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May 22, 2024
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Just a very special to me article i just read this morning in the latest issue!
“Shooting a Classic Model 1894 in 38-55” by Matthew Wrobel
First paragraph “Once in a while you are lucky enough to acquire a firearm that kind of has a special place in your make up. This is one of mine.”
Well this article sure brings back memories and rings bells, actually defines my first years of Levergun Love! Just a brief explanation?
Being born, raised, still living here in SE Ky Appalachian Mts, hunting and guns were part of the teeth cutting process! Moving on to my late teens, just graduated HS, started to work in Coal Mining, which I did 40 years before retiring in 2016. Back then all i knew of Leverguns orher than the cowboys 44’s was 99% Model 336 30-30 or Model 94 30-30 Carbine, and a very few 35 Rem and remember hearing of some who had 94’s in 32-20. I never even saw a Model 64 until the lates 70’s and it a 64a a buddy bought new. There was no knowledge passed to me of anything else? Until in 1980 I saw the Movie Tom Horn. Him out shooting, checking his rifle & sights, same way we did back then, a rock across the hollow, or a big tree limb, but what kinda Rifle is that, i had to know, and they made it clear it was in 45-60 a new cartridge, but i knew of the 45-70 and Sharps a little! But that Winchester, Lord its Beautiful, but what an interesting cartridge!
Well naturally I gained interest and thus info, and ? Years idk?, but not long? I got ahold of the story “Red Letter Days in British Columbia”, and how i dont remember? But regardless, I knew the name Townsend Whelen before, but this story affected me in a way that still real today! And as much as I grew to love Whelen (He’s my favorite by far, of the early big game hunters-writers), at that time, it was just plain, that Bill Andrew’s was the elder knowledgeable guide so to speak to Whelen! And he used a Model 94 in 38-55. A What?
But years later here we are, and I have never yet seen or heard of one around here! No i never went looking, ive always kept my gun cabinet and racks full of what I needed and wanted among what came along in my path locally! It wasn’t to many years later? I read and learned of Ben Lilly and that sparked the Model 86 in 33wcf in me, but that’s another story!
But if I’d ever gotten a 94 in 38-55 of my choosing, it would be one of a configuration like this one (i figured all along Bill Andrew’s was probably of this configuration) in this article, yes an early one with 26″ Oct barrel, and I would have gotten into Cast Bullets because of this rifle, having learned long ago, the reputation of the 38-55 accuracy! And i would’ve had to hunt with it, take at least one deer using it!
But its all ok now way down the line, im soon 67, got my gun fancies aplenty more than needed! And i love the 30-30 more than ever, and that’s the truth! It’s field record for me far surpasses the popular reputation!
But Thank You very much Mr Wrobel, great testimony and i believe i know how you must feel!
I wanted to add, kind of a conclusion really, of my Leverguns Life, and few more i really was interested in, but never acquired. Later on in my mid years, I got most all of Whelen’s books, and Teddy Roosevelt’s along with a few more that relate to my favorite Winchester’s. I loved TR’s writings, and especially his 1876 in 45-75, and subjects of other’s along this line. But it was those early Hunters & Explorer’s who used these guns into B.C., NW Territories, and Alaska, and the rifles that made it possible. That was my total interest of Leverguns, not to mention they’re widespread use here, the entire length of the Appalachian Mts all way thru Maine! But the Models 76, 86, & 94’s are by far 99% of my interest! I never could get an interest to the 1895? I guess i saw it plainly as a compromise toward the attributes of a Boltaction! Not that I dont live Boltaction, I do, got a bunch, love em. But i see it, a very wide line between their differences, and i keep it that way in my heart! The Old Tube Fed Original or a Boltaction! And all the hyphenated & wcf cartridges that fed em!
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