winchester 94 loading gate problem

I'd take it out of the rifle to work on it. The answer above is correct, the rib on the back of the gate is burred and needs to be cleaned up, the back and edges smoothed out.

Care must be taken to get the screw in straight when reassembling, it's easy to get it cross threaded and damage either the screw or gate, or both. If the front of the gate is allowed to be out of the hole just slightly when barely starting the screw, once it's in and cleanly cutting threads, wiggle it around and get the front in the hole behond the opening before snuggling up the screw.

Soneone will likely be along and say its normal, that if you just don't push each round in all the way, you can load more. Yes, that works, but when properly fitted up, the gate should operate slickly and smoothly to load more rounds. My older guns do so, and ones I've smoothed up also are simple load more into without drama. There's no good reason to put up with the gate not operating well.

__________________
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt-

View the original article here