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Original, Winchester 1892 gunsmiths?


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I am thinking about taking an original 1892 Winchester in decent usable condition and having it converted to 357 mag / 38 special.  Would like to find someone that could re-barrel or re-bore a 32-20 or 25-20 and refinish it to make a good shooter out of it.  I know I could buy a Rossi, Chiappa, or new production Winchester cheaper but I would like to have an original that shoots a great modern cartridge.  Just looking for gunsmith recommendations.

 

Thanks 

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You'd want to start with a 32-20 or 25-20.  When I reclined the barrel on my Marlin 94 project gun,  it was going to cost about $400 to reline or reborn.  I bought a liner from T. J Enterprises for $150 and had local cowboy gunsmith reline and chamber it. Saved a bit.

 

The original "dash calibers" were made for these old rifles and I would much rather have one than a modern caliber. 

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My opinion... leave it alone! Let the poor original Winchester live out it's life in it's original caliber.

Get one of the repros/clones in the desired caliber and shoot the heck out of it!

My $.02

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1 hour ago, Middlefork Bob, SASS #53945 said:

I am thinking about taking an original 1892 Winchester in decent usable condition and having it converted to 357 mag / 38 special.  Would like to find someone that could re-barrel or re-bore a 32-20 or 25-20 and refinish it to make a good shooter out of it.  I know I could buy a Rossi, Chiappa, or new production Winchester cheaper but I would like to have an original that shoots a great modern cartridge.  Just looking for gunsmith recommendations.

 

Thanks 

Way to go, Bob!  I applaud you in wanting an original rifle customized to what you want it to be so it will make you happy shooting it.  There were many custom configurations ordered from Winchester, why can't you have yours?  Just my $.02 cents Rainmaker!

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Lonnie at Run-n-Iron in Nebraska.  Relatively close to you.   Does wonderful refinish at any level of perfection you can afford.

 

Good luck, GJ

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5ab5516e58286_Winchester189232WCF2March2018.jpg.beeaea4882427e94a5d028d479553089.jpg5ab55185429f8_Winchester189232WCF1March2018.jpg.7f98a350abd63d227482c83cc4ba88a2.jpg5ac251c467cc2_Winchester1892boreMarch2018.jpg.212062522fe8a9c3a8d5564d6a341b80.jpg

 

I shot my Winchester 92 in 32WCF in our match last Saturday with BlackMZ loads.  It was originally a 25-20 but had been rebored to 32-20WCF before my time.  It's smooth and shoots well.  A time or two I short stroked it just a little (use to Marlin) and had a feeding mishap but when I did my part, it did its part. 

 

I love the 32-20WCF.  About as perfect a round as you can find for Cowboy Action Shooting.   Holds enough black powder to qualify and 100 grain bullet has plenty of smack.

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1 hour ago, Nimble Fingers SASS# 25439 said:

Way to go, Bob!  I applaud you in wanting an original rifle customized to what you want it to be so it will make you happy shooting it.  There were many custom configurations ordered from Winchester, why can't you have yours?  Just my $.02 cents Rainmaker!

WELL THEN!

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29 minutes ago, The Rainmaker, SASS #11631 said:

WELL THEN!

Hey I thought I would cheer his decision since you were putting it down with your $.02?  Nothing wrong with telling a poster you stand behind him when others are telling him not to follow thru with his project. Problem?

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If you want another option for a rebore of the 92 - this feller is real good, per other shooters feedback.

 

http://www.35caliber.com/8.html

 

Good luck, GJ

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15 hours ago, Nimble Fingers SASS# 25439 said:

Hey I thought I would cheer his decision since you were putting it down with your $.02?  Nothing wrong with telling a poster you stand behind him when others are telling him not to follow thru with his project. Problem?

Umm, humor... And not putting him down, just sharing my opinion. You have one too, right?

His money, his project... spend away, make yourself happy.

If you post on the wire, you're asking what others think (gonna get it even if ya don't) so yer takin that chance.

When it comes down to it, you need to do with your guns what makes YOU happy, no matter what anyone else says.

Just my opinion... or should I not say that?  

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I wonder why the sight is backwards on the 92 in the video? Strangeness.  I'd fix it they way you want it...….that way it's not in the safe collecting dust......sadly that's the alternative. 

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2 hours ago, The Rainmaker, SASS #11631 said:

Umm, humor... And not putting him down, just sharing my opinion. You have one too, right?

His money, his project... spend away, make yourself happy.

If you post on the wire, you're asking what others think (gonna get it even if ya don't) so yer takin that chance.

When it comes down to it, you need to do with your guns what makes YOU happy, no matter what anyone else says.

Just my opinion... or should I not say that?  

Hm sarcasm?  

Rainmaker Middlefork Bob asked for advice not opinions on not doing it!  If you don’t want to do it then don’t post. Obviously there are a lot of others who have done it and are offering advice that he requested. Twenty years ago that all the Wire did was offer advice not judgements!  That was and I hope still is the fun of this game, the ability to play with the toys we want to. No one complains of short stroking original guns? So how is this different?  So when I see someone trying to stop the creativity of this game I call them on it. 

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13 minutes ago, The Rainmaker, SASS #11631 said:

Call whatever you want. Read all of my post, not just what you want to argue with.

Good luck

Don't worry, there will always be folks on here and other social media platforms that want to dictate the type of responses that are acceptable.

 

Your initial response was fine as it gave an alternative path for the OP.

 

Phantom

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32 minutes ago, Phantom, SASS #54973 said:

Don't worry, there will always be folks on here and other social media platforms that want to dictate the type of responses that are acceptable.

 

Your initial response was fine as it gave an alternative path for the OP.

 

Phantom

Phantom, that’s hilarious since you seem to do a lot of dictating. All I said was don’t step on the man’s post. Everyone else gave him what he asked for, advice on how to change an original Winchester. If it is dictating to actually request that people who post on a topic actually are answering what the topic poster requested, I didn’t realize that. 

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Just now, Nimble Fingers SASS# 25439 said:

Phantom, that’s hilarious since you seem to do a lot of dictating. All I said was don’t step on the man’s post. Everyone else gave him what he asked for, advice on how to change an original Winchester. If it is dictating to actually request that people who post on a topic actually are answering what the topic poster requested, I didn’t realize that. 

I'm not going to make this personal, but go ahead and show me where I "dictated" anything. 

 

It's all in your... Mind.

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At first the thought of doing the conversion horrified me.   Partly because I really like .32-20, and I'd like to have a .25-20 someday, and the thought of one being turned into something else just didn't sit right with me.  Also, I just really have no interest in .38 Special in the context of CAS or some reason.

 

But then I remembered that I have a real 92 made in 1908 that a previous owner put a John Wayne loop on and replaced the original .38-40 barrel with a 17.5" .44 Magnum one.    I can't really council against someone doing to their guns what someone has already done to one of mine.  

 

I would say to hunt high and low for one that's already been converted.  If you can't find one, well....   Can't tell ya not to change an exisiting one.   Wouldn't recommend it, but it's yours to do with as you see fit.

 

A word of caution, the originals were made for those ever so slightly bottlenecked cartridges.  It is my understanding that the mechanics of the replicas had to be tweaked a little to get them to work right with the straight wall cases.   In fact, one fellow was surprised that my converted to .44 Mangum even worked right at all.   He said doing the conversion is tricky and involves more than just changing barrels.

 

I will say that both the Winchester, and the Rossi in the same caliber both work fine with .44 Magnums, but both tend to have the occasional misfeed when I try to run .44 Special in them.   I don't know if that'd be relavent to changing a .32-20 into a .38 Special, but I thought I'd mention it as a kind of FYI.

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I just had another thought.  Instead of relining or reboring the original barrel, maybe a newer 92 barrel in 357 may work. I don't know if the Rossi, Browning, etc are interchangeable or not but maybe something to investigate.  It would likely save a lot of money and would be reversible should you decide to change back. 

 

There are places that sale gun "kits". 

 

https://everygunpart.com/long-guns-kits/rifles/lever-action/rossi-92-lever-action-blued.html

 

Gun Parts Corp aka Numrich has a 357 barrel for a Browning 92.

 

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/1800710

 

One in 44 Magnum on GB.

 

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/805862833

 

Just have to keep looking. 

 

I found a set of barrels for my Parker shotgun on eBay.  Took me two years of watching but it was for sure more of a needle in a haystack kind of search than a Winchester 92 barrel. 

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