[whitefish]

Thanks Uncle Nick. I appreciate the information. I'll give it a try.

I hope that I'm explaining this well. When firing the bolt and locking block will not open if I'm pressing the lever closed. I have read that, in fact, that is how the gun is designed (I also saw this in an AGI armourer's video on the Winchester Model 94). The trigger stop prevents the gun from firing unless the shooter puts pressure on the lever. So maybe nothing is wrong, I'm just not using the gun right. Having never used a model 94 before (I'm used to my Marlins), I've never encountered this before. Again, just to be clear, unlike C. Cash's experience, the lever is not being forced open when I hold onto the lever when firing.

Having said that, I do have a different problem. The trigger stop appears to be too long (or the lever is bent). The stop hits the lever before the link detent is in its recess in the lower tang. When I do bring the link up and the detent seats, the trigger safety stud is pushed up and the gun can fire. Not safe. Looks like this may have been replaced and was never ground to fit this gun. Moreover, the stud is putting pressure on the lever, which is defeating some of the purpose of the link detent.

Anyways, just looking to the model 94 owners for their experience.

BTW, the two loads I tried were (both Federal cases reformed from 30-30, both CCI 200 primers):

170 gr. Hornady FN over 30.2 gr. of IMR 3031
170 gr. Speer RN over 32 gr. of IMR 3031

The speer impacted close to the factoy winchester loads and was more accurate than the Hornady load. I'm going to walk both loads up to a max of 34 and see what happens, but not before I get my bolt issue figured out.