Greetings,

When did Winchester make the change in the safety? The trigger pull will be a concern to me because I plan to use the gun for Lever Action Silhoutte. I am looking at a 1980 '94 in 38-55. I would like to get the trigger smooth and crisp, I feel the cartridge, twist rate, and bullet selection are well suited for what I want to do, but the question is "what can I do with the trigger?"
Thanks in advance for any input.

Jon

I'm not sure of the exact date but I believe the tang safety came in the early 2000s. I have a winchester in 444 Marlin that was built in 1999-2000 timeframe and it has a cross bolt safety, and my newer ones have the safety on the tang.

Hi John K,

Note: I edited this, you fellas correct me if I'm wrong.

1983 or 4: Angle Eject feature added(right side of reciever cut out and extractor repositioned to kick the empties slightly up and right, to allow for scopes). Ones before this are called "Top Eject"

1992: Cross bolt Safety Added(not sure when rebounding hammer came on the scene, but it was on these guns)

After 2000 the cross bolt was dropped and the tang safety was added. Around 2002-3, I believe.


For trigger pull on a more recent Winchester 94's(ones with rebounding hammer) you can swap out the lower tang/hammer for parts for the earlier Non-rebounding type. From what I understand, this helps with the coarse trigger pull considerably. Joe Miller has posted on this here I believe, as well as over on leverguns. I am bad at searches here but you might poke around. If your looking at a 1980 gun, it should not have the safety or rebounding hammer set up. So, I would just clean it, oil it, and shooting the stuffing out of it :) It will only get better!

LET-CA & Chris,

Thanks for your input guys, knowing timelines is exactly what I was looking for. I will know what does and doesn't have, next time. I bought the gun in question, when I first posted this topic. I made my decision to buy based on caliber, barrel configuration and length, twist rate and gun weight.
I got to look at the gun at the dealer, I had it sent to, today, it doesn't have the safety or rebounding hammer to complicate things. Like icing on the cake!

Thanks,
Jon

Your welome Sir. It sounds like you'll have a nice Winchester in an equally nice caliber. Good luck and let us know how it shoots.