I have my grandfather's old Winchester 94 .30-30; his wish was that the rifle be sold ouside the family, so I'm doing that.
First off, I ran the serial number, and I've learned the rifle was made in 1955. The rife sat in a closet for probably 40 or 50 years without being fired. It's been more neglected than abused, and I have to believe it was rarely fired, but rarely maintained as well.
The wood is intact, but has some dings and scratches. The bluing as well is intact, but there is some minor pitting on the receiver, on the band holding the forearm to the barrel, and on the band holding the barrel to the magazine toward the muzzle.
As to its mechanical condition: the rear of the firing pin does not protrude above the rear face of the breech against spring pressure as I would imagine it should (I've included a picture of that); broken or missing firing pin return spring, maybe? Also, the trigger moves back and forth freely, as though there's a trigger-return spring that's supposed to be there but isn't. That said, it drops the hammer perfectly and resets when the action is cycled, so it does what it's supposed to (and it has a surprisingly nice pull once the slop is taken up, something I wouldn't have expected from an old rifle).
The bore looks to be in perfect condition. I'd provide a photo, but getting a good, sharp picture of a rifle bore is a depth-of-field nightmare!
Anyway, I'm probably going to post this thing on *********.com, but I need a good idea of where to set my minimum bid. I've included the maximum of four pictures, though I have more that I've taken. Any input from anyone here would be deeply appreciated!
First off, I ran the serial number, and I've learned the rifle was made in 1955. The rife sat in a closet for probably 40 or 50 years without being fired. It's been more neglected than abused, and I have to believe it was rarely fired, but rarely maintained as well.
The wood is intact, but has some dings and scratches. The bluing as well is intact, but there is some minor pitting on the receiver, on the band holding the forearm to the barrel, and on the band holding the barrel to the magazine toward the muzzle.
As to its mechanical condition: the rear of the firing pin does not protrude above the rear face of the breech against spring pressure as I would imagine it should (I've included a picture of that); broken or missing firing pin return spring, maybe? Also, the trigger moves back and forth freely, as though there's a trigger-return spring that's supposed to be there but isn't. That said, it drops the hammer perfectly and resets when the action is cycled, so it does what it's supposed to (and it has a surprisingly nice pull once the slop is taken up, something I wouldn't have expected from an old rifle).
The bore looks to be in perfect condition. I'd provide a photo, but getting a good, sharp picture of a rifle bore is a depth-of-field nightmare!
Anyway, I'm probably going to post this thing on *********.com, but I need a good idea of where to set my minimum bid. I've included the maximum of four pictures, though I have more that I've taken. Any input from anyone here would be deeply appreciated!
