Henry Rifle Forums

A high dollar 1980 Winchester 38-55 with a big problem....... https://youtu.be/muJ8ohtBtC4?si=wamWHr0teP5LMeLn

Very interesting and also very disappointing to see barrels like that in circulation by big name brands. I can see why he was so frustrated.

Didn't watch it. After the third ad came up I just left the site. I may try another time.
Jake

Watched it earlier today on the Roku. He had another rifle made by USRA that had the same loose place in the barrel.He should have bought a Marlin or a Henry.

Fire lapping will fix it. Or help considerably. That won’t help the oversize issue at all but it will even out the tight spots. I had a Marlin 1895 STP .45/70 (Trapper) with horrible bore restrictions at each sight dovetail, it was fixed and shot beautifully after 40 lapping bullets. Recoil lessened, groups tightened and the ES was reduced too. BUT it wasn’t oversized like his barrel.

His might just be truly screwed up….

John Davies
Spokane WA

FYi, these are sure pretty guns. Though I would prefer it without the Indian decorations. This one is local to me.

“ This is a Winchester 1894 from 1983. It is the Chief Crazy Horse Commemorative Rifle. It is New in the Box, has a 24" barrel, chambered in 38-55. This is for sale for $1750.”

https://www.spokaneguntrader.com/viewto ... Winchester

I wonder if the seller would slug that barrel for a potential buyer…?

John Davies
Spokane WA

Never cared for the Crazy Horse with all the tacks.
I do love my Marlin Cowboy in 38-55 though.

RP

It's very sad, but many American manufacturers, during the 60's and 70's, chose to go down the same path trying to reduce cost at the sake of quality. Meanwhile Japan adopted the Deming model of building quality in at every step of the manufacturing process. The auto industry is a prime example of this and how Japan became a dominant player during this time.

In 1964 when Winchester changed their product line to reduce cost, but created a cheaper inferior product. Winchester lost sales and continued to produce inferior products. This resulted in them going out of business and selling their asset to their employees as US Repeating Arms in 1980. USRA struggled for 10 years but never understood how to improve quality. In 1989/1990, FN bought up the assets and started to improve the products.

By the mid 90's Winchester products under FN started to improve quality but costs were still running high. Finally in 2006 FN closed Winchester manufacturing in the US and sent it to Japan under Miroku.

Miroku is still producing Winchester products today.

Paul

What a lousy situation. If I was deep financially into the rifle, I would probably consider a high quality replacement barrel in an attempt to salvage the rifle. It isn't useable as is, at least not to me.

I have an early AE model in 30-30, 80-81 I think, it may be a cheaper version, but
I'll tell ya. It carries nicely like no other I own, and is pretty accurate with both cast or jacketed ammo.
A year or two later is when they added the god awful safety button.
I'll never own one of those.

Like Henry fan side I'd be lookin for a new barrel or be sending it down the road.

RP