Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Shot The Pre-War Winchester 92 .44-40

This is a fifty yard group off the bench.



This is a fifty yard group from standing, off hand (no support other than my two feet).



Great shooting little gun. Feels great coming up to shoulder. Very handy. Comes right up to line of sight. Easy to hold sights on target from standing, off hand. Mechanically perfect. Action is glass smooth. Trigger is crisp, at about a 3.6 lb break. Function is 100% reliable. Love this gun. One can see why they were so popular and sold so many. Thanks John Browning.

My next door neighbor loves to load (been doing it for many years), so he loads up ammo for me to shoot in it in exchange for primers and powder, and of course my spent brass. I also give him brass for his own use, which I have tons of in buckets (.38 Special, .45 ACP, 9mm, etc.).

PS Mag holds ten rounds.

Nice

Nice you have a neighbor.😉

These guns, in the old days, used to be, as it were, "rode hard and put away wet," but they tended to hold up to it. They were, for the most part, considered everyday work guns, rather than prized possessions, as they tend to be today. If only they could talk. I wonder how many trips in the saddle scabbard this gun had.

Nice little carbine!

I like a 44-40 Winchester too.

How heavy are the bullets?


Sounds like a working gun.

Wonder how many Injuns John Wayne killed with a rifle just like that...............and at 500 yards at that.

Yeah, and in the 1870s and 1880s. Heck, he once did it in the 1860s, right after the Civil War.

225 grain lead flat nose.

Was that when he shot one with his 1873 Colt 45?

The Duke killed Injuns as far back as the 1830's with his model 1892 and also his model 1873 Colt. Both guns are essentially racist since they were not used exclusively against Confederates in the Civil War and also afterwards.

Yeah, he was in a movie where the Civil War ended, he quit the military and went into cattle. He was equipped with an 1873 Colt and an 1892 Winchester.

You sure come up with some nice guns to shoot. That 92 is just old school cool. Would really like to shoot it too, maybe shoot a deer from a stand in those north Florida woods. 👍👍

Which means he was a man ahead of his time. Today, he'd carry a Glock and a 6.5 Creedmoor.

Cowboy action types say the 1873 is superior for their purposes since it shoots faster. Could be as I don't shoot Cowboy action. The '73 is certainly cooler, since it was around for a lot more of the old west when it was truly wild. That said, IMO the 92 is superior in all other respects. I've owned and shot both and the '92 is much less clunky and clanky-a lot smoother cycling. It is a lighter and faster-handling gun with better lines to it. Much stronger action enabling far heavier loads than a '73. Mike Venturino eschews the use of it as a "Sodbuster's gun", but any way you cut it, Winchester scored with the '92. They are still a viable action today with the use of even better and in some cases, stainless steels.

Nice firearm.

I like it . Been eye balling a few on the net.

I had a Rossi 92 in .44 Mag, that I usually shot with .44WCF equivalent loads (200 FP/8.5gr. of Universal), and it was nothing but fun to shoot. With full-tilt .44 Mag loads, it wasn't as much fun, as it had a steel buttplate, but it shot well, well enough to kill three deer with it (AA#9 and a 240XTP).

I had to rework the little thing so recoil wouldn't make the mag tube slide out of the receiver, but that was easy work, and the action is slick and smooth with a little shooting. It was a fun gun, then someone stole the danged thing. The serial number is MO36565, if you see that one in a pawn shop or wherever, it's a stolen gun.

The Winchester 1892 in my opinion is the most useful lever action design that Browning designed. The 1886 and the 71 were undoubtedly better for strictly big game hunting but for riding the range that 92 would have been my pick. I have a 1892 rifle in 32-20. Always wanted a 44-40 or 38-40 carbine but that hasn't happened yet. You have a nice one, I remember a story by Layne Simpson where he talked about taking his first Deer with a 92 44-40.

Very desirable configuration and looks to be all original, worth maybe 4 - 5 thousand $’s.

I had the Rossi 92 Trapper Model in .44 Magnum back in the 1980s and 1990s, with the John Wayne large lever loop. I also used to have the Browning reintroduction of the Winchester 92 (.44 Magnum) Carbine, made in Japan by Miroku. The latter I wish I never sold. Great gun, beautiful, dark, nicely figured, French Walnut.