What to do with a new "old" gun as far as maintenance?

[Fisher-Price]

Since my father's passing I have come into possession of an 1892 mfg. in 1894 in .38-40 as well as several other vintage rifles. He only fired a few boxes of factory ammo in it. I made my first .38-40's this week using new Starline brass and 6.5 gr of Unique. I want to enjoy these old rifles by shooting them. I plan to use starting loads only of smokeless. This rifle has never been disassembled by him. It seems a little finicky about clambering, not every round about 1/3 of them, and is putting some scratches on the cases. When you get something like this do you completely disassemble and clean? Please share your process and I will get some pictures to share tonight.

Fisher-Price

[marlinman93]

Every old gun I own got completely disassembled for cleaning and inspection when I first bought them. I make a habit of giving them a good internal cleaning, and lubricate the friction points. On the outside I'm very careful to not over clean an old gun, as I want to retain the gun's look, unless it's worn out and needs refinishing.
If I find any issues with internal parts, or screw slots, I repair, replace, or refinish whatever is needed to make the gun function perfectly. I despise messed up screw slots, so I either peen them back, and touch them up, or replace the screws if the heads are too ugly.

[Les Staley]

As complicated as a 92 is, I would only remove the buttstock to keep from ruining the finish/patina and hose down the internals with a good penetrating oil/cleaner, while working the action, let it drip dry and follow with a little light oil. Maybe clean the magazine tube inside. Try to keep the cleaner off the forearm to preserve the finish. Probably not even broke in, if shot as little as you say. What a treasure!

[Pete44ru]

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Please accept our condolences on your Dad's passing.......

There could be an internal burr, in the magazine throat or on the lifter, that's causing the case scratching; OR the scratches could be from sharp edges on the loading gate and/or the inside forward edge of the loading port.

In any event, a disassembly is indicated for inspection and maybe a repair.

The "trick" for an easier re-assembly is to place an fired empty case on the bolt face, under the extractor, when replacing the bolt into the receiver, to align the bolt with the lever link pin.

If you've never dis & re-assembled a Winchester Model 1892/92 before, a fellow levergunner has a DVD tutorial available. ( www/stevesgunz.com )


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[williamranks]

Definitely take it apart and clean the internals. My 25-20 is the same year and I found dried oil, carbon from BP loads and a broken piece of the plastic tip of a cleaning rod inside.
The other concern is the barrel. If it's the original BP barrel you have a very valuable gun. It also may not take smokeless pressures.
Mine had the barrel replaced in 1929, the date and proof marks are on the bottom of the barrel under the forearm, and handles smokeless.
That's all I know. Hopefully Nate will join in and give you the straight poop, he's forgotten more than I ever knew.

[Fisher-Price]

My Dad didn't shoot it much, somebody did, barrel is very pitted but seems to group ok at 25yds. I will do some more range work with it. He had me take the Tang sight off of it, I put it back when I got it. Internals do not seem very worn, rifle is in fair condition cosmetically, but shows no excessive wear on the internals from what I can tell. I read opinions all over the place about whether you can shoot smokeless powders in these. I have a 73 made in 1887 and another 92 made in 1899. All have had factory ammo shot in them since we have had them, not saying that is a good idea, just saying that is what has been done with them in the past. What is the opinion on using starting smokeless loads? I do not see me ever messing with BP.

Fisher-Price

[Griff]

What they said. Make sure you have the correctly sized hollow ground screwdrivers to keep from buggerin' up the screws.

[Fisher-Price]

There she is! Very light and handy, pictures added. It appears to me that the stock was refinished at some point, the forearm band, barrel band, and loading gate are deep blue/black so were replaced at some point. The marbles rear barrel sight is a fold down and appears a little newer than the rifle, the rear marbles tang sight definitely does not show as much wear even though it is an older sight. Is the screw on the side of the Tang sight for windage or disassembly? I'm not familiar with the older ones.

[.45colt]

What a Treasure.! Thanks for the pictures. Enjoy.

[M. M. Wright]

I inherited my FILs 92, octagon barrel, full magazine, rifle many years ago. It was a box of parts and a barreled action in 32-20. I had the barrel relined, (Redmans) and assembled what I had. It was all there but had been refinished by an imept, expletive deleted. The butt plate, fore end cap, hammer and trigger had copper plate on them but it shot fine. Very good groups but didn't feed like I wanted it to so I sent it to NKJ who fixed that really well. It's what sits behind the door with the magazine loaded.

[Malamute]

Nice carbine.

Its not that difficult to take the 92s down. Its also generally not needed, they can be kept clean and functional without a teardown for the most part, but a long term accumulation of crud and dried oil may justify a takedown and clean.

The parts mentioned may be replaced, though sometimes some parts lose their blue differently than others. Receivers in particular seem to go silver before much of anything else does, even on blued guns of the earlier years.

[cas]

Is the 92 and harder than the 94? I've only taken one of those apart and I did it while sitting on the toilet.

[J Miller]

Is the 92 and harder than the 94? I've only taken one of those apart and I did it while sitting on the toilet.

Not really, just different in minor ways. The only thing "harder" is installing the breach bolt. And that procedure is covered above by Pete44ru.

Joe