BJREBUCK said
The cartrides guides are cartridge specific. The only cartridge guides that are interchangable are the 32-40 and 32 ws. The guides can be modified to change calibers. Long ago I had some 30-30 redone to 38-55 but can"t recall who the smith was as they were sent off.

I disagree, and apparently Winchester did too.

Winchester manufactured a fair number of 2-barrel (and at least a few 3-barrel) Take Down rifles that were made in different calibers. The most common was a 38-55 & 30 WCF barrel pair, and there was at least one rifle (serial number 63261) that was made with a 25-35 WCF & 38-55 barrel set. These were factory built rifles, with just on set of cartridge guides.

Bert

25-20 said
Well there is that wonderful 5 barrel TD set shown in the beginning of Bob R’s book with the one receiver, and a barrel for each caliber of the 1894

I had my hands on that set a few years ago, and I was instrumental in getting Bob R. in touch with the then owner to get the picture for his book. 8)

Bert

3855 said
Bert,

My guess in those scenarios Winchester used 38-55 cartridge guides for the multi-barrel sets. The smaller 30 WCF cartridge would feed acceptably with those guides.

I have found when playing with a number of old beater guns over the years, most of the time, cartridges will not feed when putting a 38-55 barrel on an action that was originally built for a say the 25-35 cartridge. The middle size cartridges seem to interchange. I have also seen exceptions to this….Suffice to say for at least some of the time, cartridge guides were different for the 38-55 and possibly for the others during some manufacturing periods. My personal observation is the older receiver examples were more specific to specific individual cartridges guides than later examples.

Once again, there are exceptions…just my observations in my barrel swapping adventures. Your mileage may vary.

Mark,

I suspect that your observations are real close to the truth. When a multi-barrel set was ordered (and there were more than (100) of them made in the letterable range), Winchester more than likely used 38-55 guides.

I very much suspect that the 30 WCF and 32 WS cartridge guides are identical due to the cartidges being identical except for the slight difference in the neck diameter.

Bert

BJREBUCK said
Bert,
I have never seen a multi-caliber barrel set, or had the opportunity to
dismember one to see whats inside. It must be a rare bird indeed.
However if you take a look at Arthur Pirkles’ book "The models of 1894 and 1895" 1998 edition starting on pg. 28 under the heading of cartridge giudes there is a table of dimensions plus drawings of the various guides.
The differences are quite clear. Having restored, rebuilt, repaired and
generally modified many of these rifles/carbines over the last 30+ years
I have had no luck getting mis matched caliber to guides to function
properly. 😮 You must have the "Midas Touch". Bless you my son.
And by proper function I mean not thumping the side of the reciever
while rattling the finger lever side to side and fore and aft while gazing down into the open top of the receiver ….just kidding. But I have seen
more than one person doing that at the range while cussing their "Junk Winchester". I have bought a few that way too. Nor do I mean fanning one
like Chuck Conners does his highly modified model 92 in the opening of the old western "The Rifleman".
It seems to me that if these are that uncommon they probably didn’t function very well. I can’t imagine Winchester making several very different types of guides if only one size would fit all. ❓
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one.
Happy shooting,
B

You can disagree about this topic to your heart’s content, but the fact remains unchanged… Winchester did manufacture (118) multi-barrel Model 1894 Take Down rifles prior to serial number 354000 (as listed in the survey that was published in the ARMAX Volume V).

Just because you personally have not ever seen or dismantled one does not mean that they do no exist, or more importantly, that the do not function properly. I sincerely doubt that Winchester would have ever allowed a poorly functioning firearm to go out door.

In regards to their rarity, they most certainly are not common. The primary reason for that was due to the added cost of the rifle. Take Down Rifles were already a substantial extra cost, and adding the second barrel assembly really increased the cost of the rifle. I suspect that Winchester manufactured at least (300) or more multi-barrel Model 1894 rifles before discontinuing the Take Down rifles in 1932.

Bert