replacement barrell for original 1892 winchester carbine in 44-40

[Tater Pickens]

I have an original 92 winchester 44-40 carbine, mfr date of 1919, that the barrell is in bad shape.  Do any of you good folks know where a replacement barrell can be found or if it could be relined, and if so, where to get the parts and tools for relining. Would prefer a barrell but if relining is the way I need to go I am willing to try that.

My daughter has been promised this gun when I pass and I want it in good shooting shape for her.

Thanks,

Tater Pickens

[bear tooth billy]

Redmons make a 44/40 liner, I had one put in a 73 a few years ago and now it shoots good
and is much easier to clean. Before you reline it, there are some tricks to getting a worn barrel
to shoot, oversize bullet, some PSB under the bullet. If it were mine, I definitely would not replace
the whole barrel on an old Winchester  IMO

                                 BTB

[Tater Pickens]

bear tooth,

thanks for your response.
I've just been told that the 44-40 carbine barrell is too thin to reline.  I have slugged the barrell and it comes in at .429. The bullet I shoot is a .430.

The barrell looks kinda rough and pitted so I don't know if there is a way to kinda polish it smoother. What is PSB?

Thanks,

Tater

[Blackpowder Burn]

Tater,

I'm no gunsmith, but I also have an original '92 saddle ring carbine in 44-40.  I also recently purchased a new Winchester/Miroku '92 saddle ring carbine in 44-40 - which is the spitting image of the original (except for a tang safety and rebounding firing pin.

I wonder if one of the new barrels would fit?

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Tater,

I'm no gunsmith, but I also have an original '92 saddle ring carbine in 44-40.  I also recently purchased a new Winchester/Miroku '92 saddle ring carbine in 44-40 - which is the spitting image of the original (except for a tang safety and rebounding firing pin.

I wonder if one of the new barrels would fit?

I'll bet the threads are different.  I had a '73 short rifle relined, but that's different. The old barrel was accurate, but the Debil to clean.

Unless Numrich Arms (Gun Parts) have an original barrel, I'd say buy a new '92 to shoot and mount the heirloom on a neat display plaque to mount over the fireplace. Whoops - Sold out! There may be other sources?

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/Manufacturers/Winchester-33573/Rifles-42602/1892-40288.htm?page=2

[bear tooth billy]

Tater, if you're shooting a bullet .001'' oversize it should shoot, what kind of accuracy does it have.
you didn't say what powder you're using, if you are using smokeless, you could back off to the starting
amount. PSB is poly shot buffer, made for shotgun loads, but it will seal an undersize bullet in a worn
barrel, sold by Midway. I think you should be able to get it to shoot decent, a pitted barrel will take longer
to clean. you may also want to post on cast boolit/ leverguns forum
                         Billy

[Blackpowder Burn]

Sir Charles,

You may well be right about the barrel threads.  However, couldn't hurt to spend a couple of minutes calling the Winchester parts and service department at 1-800-322-4626.  I've used them recently and found them to be very helpful.

[Tater Pickens]

Billy,

I am shooting 35 grns of Old Eynsford 2f with 427098 bullets. At 50 yards on a 17 inch shoot n/c target out of 10 rounds only 4 hit the target and the rest were flyers. Those rounds are accurate in my Uberti 73's.

The only reason I am pursuing this is i want to leave the gun to my daughter when I pass and I want it to be in shootable condition for her.

Thanks gentlemen for your insight and comments.

Tater

[bear tooth billy]

Tater, when you say the others were flyers, were they tumbling sideways, you may want to use a bigger white
cardboard target and look at the holes, are they round?  You said you slugged your bore, .429'' was the groove
diameter, what was the land measurement? that will tell us how much rifling is left. Lastly, have you checked
the crown on the muzzle? if it is damaged that may be throwing your bullets off.

                                                      BTB

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Tater
What kind of bullet lube are you using ?

[Thomas (Tom) Horn aka James Hicks]

Tater Pickins...

Do not know how bad the barrel is on your Win '92.  BUT here is a trick that we use to do when I was on a rifle team back in the middle to late 50's when I was in the army.  We had Old WWII M1 Garands and the rifling was really in bad shape.  We "Fire Lapped" the rifles and that helped considerably. Just depends on how much damage was previously done to the bore.  If the rifling still has strong LANDS and the bore is not pitted too bad, the Fire Lapping will correct. If the pitting is DEEP all the Fire Lapping will do is smooth it to "some degree".  You can also use JB non-embedding paste and try polishing the bore with that. 

As stated... if the Lands are worn down and the grooves are not very deep... the barrel is probably worn out... not much you can do with that other than "hope" to find a replacement. My two cents for what it is worth.  Tom Horn

[Tater Pickens]

Billy, I haven't checked the land measurement but looking down the barrell with a good flashlight I can see the rifling but it looks very shallow. The crown does not seem out of round at all but might be a little expanded.


Rowdy, the lube used is whatever BP lube  Springfield Slim provides.

Tom, not sure what you mean by fire lapping...is that firing jacked bullets

Thanks for your responses and suggestions.

Tater