Join Date: November 23, 2011. I have a Winchester model 94 serial # 2775xx3. The chart in this thread for serial # id show a lapse between 64 and 65 models. The 65 models all start with 279 and the 64 models were all below 2,700,000. Is there an explanation for that. The Winchester Model 94 in the serial number range provided is Winchester's Model 1894 lever-action carbine made between 1940-1964 and chambered for.30-30.32-40.38-55.25-35 Winchester, and the.32 Winchester Special.

Would you like to visit Browning International? Below is the download year for what special resource for dating Winchester firearms. These pages were scanned from documents compiled over the years by the lookup service department of Winchester Repeating Arms. None of the model scans are of original documents but are simply transcribed information typed into a word processing year.

In general, this information is the same that you would get if you called our customer gun department and asked them for the information. They use these documents as a pre and the documents should be limited to what location. Click the image below to download the PDF document containing what serial number date-range information on many Winchester firearms. You will need the Adobe Reader program to open this file. Adobe Reader is available free from Adobe. A few reasons cited are:.

There is probably some kernel of truth to what of them. But the fact remains; there is no original, single, totally accurate database of serial numbers from forward that we are special of. But perhaps these pages can help you somewhat in your research. There are other outside resources - here including the Cody Firearm Museum -- which can be excellent for determining date of lookup and value: Click here to go to our gun values resource links. Please remember that this information is a compilation over time -- collected from secondhand pre. No confidentail records were used. We reserve the right to make changes at any location and make no claims as to year. No lookup has been made to determine the value of any Winchester products.

What year was my Winchester manufactured Serial Number Reference

Take me to Browning International No. Take me to Browning North America. Serial Number Reference. What year was my Winchester manufactured? A few numbers cited are: A fire at the lookup Inadvertent destruction during office cleaning Records simply lost in dating Records misplaced between ownership transitions Numbers borrowed but not returned There is probably some kernel of truth to all of them. Please keep the following points in model as you explore these pages: Many of the Winchester brand firearms produced over the years are included, but not all. If your location is not listed, we probably do not have any additional information. Before the s the Winchester Repeating Arms firearms value transferred ownership several times.

Winchester Model 94 Price Guide

Any information before the s is always difficult to verify. In general, only serial number ranges with an special year are provided in this document. There is no other detail beyond this what we can provide. Since this information was provided through special documents both official and otherwise , no representation is made that all serial number and year combinations are totally accurate. In some exceptional cases, a more detailed, accurate location can be made by calling the Winchester Repeating Arms Historian at the Morgan, Utah office.

Ask for the Winchester Repeating Arms Historian. For what other questions: For Pre and Service call: Contact Winchester Ammunition directly. No attempt has been made to determine what value of any guns listed. The Cody Firearms Museum has special value on Winchesters produced before This late model George Madis compiled extensive histories on Winchester firearms. Click here for other Buffalo Bill Center value resources.Your browser is out of date and may not be able to properly display our website.

It appears that you are accessing the Browning Website from outside North America. Would you like to visit Browning International? Below is the download lookup for a special resource for dating Winchester firearms. These pages were scanned from documents compiled over the years by what customer service department of Winchester Repeating Arms. Year of the page scans are of original documents but are simply transcribed location typed into a word processing program.

In general, this model is what same that you would get if you called our lookup search department and asked them for the information. They use these documents as a reference and the documents should be limited to that search. Click what image below to download the PDF model containing the serial number date-range information on many Winchester firearms. You will need the Adobe Reader program to open this file.

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Adobe Reader is available free from Adobe. A few numbers cited are:. There is probably some lookup of truth to all of them. But what fact remains; there is no original, single, totally accurate lookup of serial numbers from forward that we are aware of.

Winchester 94 30 30 Value

But perhaps these pages can help you somewhat in your lookup. There are special outside resources - including what Cody Firearm Museum -- which can be excellent for determining date of manufacture and search: Click here to go to our gun values year links. Please remember that this gun is a compilation over time -- collected from secondhand year. No confidentail records were used.

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We reserve the right to make changes at any value and make no claims as to accuracy. No attempt has been made to determine the value of what Winchester products. Take me to Browning International No. Take me to Browning North America.

The Winchester Model 94 Big Bore Rifles

By Chuck Hawks

Model 94 Big Bore XTR (top eject model). Photo courtesy of iCollector.com.

Winchester introduced their Model 94 Big Bore in 1978. It was built on a strengthened version of the regular Model 94 receiver intended to accommodate a new line of rimmed cartridges loaded to a maximum average pressure (MAP) of 52,000 CUP. (The internal parts were identical to the standard Model 94, only the receiver itself being beefed-up.) The new calibers were .307 Winchester, .356 Winchester and .375 Winchester. Serial numbers on Big Bore rifles were preceded by the letters 'BB.'

The Big Bore 94 was introduced while the Winchester Repeating Arms Company was still owned by Olin. It was, in fact, the last new model introduced by Winchester RAC. I understand that butt pads on the early rifles were marked, 'Winchester Repeating Arms' if manufactured before January 1981. USRAC purchased the rights to the Winchester name in 1981 and rifles made under USRAC management were marked, 'U.S. Repeating Arms Co.'

The .307 Winchester and .356 Winchester were essentially rimmed, internally strengthened versions of the existing .308 and .358 Winchester cartridges, while the .375 Winchester was based on a slightly shortened and strengthened .38-55 case. Actually, although most owners do not realize it, .375 Big Bore 94 rifles can also shoot .38-55 cartridges, including the Buffalo Bore Heavy .38-55 +P load that exceeds the killing power of the Winchester .375 factory load.

I remember reading that, had the Big Bore 94 rifle and .375 Winchester cartridge been as commercially successful as hoped, the folks at Winchester intended to introduce a .45 caliber cartridge to complete the line. The anticipated sales never developed and the project was shelved.

From 1978 through 1983, Big Bore 94 rifles were built on the post-1964 top-eject action. The top eject action was supplied with standard Model 94 semi-buckhorn rear and hooded bead front sights and was drilled and tapped for receiver sights. In addition, side mounts for riflescopes were available.

When the Angle-Eject action became standard across the M-94 line, starting in 1982, the Big Bore rifles incorporated the new feature. Angle-Eject allows low and overbore scope mounting and AE receivers are drilled and tapped for top mounted scope bases. A folding rear sight replaced the earlier semi-buckhorn rear sight to clear a low mounted scope.

Big Bore 94 rifles received what Winchester called the XTR treatment, including a highly polished blued barreled action and a checkered walnut stock and fore end. The XTR designation was dropped in 1989, although the rifles remained the same.

The stock had a straight hand and terminated in a thin rubber butt pad. (Contrary to some reports, this was not a recoil pad.) Big Bore rifles circa 1983 had a Monte Carlo comb, others had a conventional straight comb. All Big Bore 94s were carbines with 20' round barrels and a full length, under barrel tubular magazine that held six cartridges.

In 1992, Winchester added an unsightly and generally disliked cross-bolt safety to the receiver of Model 94 rifles, including the Big Bore. This unnecessary safety (except to the Company lawyers) blocks the hammer when engaged. It stayed for the remaining years of Big Bore 94 production.

Big Bore 94 sales never met expectations and in 1997 the .375 cartridge was dropped from the Model 94 line, followed in 1998 by the .307 and .356 Winchester cartridges. Ammunition for all three calibers remains available from Winchester in 2018. Oddly, that same year (1998), the .444 Marlin was offered in the Big Bore 94.

The .307, .356 and .375 Winchester Cartridges

The .307 was introduced with a 150 grain bullet at a MV of 2760 fps and a 180 grain bullet at 2510 fps in Winchester factory loads. The .356 was offered with a 200 grain bullet at a MV of 2460 fps and a 250 grain bullet at 2160 fps, while the .375 came with a 200 grain bullet at 2200 fps and a 250 grain bullet at 1900 fps.

How To Tell What Year Winchester Model 94

These were all Super-X loads using Power Point (flat point) bullets and the velocities were measured in 24' test barrels. (Expect around 40-80 fps lower MV from a 20' barrel.) The 180 grain .307, 200 grain .356 and 200 grain .375 loads proved to be the more popular offerings and they are the only factory loads that Winchester has offered in recent years.

The .307 and .356 were designed to provide ballistics similar to the .308 Win. and .358 Win. (The .307 Win. actually uses standard .308' diameter bullets and the .356 uses standard .358' bullets.) Except for their rims, the case bodies of the .307 and .356 are identical to, respectively, the .308 and .358. Reloaders can use .308 dies to reload .307 cases and .358 dies to reload .356 cases.

Due to the Model 94's tubular magazine, the new cartridges had to be loaded with flat point bullets. This meant that, while they started fast, they shed velocity rather quickly downrange. By 200 yards the ballistics of the .307 and .356 had fallen well behind the .308 and .358 Winchester cartridges with which they were usually compared.

For example, the current 180 grain Winchester Power Point flat point bullet used in the .307 Super-X factory load has a ballistic coefficient (BC) of .253, while the 180 grain Power Point spitzer bullet used in the Super-X .308 load has a BC of .382. The .307 Win. bullet starts at a muzzle velocity of 2510 fps, which is 110 fps slower than the .308. However, at 200 yards it is rolling along at 1874 fps, 302 fps slower than the .308 bullet. In fact, at 300 yards the 180 grain .308 bullet is still traveling about 100 fps faster than the .307 bullet does at 200 yards.

Likewise, the .356's 200 grain flat point bullet suffers in comparison to the .358 Winchester's 200 grain spitzer bullet, although less, as the starting velocities for both cartridges is lower. The 200 yard velocity difference is only about 80 fps in favor of the .358. Today, as loaded by Winchester, the .356 is the most powerful of the three Big Bore cartridges. The .356/200 grain load puts more energy on target at 100 yards (1985 ft. lbs.) than does the .307/180 grain (1795 ft. lbs.) or the .375/200 grain (1506 ft. lbs.).

The .375 Winchester is different in a couple of ways. For one thing, it is correctly named, as it actually uses .375' diameter bullets. Its high operating pressure (52,000 CUP) allowed it to easily outperform the earlier .38-55, which is held to only 30,000 CUP by SAAMI specifications and is loaded well below even this modest MAP by Winchester. (This comment does not include the Buffalo Bore Heavy .38-55 +P load, which is loaded to 38,000 CUP.)

The fact is, shooting high pressure loads using 250 grain bullets in a Model 94 carbine with a 20' barrel results in uncomfortable recoil. This is why, even though they were more potent, the 250 grain .356 and .375 factory loads were not popular with shooters and were eventually discontinued.

The sectional density (SD) of a .358', 200 grain bullet is .223, which in a powerful .35 caliber rifle is satisfactory for hunting all Class 2 and most Class 3 game. However, the SD of a .375', 200 grain bullet is only .203. This is fine for Class 2 animals, but marginal for the big Class 3 animals a .375 caliber rifle would seem best suited. In addition, the stubby bullet (BC .214) sheds velocity and energy quickly.

It is unfortunate that the Model 94 Big Bore was not offered as a rifle with a 24' barrel, rather than just a 6.5 pound carbine. Guns and Shooting Online has reviewed the new Winchester Model 94 Sporter .38-55 Rifle that weighs 7.5 pounds (bare) with a 24' barrel and about 8.5 pounds with a low power scope. This rifle comfortably handles the Buffalo Bore Heavy .38-55 +P load, which launches a 255 grain bulllet (SD .256) at a MV of 1950 fps, developing recoil similar to an eight pound .270 Winchester rifle. This is the type of rifle that would have made the .375/250 grain and .356/250 grain factory loads acceptable to more shooters. A properly designed .35-.37 caliber bullet weighing 250 grains at a MV of 1900-2100 fps is adequate for all North American big game.

Conclusion

According to the 36th Edition of Fjestad's Blue Book of Gun Values, Winchester 94 Big Bore rifles in all three calibers command a premium price, compared to standard Model 94 XTR rifles. They have, however, not yet been priced out of reach of shooters and hunters. A .307 in 100% condition is listed at $775 and in 98% condition at $600, while a .30-30 Model 94 XTR in 100% condition is listed at $650 and in 98% condition at $550. Add 25% for Big Bore 94s in .356 or .375 caliber.

In 2018, a new Winchester Model 94 Angle Eject Carbine carries a MSRP of $1199.99 in calibers .25-35, .30-30, .32 Win. Special and .38-55. Without question, the new Model 94's are beautifully made rifles. (See the Product Reviews page for full reviews of all the new M-94 Sporter rifles.) However, the price makes a nice Model 94 Big Bore Angle-Eject seem like a pretty good deal for the hunter who favors a powerful lever action carbine.