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November 19, 2006
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I would love to know more detail about this. Apparently, in 1911 and early 1912, Winchester had a large quantify of .30 WCF and .32 W.S. barrels that did not pass the quality control process (I wish I knew why) and rather than discard them, they repurposed them by boring them to a larger chambering. So, the .30 WCF barrels got rebored to .32-40 and the .32 Special barrels got rebored to .38-55? Why weren’t the .30 WCF barrels rebored to .32 Special? I’ve never heard of this before. I assume if they did indeed rebore these barrels, that work would be undetectable and we would have no way of knowing whcih 94’s they went on?
This is, “From the McCracken Research Library” Fall, 2019 Winchester Collector Magazine:
April 15, 2005
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Interesting, but not too surprising. I suspect that more than just years 1911 & 1912 saw similar barrel rework. The trick to identifying the rebored barrels is rather simple… standard 32-40 and 38-55 barrels were not Nickel Steel. If you find a 1912 (or later) 32-40 or 38-55 with a Nickel Steel barrel, the odds are good that it was a rebored 30 WCF or 32 WS barrel.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
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