Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Win 1892 "grey rat" in 25-20

Found in a local gun store: Winchester 1892 25-20 with what looks like a 20" barrel and a saddle ring attached to the receiver. No finish to speak of on the barrel or receiver, but plenty of speckles. Wood is fair - no major cracks. Guaranteed to function or money back, and I trust the seller.

Price is $300. What do you think - overpriced/underpriced? A fair price for a fun gun?

What's the bore look like?

Underpriced even if the bore's rough.

I'll get a bore light on it tomorrow.

What is ammo availability like?

Well, it looks like I have to change that question about "ammo availability" since essentially, there is little to none.

How easy is it to reload for? What is the proper diameter lead bullet?

It also seems that brass is as scarce as loaded ammunition, whether it's 25-20 or 32-20 brass.

What am I getting myself into?

It's easy to load for--if you have components. The bullet size is .257, but you need flat-nosed bullets, not over about 86 grains in weight.

Many older 92's have rough bores, because of corrosive primers. They may or may not work very well with cast bullets, the cheapest solution. I have ad some success with in fairly rough bores by installing Dyna Bore Coat, but even then jacketed bullets usually shoot more accurately.

There are three jacketed flat-nose bullets that work, the 60-grain Hornady, 75-grain Speer and 86-grain Remington. All three aren't produced all that often, though the Speer is normally reasonably available.

The rifle is cheap enough, however, that you could afford to get the barrel re-lined.

If you don't buy it PM me the dealer's name and contact info and I'll buy it.

I want it. 25-20 is a fun cartridge.

I'd buy it.

That would be a real deal around here.

It's worth double that for someone to hang over the fireplace.

The rifle in question is about 1/3 normal cost if it functions.

25-20's are really fun and not difficult to reload for ime. I do like the Rem 6-1/2 primer with mine and IMR4198. RedDot loads get it right around subsonic if you want to duplicate .22 rimfire. Full steam loads out do the .22mag by a bit, but wont blow up a rabbit either.

I also load the 70 grn Sierra Blitz with the tip removed in my 25-20. With that bullet at the low speed it still expands, the 75grn Speer and 86grn Rem do not expand much if at all. I took a deer with that 70grn load.

For certain, and the bones for all kinds of interesting possibilities involving other, easier to feed cartridges. Since it's a gray rat, not a whole lot would be lost by converting it if the new owner wasn't concerned about keeping it in the original chambering. Hopefully, the brass situation will ease up in time, and meanwhile it's just a cool piece as is.

Well, I took a real close look at it today and discovered why it's such a bargain.

The rear sight is not original to the gun, neither is the wood - which, by the way, was poorly fitted to the receiver with some serious gaps between the metal and wood. The magazine tube was bent, due probably to the use of the wrong size/type magazine tube retainer. The hammer was broken and repaired in a very clumsy manner. Different parts had different amounts of finish left, as if some pieces of the gun had been cleaned for rebluing and then left to rust.

The bore was quite dirty, but I could see rifling, so I thought it would be adequate when I cleaned it. The more I ran a brush through, the less rifling was visible. It ended with a very rough surface with a regular pattern of slightly raised lands with no sharp edges.

It's apparently a parts gun, assembled to sell quickly to someone who isn't too particular.

Fortunately, I found someone at this weekend's gun show who liked it even after I pointed out its flaws, and my wallet ended up a bit fatter than it started this morning.

Looking back, I've decided to curb my loonyism a bit and be happy with my Marlin 1894C in .357 magnum and not worry about ancient rifles in obsolete calibers with non-existant ammunition.

I know, it's a dangerous precedent to set, but with a little extra cash in hand I might be open to picking up that .260 Rem Model 660 with a Leupy 6x scope, custom barrel and nice aftermarket synthetic stock I've been mooning over at the pawn shop.

Always another rifle to look forward to!

Bet it goes on a wall somewhere. Good for you, nice resting place for the rifle.

Don't have a Winchester ( -sniff- ) but wouldn't trade this one for all the tea in China.



One of the first range sessions with homemade bullets at 50 yards:



Bore was rough, had it relined. Original chamber was .25-20 Marlin, new one is for the Winchester version.

+1 Absolutely +1

That sort of thing just doesnt grow on trees around here.

This thread reminds me of a gun I passed on 25 years ago. It was at a Flea market (why are they called that?) and it was a rough but complete Winchester 1866 .44 Henry rimfire for $250. But alas, I was young and dumb!

I handled a 92 in 44-40 recently that was just a barreled action, in poor condition and it was a whole lot more than $300.

I purchased one like this in 2004, brought it home on it's 101st birthday. Someone had parkerized it in an attempt to clean up it's appearance. I cleaned the barrel for a few days, the bore was still "dark", but it shoots both jacketed and cast quite well. That said, I size the cast bullets as large as the chamber will allow.