Long story short, I believe I am the first one to ever disassemble the rifle judging by the wear on the screws (appear to never have been removed). I took the forend off to see if there was any rust below the wood line, now trying to reassemble and the screw for the barrel band will not align up with the threaded side of the band.

-Everything is in the correct orientation installing the screw from the left side to the right

-Forend is securely seated against the front of the receiver (I even removed it again and scraped off some old oil (maybe old varnish? It was dried black goo) that I thought maybe was not letting it seat all the way

-gently tapped forend on all the way, along with tapping the forend band in place with a wooden dowel

Everything seems to be nice and snug where it is supposed to, but when I look through the hole, I see the notch drilled through the barrel for the screw to slide through is maybe a hair off center from the hold drilled through the forend. It appears that the left side of the barrel notch is not aligned with the hole through the forend almost as the forend isn't seated onto the receive enough.

What do I need to do to get this thing reassembled?

One of my 94s is like that. Winchester wasn't much for getting the details perfect. Try installing the barrel band by flipping it so that the screw head is on the opposite side.

It looks like the screw goes from left to right on all of mine.

Thanks for the reminder.  My screw is snapped off and I need to take care of it.

I'm sort of in the same situation. I have my Grandfathers 94 (built in 1954) and has probably never been disassembled for a full cleaning. The screws were (are) so tight that I gave up trying to remove them because I was afraid I would break something.

My screw was very difficult to remove. Upon removal, you can see the bluing towards the middle of the screw is worn off. I'm wondering if maybe somehow the wood expanded after it was installed and put pressure on the screw against the notch in the barrel?

That's what she said?  

Rather unsurprising that the wood would have expanded over time, particularly if it absorbed moisture.  Only remedy other than sanding I can think of would be to bake it @ low temp, but that risks cracking, and may not work if the stock is lacquered.

Instead of risking that I think my plan is to slowly open the notch under the barrel by just a hair and then hit with some cold blue. I figure if I ever have to take down the rifle again in the future I shouldn't run into this problem again. Did a little searching on the internet and it appears that the tension on the barrel from the screw also negatively impacts accuracy, so it may be a win-win.

Update; after contemplating over the possible avenues I could have taken to rectify this problem I decided to "widen" the notch on the bottom of the barrel instead of messing with the wood forend. Reason being, it seemed more forgiving in the idea that the repair will be hidden under the wood and would be simpler than trying to work on the wood and have the appearance that it had not been altered once it was reassembled.

It should be noted that before I started filing away at the barrel notch, I did take a 9/16 drill bit and did a few passes through the screw hole in the forend to make sure there wasn't any small pieces of wood obstructing the path of the screw. Once I cleaned out the hole, I then reinstalled the band and forend to double check to see if that fixed the problem. In my case it did not.

The next step was to actually widen the notch on the barrel. After taking a small bastard file and slowly taking small amounts of steel off and periodically refitting the forend and band, I finally gotten enough material removed to be able to correctly install the screw back into the band. I am going to take some cold blue this week and touch up the bare steel, not just for looks, but also to protect it from rusting in the future since I doubt I will be frequently removing the forend again for cleaning and maintenance.

Hopefully if anyone is experiencing the same problem with reinstalling the barrel band and screw this gives them a little insight. I also made sure than whenever I reinstalled the forend and barrel band that I gently tapped them into place with a small piece of wood (use wood as to not damage the bluing or metal) to make sure everything was correctly aligned.

Mine needs a good tear down and cleaning but I'm not brave enough to attempt it.  I can tear down all my other guns for cleaning but I just know I'll never get the 94 back together again if I attempt it.

It's definitely a little more daunting than tearing down a modern gun.

They sell total screw kit for the 94, did my Dad's over years back, looks much better now.

As promised, here are some picture of the filed notch after being hit with some cold blue.









I wanted to note the straight barrel band screw in last picture, I also hit it with a little cold blue in the middle where it was worn. In a lot of instances when you disassemble the barrel band and forend this screw will be bent from installation at the factory.

Also, in case somebody stumbles across this in the future and has the same problem, user Valinoarms over on GlockTalk posted the below instructions that I assume Winchester did at the factory that does not require altering the barrel notch. It makes sense in regards to how the barrel band screw would commonly be bent.

"Sorry for the thread revive, but you do NOT HAVE to file away on the barrel for the Pre '64 Model 94s. Winchester didn't mess up, they just assembled the gun differently.

For anybody who is having the "bent screw" rear barrel band issue, do these steps and you will be able to get the gun back together along with tightening the screw.

1. Remove the magazine tube carefully so as not to damage the spring. This involves removing the front band screw, along with the actual tube screw that goes into the barrel a little.
2. Slide up the fore grip halfway, and start the screw in 1-2 threads, not all the way because that band has a compression effect that you cannot see visually. This has worked on quite a few pre-64 model 94s I have done that you couldn't get the screw in normally.
3. Tape the fore grip if you care enough, but take a 2x4 block of wood and gently hammer down the fore grip. This will SEAT the fore grip completely and the screw will fall into the cut groove in the barrel.
4. Gentle insert the magazine follower and spring into the hole in the foregrip, and be gentle. Slide the tube over the spring carefully, until you feel it seat all the way. Be sure to test feed some rounds to ensure you have everything lined up.
5. Line up the slots for the magazine tube and barrel, to replace the screws you removed earlier.
6. Conduct functions check, and be amazed at how impossible that task seemed until you just did it. Enjoy a nice beverage."

Are you sure there isn’t a slight bend in that band screw?

Winchester gun smiths put a slight bend in the screw that went through the barrel band. I believe it was so it would not come out easily. Just watched a video on youtube about it. gunblue490 is the guy. And he said to not take a model 94 apart unless you are a experienced gunsmith. He was in the armed forces and been a gunsmith for a long time. He seems to be very knowledgeable on all guns.