Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

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MacEntyre
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Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by MacEntyre »

I want a levergun in 32 H&R magnum, a shooter, not a collector. There was only one ever made, and they are neither available nor affordable, at least not for me. I don't want to pay $1400 for a rifle that's great fun, but is at the bottom of the list for any practical purpose.

I'd rather have my other wish.. a shooter in 38-40 to go with my 38-40 Blackhawk. Seems like all vintage Winchesters and Marlins have skyrocketed in price. Four years ago, I was tempted by two pawn shop Winchesters in 38-40, a rifle and a carbine. Both were about $850. I'm kicking myself because I didn't buy the carbine! Yesterday I found out that a 92 in 38-40 was on the shelf at a LGS for about 30 minutes last week, and sold for $1,000. At least I got the brass the seller turned in with the rifle.

The Blackhawk converts to 10mm... maybe I should just get an Olympic Arms K10 10mm EBR instead. [Edit: nah, the feeling passed...]

If I save my pennies, what would be a reasonable budget for a 38-40 shooter, figuring that it won't be purchased until some time next year?
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by AJMD429 »

Can you rebarrel a more common one like a 44 Mag...? I made a 45 Colt Marlin 1894 out of a 44 Mag one with just a barrel swap - same bolt and carrier.
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MacEntyre
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by MacEntyre »

Just found this on another forum... no other details provided.
I have a Marlin in 10mm Magnum that I had converted in 1995 from a .357 as the cartridge length an base
diameter are the same so only a barrel change is needed
Should be able to do that with a Rossi...

As you can see, I am torn between shooting 38-40 and 10mm.
AJMD429 wrote:Can you rebarrel a more common one like a 44 Mag...?
You know, one could purchase and re-barrel two rifles for the price of a vintage 92.

Found another one that converted a 44 mag to 38-40:
I've done this. It was nearly 20 years ago, so I don't recall all of the particulars. A friend and I were getting into cowboy action shooting and wanted leverguns in the same caliber as our brace of holster guns. I chose 38-40 as a more traditional caliber than .45 Colt. Fortunately for me, my friend was a very accomplished gunsmith. I believe we used a Douglas barrel blank. After minimal turning and threading on the lathe, cutting the barrel to length and crowning, we cut the chamber with a rented reamer. Going from memory, I believe we cut the extractor groove by hand to match that on the original .44 barrel. I did the surface prep, and we blued the barrel in my friend's garage. It was not a difficult conversion. As you estimated, the only new part needed was the 38-40 barrel, and from what I remember, I only had to fiddle a bit with the cartridge carrier and loading gate to get it to feed flawlessly. My Rossi Puma has the front sight cast as part of the front barrel/magazine band, so we didn't even have to cut a sight dovetail.
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by Thunder50 »

Would you be interested in a NIB Winchester '92 in 38-40? One of the rifles from Davidsons years ago.
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MacEntyre
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by MacEntyre »

Thunder50 wrote:Would you be interested in a NIB Winchester '92 in 38-40? One of the rifles from Davidsons years ago.
That's probably an example of what is beyond my means... PM sent anyway!

Thank you!
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MacEntyre
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by MacEntyre »

I must live under a rock... it never occurred to me to compare 45 Colt to 38-40.

38-40 cartridges cycle just fine in my 45 Colt Rossi 92... they're just loose in the chamber. But feeding and ejection works without a problem.

Being a Scot, and being tighter than a crab's skin, which is water tight, perhaps I should re-barrel my Rossi to shoot 38-40.
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by M. M. Wright »

Does Armi San Marco chamber their '92 for 38-40? I traded for one recently in .45 Colt and it seems to be a pretty good rifle. Have you considered '73s? I know Uberti chambers them for 38-40 and there is NOTHING smoother or sweeter than a '73 that's been slicked up a little.
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MacEntyre
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by MacEntyre »

M. M. Wright wrote:Does Armi San Marco chamber their '92 for 38-40?
It's on their web site as numero catalogo 9736:
http://www.armidafuoco.com/armi/scheda/ ... STER/19156

I'll see if one of the LGS can order them, and what they cost.
M. M. Wright wrote:Have you considered '73s?
That's a good idea... however, each '73 I've found in 38-40 has been $1,000 or more.
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by Old Savage »

Just pay the money. What are you going to do, take it with you? Don't be cheap.
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MacEntyre
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by MacEntyre »

Old Savage wrote:Just pay the money. What are you going to do, take it with you? Don't be cheap.
I would accept your suggestion, if I had a job.

I've been self employed for 25 years, but it isn't working well just now.

Nonetheless, I am the very definition of cheap.
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by BenT »

[quote=]

Nonetheless, I am the very definition of cheap.[/quote]

I prefer the word thrifty!

Rebarreling a Rossi 92 would not be very expensive. Not sure what availability of rifle barrels in that caliber are.
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MacEntyre
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by MacEntyre »

I am thrifty as well!

I have no idea if I can find a barrel from a 357 to bore and re-chamber. If I can find one, I already have a 45Colt Rossi 92.

The folks at the Rossi forum have encouraged me to consider converting to 41 magnum instead of 38-40. The back end of the brass is identical, so it should work just as well.
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by Blaine »

MacEntyre wrote:
Old Savage wrote:Just pay the money. What are you going to do, take it with you? Don't be cheap.
I would accept your suggestion, if I had a job.

I've been self employed for 25 years, but it isn't working well just now.

Nonetheless, I am the very definition of cheap.
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MacEntyre
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by MacEntyre »

MacEntyre wrote:...consider converting to 41 magnum instead of 38-40. The back end of the brass is identical, so it should work just as well.
Well, that turned out not to be true. The 41 is significantly smaller than 38-40, but my 45 Colt still feeds and extracts 41 cal test rounds, if I put a cleaning rod in the barrel to keep the 41 from falling into the chamber.
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by AJMD429 »

MacEntyre wrote:The folks at the Rossi forum have encouraged me to consider converting to 41 magnum instead of 38-40. The back end of the brass is identical, so it should work just as well.
AmmoGuide.com has a 'cartridge identification and search' function that you can search via all sorts of paramters.

Searching with Rim Width and Body Width same as 38-40 there are a huge amount of 'similars' using the tolerance factor of +/- 0.03"

The 444 Marlin was quite similar, other than length, if that helps...

AmmoGuide.com is a great site - costs a few bucks but $0.50 a week or less.
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Re: Shooters I want are not available or not affordable...

Post by Canuck Bob »

For what its worth a modern steel 32-40 can be pushed hard enough to give the 32 Magnum a run for it.
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