Not much of an expert on the various flavors of Win 94s but I love them and own a bunch. One of my most interesting 94s has AAA wood with fantastic grain and deluxe checkering. The pattern is more of the classic Winchester rifle pattern from a modern model 70 featherweight rather than the type of checkering they generally used on the Win 94AEs and Big Bores (both of which I also own).

Does anybody know if Winchester made a run of "standard" deluxe checkering 94s with AAA fancy wood or is my rifle more likely to have been custom ordered????

Thanks for any info you can offer.

Probably special order. When you order wood of this quality the generaly but not always upgrade the checkering pattern.
I have seen a nice, lightly engraved, pistol grip Mmodel 94AE with astonishing wood and a normal checkering pattern - square ends.
I have seen lessor wood with fancy chekering, as you describe.
USRA made up quite a few specials on all the lever guns. You see them for sale at the high end auction houses every once in awhile.
My wife hunts with a grade 1 Centennial, in spite of the very nice wood the checkering is normal.

[EDIT] This is not mine but there is some nice wood hiding in closets around the country.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
slim

Thanks guys. I would be interested in knowing when it was built so I'll pull it out of the safe and check the serial number and start there. It's too nice and probably valuable to hunt with and is in basically unfired condition so that one is a safe queen.

Like you William I have seen some pretty incredible wood on otherwise "standard" rifles and shotguns. I live in CT the one time home of Winchester, Marlin, Parker, Remington etc...so we are fortunate to find more than our fair share of older rifles/guns in our area as many of the factory employees have passed on and the rifles/guns are sold to local shops by the widows or heirs. The word around these parts has always been the employees were able to buy guns/rifles at substantial discounts and when they did they would oftentimes pick out their own stocks/forends or ask their buddies that were stocking the rifles/guns to do them proud. That would explain some of the extraordinary wood found on otherwise field grade guns/rifles.

Last week I picked up a model 94AE basically unfired with the original box and papers with wood like the one in your picture. So it was either purchased by a Winchester employee or they just put a really nice piece of wood on it. I also bought the 94 right beside it which was in similar condition and had similar wood but did not come with the box.

But the rifle I'm asking about has wood even better than what is pictured and as I say it has "deluxe" Winchester factory style checkering so I strongly suspect it's a special order rifle. Living here in CT I have seen and purchased many Winchesters of all kinds including some one of a kind lunch box specials that were custom made by factory employees. But the rifle I'm asking about looks like it was a special order and made by the factory.

I'll take some pics and post them if I can figure out how to do that and then look up the serial number and determine the date of manufacture and then go from there.

Here is the sticky on posting pictures. 25 posts to post pictures.

You can use a photosharing site such as photobucket.

Posting Pictures

__________________
slim

Thanks for the help. I'll have to make some additional posts before I can put up my pics. Went to the safe and pulled out my 94s and took some pics and jotted down the serial numbers. The "special order" carbine in question was mfg. in 1960 according to the records. I have another interesting pre-64 with a nickel trigger, hammer and lever. Turns out the nickel trimmed carbine was made in 1950. I'm guessing that was a "special order" of some sort as well.

I will attempt to post some pics of the really fancy 94 special order mfg 1960 once I'm up to 25 posts. It's a pretty interesting rifle.

This is my 94 Legacy model with deluxe features. It was built in 1995.

TR

Another great looking 94. Going to attempt to upload a pic of my 94 "special order" right now!

Is there a way to upload a pic directly from your computer hard drive??? The tools I see so far only allow you to point your browser to a website like Photo bucket that's doing third party hosting. Most sites I use allow direct uploads of pics from local computer hard drives.

Thanks in advance for the help.

The posting rules say I may not post attachments. I have my 25 posts but maybe I haven't been a site member long enough to post pics. I'll try again in a couple of weeks.

Mine is not a "deluxe" model but it does have some fancy checkering and an interesting stock. It is a 1987 Model 94AE "Win-Tuff" in .30-30 with a hardwood laminated stock.

Great looking rifle James. Like the laminate wood and the checkering. Going to try and post a pic now of the checkering and wood on my Win 94 that I think was a custom order.

Let me know what you guys think. Older model 94 from 1960. Factory correct in every way but with upgraded wood and fancy custom shop style checkering. Must be a special order right?

Attached Thumbnails

   

You guys and your new guns...

This is mine. Deluxe 3X Casehardened (only 155 casehardened rifles were made). Serialized December 26th, 1895

1badf350, that is one beautiful gun.

Thanks, mirage!

I believe I saw where you asked for its value on Gun Values Board and got a rather pleasant surprise? It is a beauty.

May not be what you want to hear from any of us, but I honestly believe that the gun was re-stocked at some time in its past. I know Winchester was caplable of putting out some beautiful wood on their guns, but the pattern is one reason I believe aftermarket. Could be wrong, and wouldn't be the first (or last) time either.
I bought an M-70 back around '88 that had a very nice piece of walnut on it, but it cracked in between the mag box and trigger cutout after only a few rounds were fired through it, so I sent it back. I wasn't expecting anything much from them since most of their guns were coming with really boringly plain walnut during that time period. When the gun shop called and said that it was back, the guy said he didn't think I'd be disappointed. He knew I had been worried about what type of stock I'd get back. It was an unbelieveable thing of beauty!! It had to have been taken from their custom shop. Neither the guys at the shop, nor I could believe how nice it was. Like a major fool, I ended up selling it off later on for money to spend on something new that had caught my eye. (This is where the hammer head icon should be)