WInchester Model 92 .357 Magnum

Hey, Hickok45 here. You know what you're looking at? Loading gate on a lever action rifle. One of my favorite types of rifles. The firearms period. Lever action. Yeah, this is an 1892 Winchester. Back in that time period, Winchester was looking for something to replace the 1873 in a pistol caliber rifle. And this is what John Browning came up with. Let's see if it works. So we can decide whether we think John Browning knew what he was doing. What do you think? Nice. Nice. Thank you, John Browning. We love you. One more. Oh, let's go gonging. I'm sorry, John. Oh, do I have two more? Good. All right. Shot over it the first time. As I was saying to Mr. John Moses Browning, thank you because you came up with this design. The 1892 Winchester. Yes, sirree, Bob. You done good, boy. You done good. Of course, before this, he had already done good a few other times, hadn't he? So you might think this looks a little familiar. Now, if you're familiar with these guns and these lever action rifles, then of course you think it looks familiar. You know exactly what I have in my hand, and you might know more about than I do. If it's imaginable, somebody might know more than I do. Funny, huh? Well, 1892 Winchester. Yep. They were looking to replace the Winchester was, the 1873, which is a fine rifle. Wanted something a little bit lighter, more up to date, maybe simpler in design, and maybe more reliable. Did I say that? Lighter. Because after all, it was firing essentially a pistol cartridge. We're more familiar with that today. Carbines, carbines, small rifles that shoot pistol calibers. They don't have to be gigantic or heavy, do they? And the 1873 is kind of a big rifle. Big, heavy, and fairly heavy. Nice gun, though. Well, this thing was chambered in the 44-40, the 38-40, the 32-20, 25-20, and later the 218B. All moderate rounds, and this did the job. Now, you might think it looks a little bit like my big old 1886. Look at that. Guess who designed that? You should know that by now if you've been around. John Moses Browning. He designed the 1886. Notice the two big locking lugs coming up through those mortises. That was his ingenious design, and that's what differentiates the 1886, you know, from the 1876 Winchester and the earlier lever guns that Winchester had. 1866, then the old Henry rifles and everything. And you notice, let me, you know, you see the similarities there. I can hold them side by side just in case here, you know. Some of us are a little slow like me. You see the similarities. It's kind of a baby 1886, isn't it? The 1892. So, very easy to spot. If you're watching a movie, a western, you can't miss it. You know, it's obviously the 1886 is big and heavy, but same design on that bolt. You can tell every time, okay? So, 1892, they came to John Browning, well, they came to him in 1886, you know, and he had an action carved out of wood and, you know, and reached an agreement with Winchester on that. And then again, when they came to him on this to see if he was willing to design a smaller pistol caliber, you know, rifle. I've read two or three stories on that. One of them I read, I couldn't find, don't know where it was, but it was really interesting reading. I wish I, you know, could have found it. But he, the representative from Winchester came and offered him like x number of dollars, I forgot what it was, maybe like $40,000 or something. I think he'd come up with the design for this gun that they were looking for, you know, within three months or something, or four months, or I don't know. And he said, no, but I'll tell you what, if you double it, or if you make it $60,000, I'll come up with it in two months, you know, some kind of deal like that. Anyway, they reached an agreement where if he, and he agreed that he would charge them nothing if he couldn't do it in a month, you know. So, it was kind of a funny interchange there. He was pretty confident, he should have been, he was John Browning after all. And he did it in just a couple of weeks, I think he had the prototype made. So, obviously, he already knew what he was going to do. He was going to copy his own extremely successful and reliable design. And that was kind of the history of it. Oh, John Browning had already done the heavy thinking, the heavy work on it. It was a matter of scaling down the 1886, which is a very strong design. I've read most people agree it's even more, or it's stronger than the 1894, which has a reputation for being very strong. So, it should handle any pistol caliber without any trouble. Winchester 1892. Now, this particular model I found recently, could not put it down, you know, how it is when you have that addiction, and came out of the shop with it. This one was made in 1916. Okay, right there about time I was born. 1916. And it is an original Winchester. It's not a replica. Okay. Now, you do notice it says .357 Magnum on the barrel. .357 Magnum came about in 1935. Oh, something doesn't jive, does it? Well, according to my research, this one, based on the stampings there, as Winchester has a WP, which stands for Winchester Proof, right on the barrel, same as on the receiver, means this barrel was installed and put in at Winchester. So, this is either the original barrel, or it was sent back to Winchester, and they put a new barrel in it at some point. But I think it was the original barrel, and it was just rebored, probably in the 50s. I know in the 50s, 60s, a lot of people were reboring these old guns for a more modern cartridge. Because, like I say, you can't go to Walmart and find, I don't think, you might, .32-20 and, you know, .25-20, some of the rounds that this was chambered for. .44-40, they're pretty expensive. So, to have this gun chambered in a modern, very popular cartridge is pretty cool. Now, granted, some of the collector's value is, of course, killed. You know, of course, it's worn, very worn. I like it. It has a lot of character. So, you know, it wouldn't be worth a ton, anyway. It's not a $2,000 firearm. It's worth about what a good replica would cost, you know, in this model, 1892. And Rossi, Chiappa, who else? There's several companies, Italy, Brazil, that make replicas of the 1892. Now, some of them have these weird tang safeties, you know, as per modern regulations and all that thing, import regulations or whatever it is. But, you know, they run as much or more than this firearm. So, even though this one has some purists would, of course, you know, hate to see that, this chambered .357 Magnum, but it doesn't bother me. I wanted a shooter, and it's cool having one that was made in 1916 that's just been re-bored. So, it's perfect. I mean, it's just ideal for me. I'm gonna load it up and quit gabbing. Now, the reason I have this out here, this is one of my Colts. This is a revolver someone might have been carrying, you know, made in 1902, that someone might have been carrying, you know, that was carrying this firearm or one like it, you know, because this came out, the 1892 came out in, guess when? 1892. And then it was manufactured up through 1932 in the rifle configuration or carbine. But then the only thing they made, I think, after 32 up until World War One was the carbine model. So, but anyway, you know, kind of a period collection here. Let's load, we've got several things. It'll shoot the .38 Special. Let's shoot just a couple of those. Now, again, this is a lever action gun with a tubular magazine, and you really don't want to load bullets like that. But now what you can do, what I'm going to do, is just put two in. Now, why can I do that? Because the reason you don't load pointed bullets into a tubular magazine is, I've gone over, and I know other people have too, you know, they're in that tube, you know, like that. So you don't want a pointed bullet against the primer of the bullet in front of it, the cartridge in front of it, right? Under recoil, you know, you could have something go off in the wrong place, like in the magazine tube there, you wouldn't want that. But now if I put two in there, that's not going to happen. So I'm going to put one in the chamber, then I have one in the tube. So I can stand around and do that all day long, I guess. This is .38 Special. Ah, it might not go through that two liter. Ah, but then again it might, right? Oh, maybe it doesn't like that .38 Special. Yeah, I didn't pull it back far enough. I'm experimenting with .38 Special to see how it chambers them. It seems to chamber .357 just fine. Put a couple more of those in. I'll tell you what, if you could find some of those with a flat nose on them or load some with a flat nose, you'd have a nice round for someone who doesn't shoot much because it feels about like a .22. Let's see if one will reach the gong. Yeah, pretty cool. Let's go to .357. Now for those who don't know, I hope you're familiar with the TV series The Rifleman. If you're not, I'm going to cry. I mean, it just makes me want to cry. If you have never heard of The Rifleman, you know, it opens a series shooting about 12, too many shots, more than the gun holds, of course. That's Hollywood. But rapid firing, a lever gun, please find it. It's on the Western's channel. Really popular series back in the 50s, early 60s. Anyway, if you've seen it, the rifle he carries is an 1892 model, just like this, except he has the big wide loop lever on it. I'm sure you've seen those in gun shops, if they're on TV or somewhere. John Wayne kind of made that popular. Nothing that's really all that practical, but it's cool because John Wayne carried a model 92 in most of his movies. And then The Rifleman, you know, so you see those with a big loop lever. Now on The Rifleman, if you've seen that, I've seen his actual firearms in a museum. They were up at Friendship, Indiana at the National Muzzleloading Shoot. One year they had them there. And he had two different ones they had for him, a backup. And they had a screw right there, a set screw, so that when he cocked it, and of course he cocked it and brought the round in, as it came up, that little screw coming out there would hit the trigger and pull the trigger. So he never had to touch the trigger, just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. That's why he could shoot it so fast. And that was a model 92, just like this one, just a different lever loop. I know you were concerned about that and wanted to know about it. But that was an extremely popular series, and you owe it to yourself to find it. In fact, I keep saying to Western's channel, and it used to run on there, but lately it's running, I think, every Saturday morning on AMC. I believe it's AMC, because I've got it set and I record them. It has commercials, that's how I remember it. Good old lever gun. You know, they're hard to beat now. Let's have a little English lesson. Most of you might know what the word anachronism means. This gun is always something that brings that one out, because it's used in so many Westerns, because there's so many of them made, there are over a million of them made, and there were just a lot of them around. I got her loaded full. But the thing is, when was this gun invented? John Browning, tell us, 1892. What's the setting for most of the Westerns? The John Wayne Westerns? The Rifleman? Generally the 1880s, or even before that. You know, all the Westerns essentially, there are exceptions, but it's 1880s and before that. But they must have a lot of these in Hollywood, because they usually put one of these in the actor's hands. And, you know, most of the producers, to them a lever gun's a lever gun. Aren't they all the same? Alright, now I just have gotten it. I mean, I haven't had this long at all, like about 24 hours. And I have a hard time seeing the sight, but I polished the front sight a little bit, I darkened the rear sight, and I'm trying to see what I can do with it. Let's try a pig. Good. It's hard. Nice. Let's hit that gong again. Oh, I see a pot right here, close. I saw a pot here, close. Oh, there's one. Oh man, good old lever gun. Again, we're going back into the 1890s, and of course we go on back into the 1870s. And, you know, you're not exactly not armed. You know, if you've got 10 rounds in a magazine in one of these things, let me try a different round. I don't know. Those are expensive, .38s, I hate to shoot those. I shot some of these when I first got it yesterday, and they seem to work too, okay. Never know. Now, like I said, .357 Magnum came about in 1935. So, you know, this is not authentic in terms of its chambering, but somebody re-bored it. It was probably .32-20 from my reading. And, you know, they just bored it out to .357, and I'm not sure if they had to modify the follower a little bit or the bolt face. I don't think they did much, and apparently did a good job on it. It seems to work. Seems to work, and I think it's wonderful. If I had it in .32-20, it'd be a cool piece, but I wouldn't shoot it much. And it'd be more of an issue finding ammo, you know, that kind of thing. So here, as you know, .38s and .357s, it's everywhere, and yet I still get this old, this vintage firearm. Because of its condition, it would not be, you know, an extremely valuable collector's piece. Let's see here. I'm gonna, I don't know how fast I can cycle this one, but I'll take a few shots here or something, kind of, and get it in there. I mean, they'll just shoot right on away, as you know. Pop that old thing over. Love it. Empty. Oh, it's a good little shooter on top of being a vintage firearm. Nice, nice. Oh man. Like I say, you can see why this is so popular in the Westerns, because it's just a handy, fairly light, and this one's actually a little heavier than some of them that have a round barrel. As so many of these guns, it came in a lot of different configurations with a round barrel. I think there was an octagonal barrel that started, and then it got round, if you've seen those, where they start out shaped like this one, then they become a round barrel. The rest of the way, with a half magazine, where they hold five or six rounds. This one has a full magazine. There's just all sorts of configurations of these firearms, as there are a lot of the old Winchesters. And this was a great find. I just stumbled upon it, because I love an octagonal barrel. I've always wanted a Model 92. I've just held off on it. I've come close on a replica, and I keep thinking, I'd like to have an old one. There's a lot of made, over a million. Maybe I could come up on one that wasn't too expensive. But then it's going to be some caliber I don't want. So there you go. So this is perfect. This is what the doctor ordered. I am so glad to have it. Can you tell that? Can you tell that? John loves it too. He's an 1892 fan. I think if you like firearms, you like the old vintage firearms. Yeah, how can you not be a fan of these guns? You know, there's just something special about a lever gun. They're like a revolver in a way, I think. They're, I don't know, there's some connection. You know, when you put one of these in your hands, you load it. The way they load, the way they cycle, all the good steel and wood, the feel, the popularity of them, you know. So much of moviedom. You know, you feel like you know these firearms. The only thing that I think, maybe it's not a thing, the sight is not worn, as you notice. So it is a marble, which I think came on these old guns. But that's been replaced at some point. And maybe the front sight too. I'm not sure about that. I'm going to get my handy dandy gunsmith to kind of look at that and see what he thinks has been done to it in that regard. But the coolest thing I found is the barrel still is marked Winchester proofed. And so it's an original Winchester barrel. And I believe they scratched off right there the original caliber markings. I can just sort of see through there a little bit where it might have been the probably 3220. I think it could have been a 2520. I think either one of those could have been bored out to 357. Glad they did it. Glad they did it. Okay, we've got a few more. I guess we'll fire these. Not that I can hit anything, right? All right, what do I want to shoot? Well, let's just knock down some more animals. Oh, didn't want to fall. Well, maybe I'm missing it. Oh, that's interesting. Those rounds hit lower than the others. Okay, I'm fogging up. I'm gonna go to my other eye. I'll be so impressed if I can hit the gong. I'll take a shot at him. All right. That feels awkward. Probably looks awkward too. It's a cowboy. After all, it's a cowboy gun. Let's get this 2-liter. Oh, nice. Well, can you tell my life is complete now? I want to be sure I heard what I said. Can you tell my life is complete now? I have an 1892 and not in an original caliber, but that's okay. It's a caliber I wanted. It's a gun I want and if somebody else did it, I didn't do it. I didn't go buy a vintage 1892 and take a hammer and a drill to it myself. Somebody else did, so I'm glad to have it. And anyway, 1892, one of the, if not the most popular lever gun that you will see on the big screen. It's just that simple and many of them will be replicas, of course, in modern Westerns, but in the old Westerns, John Wayne Westerns and back from the 50s, 40s, 60s, whatever, this is probably the gun you're going to see, except not as often with the octagonal barrel. I'd say most of the time it's a round barrel. It shoots round bullets, that's why. So, it's a good day. Life is good.