Winchester 1892 25/20|What's New!|Forum|Winchester Collector

Good morning Tony,

I saw this rifle back in November of 2019.  The current butt stock is not original to the gun.  Here are a couple of images of the broken/repaired stock form 2019.

Michael

Tony. R said
Good pick Michael, thats exactly correct, it has taken me that long to find a correct year vintage stock for it, and it fits up very nice.

  

Glad to hear that I didn’t just ruin your day!!  

That’s a dandy rifle in my eyes.  Good job on the stock replacement.  The 25-20 has always been one of my favorites.  I was never fortunate enough to find a button mag octagon barrel rifle.  Congratulations on a great find and the stock replacement makes it an excellent piece in my eyes.   RDB

Hi Guys,

One of my favorite calibers is 25-20 I have probably 6 in that caliber although one is a Marlin the rest are Winchesters. I bought a bunch of jacketed bullets and maybe a 1000 cast lead. I have turned some solid copper bullets for 45-70 and have thought of making some for the 25-20. Using a CNC lathe you can keep tolerances pretty close. I have so many projects on the burners not sure I will get around to it but I might. 

Incidentally, the Marlin 1894 has a bore around 5-6 and shoots jacketed bullets well. I have an 1892 25-20 octagonal barrel with a decent bore of maybe an 8+ and a 92 carbine with close to the same bore of around an 8. I shoot these with cast bullets and they do fine out to 50+ yards. The carbine is easy to carry very handy. For me Winchester 1892’s are probably my favorite with the 1886 coming in a close second. 

Tony, you have a nice 92 shoot the heck out of it and good luck! By the way I would have paid 1K US for it…………so  was that in US or AU dollars?

Rob

Tony. R said
Michael the sling eyes and the Lyman front sight, does that look correct to you, the eye on the replaced stock is fitted exactly as the origional one.

  

Eyes are correct.  You can find repro swivels on ebay, but the eyes are almost impossible to find.

Lyman sight likely a replacement; early Lymans had ivory beads or posts.

Sorry to hijack, but what is the theory or science/physics behind all the 25-20 barrels having worn bores? Was the ammo troublesome or were they just more likely to be heavily used?

Good morning. I’ve read that it was the combination of mercuric primers and smokeless powder that made keeping the small caliber barrels corrosion free so hard, although it was difficult enough with black powder.  At least the black powder residue would to some degree envelop the primer residue and everybody knew hot water was the only way to clean the bore of black. The less bulky and dirty nitro powders let the primer residue get its worst licks in very quickly. 

I have a weakness for oddballs and my Model 1892 25/20 has odder balls than most. Got it at a gunshow on the cheap after it had been thoroughly messed up by time and abuse, its last owner having tried to “restore”it for Cowboy Action competition. Wood sanded down below the metal, hideous polishing and a blue job that would make a stone weep….the only good thing about it was an entirely unblemished bore. The 24” octogon barrel was dated 1929 and Kleanbore priming had been introduced in 1927. After shooting it with new factory ammo enough to discover it would punch cloverleafs off the bench at 50 yards, I bellied up and took the thing to Scott May’s, a local riflemaker of great skill, and left it there for 7 months.  Scott installed new wood, replaced all the screws, welded up the scope side mount holes, stoned the receiver to re-square the radii, etc…rust blued the barrel and receiver to perfection…etc.  The rifle looks as good as it shoots now, although its lack of case coloring on crescent buttplate and forearm are obvious flags it is not a display case queen. Wears a repro Lyman folding tang and a King bead up front. Turkey gun to cherish and use,  I think I saved it from being parted out, which has long since healed up the trench it tore in my wallet years ago.

Bert, I was thinking the very same thing myself and was going to set up the floodlights and background paper…..when Higher Authority presented me with her First Amended Supplement to her honeydew list. 

I need to document the gun anyway and I’ll post them here as soon as I’ve got that done. Doesn’t look like this afternoon, though……

Best, 

Bill

Bert,  It’s late and I haven’t had time to do any photography but here are a couple of amateurish images from the past – 2004.

As I recall, I’d bought a D-100 digital camera body but was using it with my old Nikkor AI manual lenses that give no exposure data to the camera.  I’d done plenty of that in my teens – estimate and bracket lens and shutter settings using Crown Graphics and Yashicaflexes — but by 2004 I was way out of practice.  All to say these are crummy pics but I’ll do much better when I can get to it….

Scott filled the pores of the new Black walnut stock and forearm and put on a Pilkington Oil finish — a little too nice for a field grade Winchester 92, even if the piece came out of New Haven “between the Wars.”  But telling Scott, presently the resident gunsmith for the Dallas Beretta Gallery, to back off on finishing is like telling a frog not to hop.  One of my biggest regrets is not having the jack to liberate a subdued and classy Winchester High Wall he’d trued and rebarreled to .280 Ackley Improved, then restocked in exhibition grade French walnut, lavishly checkered at 26 LPI.  Custom dies with it.  Customer had died or gone bankrupt, maybe both, but what Scott needed to come out on labor and materials was well above my pay grade.   

These photos can serve as place holders until I can put up something decent. 

Best,

Bill