First time rifle -- Winchester 94?

vanity | 11-27-04 | self

[wildcatf4f3]

Went shooting for the first time in my life. Friend had a Winchester 94, walnut. I was intrigued, how many movies have I seen this rifle in? It felt so natural and I was actually hitting targets within a few shots. Would this be a good starter rifle?

[Alaska Wolf]

Yup, the .444 Marlin is still around. Killed my first bear in Alaska with one in 1976. One shot at approximately 40 yards. Still have the rifle and the rug.

[Graycliff]

(The kick is not punishing and it's got the knock down power to handle anything North Amreica has thrown at it.)

Gotta call BS on that one.
The 30-30 is marginal at best for deer size game, and thats at less than 100 yards. The 30-30 should never be considered a big game rifle. While hunting in NM. in 98, i had to track a young bull elk over 3 miles before i found him. Two gentelmen from California had put 9 rounds from 30-30s into that poor bull.
I found him 36 hrs after the fact, the only thing retrievable were the Antlers. 6 of the rounds he had taken in his shoulders, 3 in the midsection.

[bad company]

Right.

[Graycliff]

Wow
What a snappy come back. Come on, you can do better than that.

[sobenk]

Any opinions on the long barrel 94's (legacy) vs the regular?

I have a Marlin 336C (.357) and like it, but am wondering if the 24" barrel would improve things. Either in 30-30 or 357.

I just do target shooting but like the larger bullet.

[Graycliff]

Not gonna be much help on this one.
I've put thousands of 357 rounds through revolvers, semi-auto's, and single shot hand guns. But I've never fired a 357 round through a rifle.
In the 30-30 i would suggest the longer barrel. Any powder burnt outside the barrel is a waste. An efficient round taps out all the powder before exiting the bore. A prime example of this is the 30 carbine. When fired from from a 18 inch carbine there's very little flame exits. When factory 30 carbines are fired through my Ruger 7 1/2 inch revolver the put out quite a display of flame and are incredibly loud.

As for the 357, i believe there's only so much powder you can put in the case. In most cases that I've seen, longer barrels give more velocity, but at some point you would have to go to a slower burning powder to get a good burn, all the way to the end of the barrel.