someone stated earlier the receivers were made of sintered metal after the 1964 cost reduction.

The crack in the lifter was likely there the day it left the factory.  I believe in that era they were made of sintered metal and I think it was just a poorly made part from the get go.  No real reason to replace it rather than the looks of it.  It's not a safety issue at all.

A little late reading this already did a light sand with steel wool. Took the rust color away and left it a little more steel looking... i thought it just want down to the steel. Is there anything i could do to renew that finish? Is really not bad at all, just a few minor spots. A little upset that it's just slightly more noticeable now that the steel color is shining through, but it's very minor.

And i know... just shoot it

I'm not aware of any DIY solution.  I'm not even sure if most gunsmiths have the ability to deal with this finish properly.

That's not a crack.

Yep, that's what i thought and was discussed

But it's a good thing all of her other family thought it was

Easy fix just replace carrier. Lots of them out there should be able to replace. Looks like it is cast that way. Maybe not a crack. Shouldn't affect the way it shoots at all.

Real easy to fix!!! The post 64 winchesters were notorious for that. Get a new carrier from numrich. It'll take you about 30 minutes to fix. Then go enjoy it for a lifetime.