Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General 25-20 load for my 1892

I'm just wondering if my 1908 vintage Winchester 1892 can handle a full power smokeless powder load pushing a 60 grain jacketed bullet about 2100 fps?
Also any load recipes are welcome.
Thanks.

I am shooting a 85gr cast bullet in mine pushed with IMR 4227. It’s not a hot load, brass life is excellent, very accurate, surprisingly flat shooting out to 150. It hammers the jackrabbits and has done well on a few coyotes. I have played with some of the jacketed bullets and have not found a tremendous difference in performance.

Thank s for the reply, do you notice much fouling from shooting the cast Bullets?

I have not had any issues with leading in the bore. The 4227 is not the cleanest burning power, but it hasn’t caused any accuracy issues. My rifle has a excellent bore, a pitted or worn bore may cause problems with cast bullets.

I "shake and bake" powder coat my cast bullets for the rough bore rifles. Powder coating is so easy and you don't have to scrub the bores heavily after shooting those old sewer pipes.

To the OP, yeah, should be fine. My father's '92 is somewhere in that vintage. I lived on the HVHP 60 grain loads from Remington 'til those ran out, then I bought him a set of dies and a pile of 60 grain Hornadys and 75 grain Speers along with a couple pounds of Win 680. Still going strong.

Tom

The John Moses Browning designed '92 is a strong action, stronger than the Marlin.

It should handle any full powered 25-20 load you can feed it.

DF

I packed an old Winchester model 92 in 25/20 quite a bit when I was a kid. I dont remember the bullet weight or what brand of ammunition I used back then but I did kill big game with it including one bull moose and two mulie bucks. My sister shot a big grizzly with the same rifle, ( it had her dog) saved the dog but didnt kill the bear. My dad ended up killing that same bear a few years later and found the bullet from the 25/20. My sister still has it. Funny to think that we didnt even consider that we might be underpinned in those days.

I've put a bout 200 rounds through this rifle now and have to say it's one of my favorite to shoot. It's getting a peepsight installed this week which will make it even more enjoyable!

AA1680 works well for me.