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Old July 19, 2010, 03:56 AM   #1
stickbomb
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Original winchester model 1892??

This almost seems too good to be true, but I just got an old Winchester lever-action rifle from my grandfather and I was just curious about it. It is totally blank other than the serial number which is 20440, which according to a dating website makes it an original 1892 Winchester. There are no distinguishing marks on it or even the mention of Winchester anywhere. The gun is very plain looking with no decorative engravings. It is in really fantastic condition but was for sure used heavily by whoever owned it. It has some scuffs and scratches in the wood, but all of metal parts have a very uniform color to them. Overall the gun has a lot of character, but compared to other pictures I have seen is still in pretty good shape. I know it still fires and functions correctly and everything is still original on it.

But anyways is this website right? And if so what is the value on such a gun? Im not looking to sell it, but it would be an interesting thing to know. But yea any information you guys could possibly give me is appreciated. I really love this gun and would like to know more about it.
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Old July 19, 2010, 08:47 AM   #2
Jim Watson
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Can you provide pictures?

Winchester clearly marks their rifles. If yours has no identifying markings, it has either been reworked so heavily as to remove them, or it is Something Else.
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Old July 19, 2010, 01:05 PM   #3
PetahW
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Winchester stamped the rear tang, directly behind the hammer:



If your gun has a tang peep sight mounted, the marking will be under the sight base.

IIRC, The barrel should be marked (stamped) with the chambering, just ahead of the action - .25-20 WCF, .32-20WCF , .38-40 WCF/38WCF, OR .44-40 WCF/44WCF.


Last edited by PetahW; July 19, 2010 at 01:17 PM.
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Old July 19, 2010, 01:29 PM   #4
James K
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Mine is also marked on the top of the barrel ahead of the rear sight, "Manufactured by Winchester Repeating Arms....." in two lines with patent dates, and also has the WP proof mark. Absent all those markings, I rather doubt it is a Winchester.

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Old July 19, 2010, 02:20 PM   #5
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As others have said, if it is an original Winchester 1892 from 1892, it will have these markings:
* Tang roll-marked Winchester Model 1892- Trademark
* Barrel roll-marked Manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, addresses and patent dates
* Barrel roll-marked with chambering information directly on top of the chamber (guns produced after 1921 had chambering info on the side of the chamber area of the barrel).

The barrels were not proofmarked prior to 1898.

Also, if it is an original Winchester product, the rifle will have the following features:
* Hammer will have a roll-marked, bordered checkerd area on the top of the hammer ear.
* The cartridge carrier will be machined steel.
* The barrel bands are slightly rounded in cross-section, with fine threads.
* The front sight blade is pinned between two "ears" and is integral to the barrel itself.
* The rifle mainspring is a flat spring, not coil.
* If the rifle has a saddle ring loop, the loop is welded.

FWIW, replicas of the Winchester 1892 rifles have been imported from South America for several decades.
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Old July 19, 2010, 10:29 PM   #6
stickbomb
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ok well apparently I have never looked at this gun in good light because all of those things are present. The making on the barrel says "-manufactured by the Winchester repeating rifle company". It also has the patent date present aswell but the engraving at the base of the barrel looks slightly different, it says "32 w.c.f" but in more of a cursive script and on the top edge not on the side of the barrel. Also the gun has the octagon barrel and the extended magazine. I attempted to take some pictures of the gun to give you guys a better idea of what it looks like... but alas I am an awful photographer. But anyways those markings are present and I am horribly unobservant. So now what does that mean?
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Old July 19, 2010, 10:59 PM   #7
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Sounds like you have a real Winchester.

Caliber .32 WCF (Winchester Center Fire) is more commonly known these days as .32-20. This is largely because other companies making rifles in the same caliber did not want to put a Winchester trademark on a Marlin or Remington.
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Old July 20, 2010, 12:58 AM   #8
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So is having an 1892 model winchester, that was actually made in 1892 a big rarity?
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Old July 20, 2010, 02:49 AM   #9
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Quote:
So is having an 1892 model winchester, that was actually made in 1892 a big rarity?
That would be fairly rare. Winchester made 23,701 Model 1892s in 1892, total production for Model 1892/Model 92 was 1,004,675. Good find! Probably worth several thousand dollars.
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Old February 6, 2016, 02:17 PM   #10
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Hello,

I realize this is a very old thread but I did want to add a bit of history and corrections. Your rifle's receiver was serialized on November 20, 1893. The fully assembled rifle entered the Winchester warehouse on January 9, 1894 and was shipped out 2 days later on the 11th. The Feds now consider the serialization date as the date of manufacture but in any case your rifle was not manufactured during 1892.

The octagon barrel note tells me that your rifle is a "standard sporting rifle" configuration. At the time your rifle was produced the tang stamp style would be as shown below. In addition the octagon barrel rifles had the "barrel address" style shown below. There is no Patent date on the barrel address at this time. It is located on the upper tang stamp.

Model 1892 barrels were never marked 32-20 WCF, 38-40 WCF, or 44-40 WCF. The caliber stamps were 25-20 WCF, 32 WCF, 38WCF, and 44 WCF. These were located on the top of the barrel until 1908 at which time the caliber stamp was moved to the left side. Not in 1921.

The superposed W/P proof mark did not come into use until 1905 not 1898.

Winchester produced 7121 Model 8192 in the first year of production. There were actually a good number few than 1,000,000 Model 1892/92 rifles produced since a good portion of the Model 53 rifles and all of the Model 65 rifles were numbered in the Model 1892/92 serial number sequence.

Thanks and I hope this helps. http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=606355
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