Thread: Advice about an 1892 Winchester

Originally Posted by Hunter_Nick

This one has been modified, I have the certificate for it so all good there.

As an aside, when I was slugging the barrel (which worked out to be .430) I noticed some engraving on the top of the barrel. ‘William H Hazard Auckland’ There’s no doubt where this one was bought from! Thought that was pretty cool.

Greetings, One thing to be aware of. Although the barrel may take a .429 dia projectile the chamber may not take a case with one loaded. I gather this is quite common with black powder era rifles.
GPM.

The OAL length thing is simply not an issue - with 44-40 you have to crimp them, and the bullets have crimp grooves in the right place obviously. You crimp into the crimp groove.

If you decide to take up cast bullet making, then talk to me and there are a couple of bullet designs that are sold by Accurate Molds that are cpies of the original bullets, and with larger lube grooves, since modern black powder is not as good as the powder available in the 19th century, more lube is required to soften the fouling,

But since you rifle has a .430 size barrel load up either a 200 or 240 grain Hornady XTP - either will do - with 26 grains of AR2207. Crimp it hard with a Lee crimp die. Then go and shoot it for us and see how you get on.

Originally Posted by Makros

Nick, yell out if you need some brass, or advice on loading. I think I have a bag of new Starline tucked away safe somewhere for a rainy day, but I have about 600 in circulation through loading and firing so won't need it for a long time.
I can also send you some projectiles already lubed and sized to .429 if you like to get you started.
Been loading and shooting 44-40 in both smokeless and black powder for several thousand rounds now.
If it slugged to .430, that makes it easy as you can use the .429 projectiles which are readily available.

Rambo is right, cartridge length is important with the '92, as it is with the '73 actions. Once you got that sorted though, easy to load. I don't even lube my cases when sizing (for smokeless - I don't size for BP), they're so close to straight walled and so thin they just don't need much force or effort to size. I reckon it's the easiest calibre I load for.

Thanks for the offer generous offer @Makros I’ll be in touch once the roar dies down a bit, and I have a bit of time to take stock and look into loading for it. Also got a stock to finish for a mate, so should really address that too!

Originally Posted by JohnDuxbury

The OAL length thing is simply not an issue - with 44-40 you have to crimp them, and the bullets have crimp grooves in the right place obviously. You crimp into the crimp groove.

If you decide to take up cast bullet making, then talk to me and there are a couple of bullet designs that are sold by Accurate Molds that are cpies of the original bullets, and with larger lube grooves, since modern black powder is not as good as the powder available in the 19th century, more lube is required to soften the fouling,

But since you rifle has a .430 size barrel load up either a 200 or 240 grain Hornady XTP - either will do - with 26 grains of AR2207. Crimp it hard with a Lee crimp die. Then go and shoot it for us and see how you get on.

Perfect, thanks for all the advice! I’ll be sure to let you know how I get on with it, just need to dedicate some time (and purchase some dies, primers, projectiles and powder)

Nice cowboy gun you've got there.
44-40 is a pig of a round to find.
Reloading is cheap and easy however, ive been wanting to find myself a hand loading tool that can do the whole job.
I suggest cast bullets over jacketed ones too. Older winchester barrels were not designed for it, but you would probably get away with it on yours which is made after the turn of the century.

we have been using jacketed projectiles for a very long time.......

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

we have been using jacketed projectiles for a very long time.......

Not supposed to be good for older barrels with softer steel, basically pre 1890s or so.
Will probably be ok with this gun, but in my old marlin they are terrible and go all over the place.

has anyone tried to resize a copper jacket projectile down from 430 to 427-428 if lubed well going through a lee tumble lube die it may not distort the projectile to much I may give that a try

The older Winchesters that are suitable for smokeless loads and jacketed projectiles were introduced during the mid 1890's (it varies slightly from model to model) and the barrels are marked 'Nickel Steel'. Prior to that they were softer carbon steel and designed for black powder and lead bullets. Having said that, many thousands of old Winchesters have been used with smokeless loads for years without any ill effects, subject to proper cleaning.