It was a Monday morning in mid-November and my plan was to sneak in a quick hunt before work. I’d been watching a ten-pointer since late summer when he made his first midnight appearance on one of my trail cameras, but the rut waws quickly slipping away now. I knew that the odds of seeing him during daylight were dropping with each passing day.
I was running late that morning and didn’t get to my ladder stand until the woods were already turning gray. I climbed in quickly, accidentally tapping the barrel of my grandfather’s Winchester Model 94 on the shooting rail as I pulled myself into the stand.
Frustrated by my late arrival and that metal-on-metal ting, all I could do was sit still and wait for the woods to forget I was there. I figured that in a couple hours I would try to rattle a buck out of the bedding area.
I didn’t get that far. Fifteen minutes after the clank of my rifle hitting the stand, I saw the ten-point rack I knew so well from after-dark trail camera images moving through the fog. I almost worried that I had dozed off and was dreaming about the buck floating my way out of the bedding area.
I raised my grandfather’s old rifle and took a couple of deep breaths.
I pressed the trigger on that trusty old lever gun when the buck turned broadside at 45 yards, sending a 150-grain Core-Lokt soft point through both lungs. The buck dropped like a sack of potatoes. He didn’t even kick when he hit the ground.
A Hand-Me-Down Cowboy Gun
I was only 19 when I inherited my grandfather’s beat-up old Winchester 94. My uncle claimed the gun had a lot of character. I thought it looked like it had been dragged 100 miles through gravel, soaked in a mud puddle, and then left to rust in a dusty corner.
I’d had my heart set on a shiny new semi-automatic rifle chambered in something fast and topped with some high-class glass. Mine would be a rifle that would turn heads at the deer check station and mark me as a serious deer hunter. But that fantasy was crushed by this rusty, scratched-up old cowboy gun that spit empty cases out the top, making a top-mounted scope thoroughly impractical.
Now that I’m older, with decades of deer seasons under my belt, that Winchester 94 chambered in the immortal .30-30 is one of my prized possessions. I still think that flashy guns, hot rod cartridges, and shiny new optics are fun to shoot. But shooting isn’t deer hunting.
I now realize that Winchester Model 94 was exactly the gun I needed.
The Perfect Deer Hunting Rifle
In my teenage mind, the Model 94 and the .30-30 cartridges that went with it were dinosaurs. Being young and stupid, I wanted something that could kill deer at 300-plus yards. I figured having a gun with extended range would extend opportunities.
I know see things more practically. My grandfather’s dusty old cowboy gun was the perfect teacher.
Two hundred yards would be a long shot for my .30-30 Winchester 94, and I’m not comfortable shooting it that far, especially with aging eyes and those iron sights. But in the woods of North Carolina where I hunt, the shots are close. I’ve lost count of the deer I’ve tagged with that gun, but none was over 75 yards.
When deer are that close, a tiny shift in the wind or one too-fast movement will blow the whole gig. And because I was forced to hunt with that Model 94, I learned how to sit still, play the wind, and be patient enough to let big deer come close before I pulled the trigger. It also inspired me to study how deer move and learn what bedding areas they prefer. It helped me look for the details in the woods, so I could pick stand locations based on how close I could get to the deer.
Had I been gifted the rifle I wanted, I might never have learned those woodsmanship skills.
The Winchester 1894 Origin Story
We have the famous firearms inventor John Moses Browning to thank for the Winchester Model 1894. A genius of gun design, Browning is responsible for dozens of revolutionary firearms, including the M2 machine gun and the Colt 1911.
The first Model 1894s were released in, you guessed it, 1894. That was the same year the mouse trap was invented, and Coca-Cola was first sold in glass bottles. Those cardinal 1894s were chambered in .32-40 and .38-55 Winchester. Both cartridges still used black powder.
The very next year, the Model 1894 became the first rifle ever chambered for a smokeless powder cartridge — the .30 Winchester Centerfire, better known today as the famous .30-30. It was quickly apparent that lever guns and .30-30 cartridges are a pairing about as perfect as peanut butter and jelly. The two have been practically synonymous ever since.
While Winchester produced other lever action rifles, including the Model 1873, which was marketed as “The Gun That Won the West,” the Model 1894 is the brand’s most prolific. (The model designation was shortened to “94” in the 1920s.) It was the first sporting rifle to sell one million units in the U.S., with more than 7.5 million of these awesome little deer rifles produced between its 1894 release and 2006, when the design was finally retired.
The multitude of Model 94s sold definitely contributed to the gun’s legendary status. However, it took more than sheer numbers to get there. It’s rare for any product to maintain its original design for over a century without losing popularity unless it delivers results. Few can argue that the Winchester 94 isn’t a damn fine deer-rifle.
Many hunters claim the Winchester 94 has put more venison on more dinner plates than any other gun, and since that claim is impossible to verify or dispute, I tend to agree.
Read Next: Best Lever Action Rifles
Winchester Model 94 Features
In 1894, shooters could buy a Winchester Model 1894 with a 24-inch barrel. There was also a take-down version. Both featured American walnut stocks and buckhorn sights.
The Model 1894 underwent several revisions through the years, including that 1927 name change. Winchester shortened the name after it produced its millionth rifle. However, the basic design held firm through come-and-go variations like shortened barrel lengths and flat bands.
My particular Model 94 was made in 1942. It has a shorter 20-inch carbine-length barrel and weighs a meager 6 ½ pounds. Its size and weight make it easy to tote in the deer woods, even without a sling. (Mine does not have one, although my dad once tied a tattered piece of rope around it when I complained about hauling it through a National Forest without one. He didn’t want to drill into the stock to attach a sling mount. Now, I’m glad he didn’t.)
The compact proportions of that lightweight carbine are a Goldilocks fit for my 5-foot-3-inch height. Its nice balance makes it easy for me to maneuver in thick woods, especially on fast-moving targets.
The Model 94 is well-known for its durable action and reliable cycling. With some practice, I learned to make rapid, accurate follow-up shots without pulling the gun from my cheek.
And like a good pump shotgun, you can pull a Model 94 five miles through mud and dust, and it will still run like clockwork.
I’ve hunted with the rifle in the rain, snow, and once during the 90-degree December heat of a North Carolina false-summer. It has never once faltered. This old dog hasn’t had a good cleaning since probably the early 90s. Other than wiping the exterior rust away with some Rem Oil from time to time, I tend to neglect regular care and maintenance, and yet it still cycles like butter.
This is not a precision rifle by any stretch of the imagination but it is plenty accurate for close-range shots on deer.
Modern .30-30 Ammo Options
Winchester 94 shooters like me hope that our rifles will live on forever, and we should be encouraged by all the new ammo options on the market which make that dream possible. Those initial .30-30 loads were topped with 160-grain lead projectiles and could leave the muzzle at 2,000 fps with 1,400 foot-pounds of energy.
Today, Hornady’s LeveRevolution .30-30 load launches a 160-grain bullet at 2,400 fps, and offers a much flatter trajectory. Once upon a time, lever action rifles like the Model 94 were limited to cartridges with blunt-nosed soft points. Because it sports a tubular magazine, cartridges line up tip to primer. The design makes modern tipped projectiles theoretically dangerous because the pointed end of one bullet could push against the primer of the cartridge in front of it, causing an accidental discharge in the magazine.
Hornady changed that in 2006 when they introduced LeveRevolution loads which feature aerodynamic flexible-tipped projectiles that are entirely safe to use in traditional tubular magazines. The result is flatter trajectories and better energy retention.
Federal released its own line of lever-action optimized ammo in 2020. Federal HammerDown is “loaded to velocities that provide superior ballistics through lever-action rifles.” HammerDown cartridges are also designed with a patented geometry to enhance smooth and reliable feeding in tubular mags. Like the very good Federal Fusion loads, HammerDown is topped with a bonded bullet. While there isn’t much difference in wound diameters carved from bonded vs. conventional bullets, bonded projectiles hold together better if they strike a shoulder bone on early entry.
But even with newer ammo options, I lean old-school in my ammo choices. I’m not ashamed to say I’ve shot Remington Core-Lokt since that rusty 94 was first laid in my hands. Almost every deer I’ve shot with it has fallen to a 150-grain Core-Lokt, which was released in 1939. By modern standards, it is an insanely simple design — a basic lead core in a copper cup. But it gets the job done.
Read Next: A Lever Action .30-30 Winchester Is Still One of the Best Deer Hunting Rifles (and Here’s Why)
More than Just a Rifle
But there’s a lot more to love about my Winchester 94 than its features or performance. This old gun carries a lot of history and memories etched in those dents and scratches. From what I was told, my grandfather mostly dabbled in the woods, although he managed to foster a passion for the outdoors in his sons — my father and uncles. He was an old man with a cancer diagnosis by the time I was old enough to deer hunt. And unfortunately, I never had the chance to hunt with him. But the man loved the Virginia mountains where he was born, and heading back there during deer season always felt like going home to me, even though I was born a flat lander. I remember he wanted to go there one last time before he died, but his health just didn’t cooperate.
So, I toted that rifle into those mountains that first year he was gone, and it felt like I was taking him along for the ride. I shot two fat does that season. I think he would have been proud.
Final Thoughts
That Winchester Model 94 wasn’t the sexy semi-automatic rifle my teenage heart desired, but it proved its worth as a deer-slaying machine. Although I now own fancier, faster-shooting, more expensive rifles, I still opt to bring Grandpa’s Winchester with me into the deer woods each season. It’s put plenty of venison on meat poles and kept my freezer well-stocked over the years. It’s also responsible for several wall hangers I’m proud to show off to visitors. In my eyes, it’s still the perfect deer rifle.
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