Found something interesting in an old Win 1892

[30CalTy]

Took the wife out shooting the other day, and she took a liking to my Winchester 1892 in 44-40. Quickly burned through the box and asked for more. It sometimes doesn't pick up rounds from the tube and I'd bought a new spring many months back and finally decided to put in the new magazine spring.

I was a little surprised that I had to actually go fishing for the old spring. I pulled out about 14" of spring when I found a case to the far end. Hmmmmm I remember looking in there a lot when checking it empty and seeing the steel follower... What is going on? Then the lightbulb came on and I tipped the muzzle down. Out slide another case, another 14" of spring, followed lastly by the steel follower! A-ha! Someone had a clever workaround for a busted spring!

Never seen that before and I figured I'd share.






Balloon head and a small primer--->pretty old case.



Pretty neat!

[marvelshooter]

Clever field fix. Nice looking rifle. Is that a Lyman or Marbles tang sight?

[30CalTy]

Lyman

[SOFMatchstaff]

A good idea for a quick repair in the field, last picture is another lesson, Glasses!!

[30CalTy]

A good idea for a quick repair in the field, last picture is another lesson, Glasses!!

Yep. We were actually snapping it at that point, doing a lesson on sight picture to illustrate how the target should appear.

[OverMax]

Have to keep that quick fix in mind. Thanks for sharing.

[KirkD]

Excellent idea for a field fix.

[Owen49]

Thank you for that "field expediency" lesson.

[BCRider]

How about a couple of .45ACP cases? The rimless design should glide a little easier and the case mouth is a little larger to accept the spring more readily.

Of course if one had to do this they'd simply do it and not worry about the exact fit.

[Teddo]

Once upon a time I bought a 94 Winchester at a astate sale and I must of checked to see if it was loaded five or six times for safety especially when I was showing it off to different friends. On about the seventh time I inspected it I threw open the action and there was a loaded round sitting on the carrier getting ready to go into the chamber! After a real close inspection I found a little bitty dent in the magazine tube that would just catch the rim of the round ,be careful of what you do to repair your gun or something bad may occur long time after you are gone. Just my experance...Teddo

[TXGunNut]

If you don't see the follower it's not unloaded.

[helice]

Had a friend find out about a sticky spring. He kicked out all the cartridges that would come out. Then took sight on his garage fire extinguisher. Click, click, bang. He had white powder all over everything exept on his red face.
Balloon cases! - seems to me they'd been there a while.

[monge]

Nice rifle what part of NY you from?

[akajun]

Best part of that story is now you got two additional pieces of 44-40 brass

[30CalTy]

Nice rifle what part of NY you from?

Thanks. Nice catch! I'm pretty close to the Harbor Freight in Colonie.

[Bullwolf]

While not a lever gun, this story is quite similar to the original post.

I was replacing the barrel, along with the magazine spring and follower in an original Winchester 1897 shotgun. When I pulled the old rusty spring and follower out of the magazine tube I found a nickel inside between the broken spring halves.

The spring was starting to show signs of rust, and had become pretty tired. It would not feed the last round reliably anymore.

I was replacing it with one of those cowboy action Winchester Model '97 6-Round Conversion kits that contained a new spring and follower combo.



Apparently at some point in time a previous owner had pounded a nickel flat on an anvil or another flat surface, until it was around the same size as the magazine tube, and then used it as a spacer between the two spring halves. I examined the coin up close with a glass, and compared it alongside a regular nickel pulled from my pocket. This coin was scuffed and squished out both flatter and wider, yet it definitely was not a quarter. Unfortunately try as I might, I couldn't make out a date on the nickel, only the profile of Jefferson's head.



I found the coin placed in between the two pieces of spring in the magazine tube. It had apparently worked just fine like that for some time, and simply gone unnoticed. I thought it was a really original expedient repair.

Just how long had it been that way? Well no one really knows, except for the person who originally did it.

I would have much rather found an intact silver coin, or even a pair of older solid brass 12 gauge hulls in the magazine tube.

It's interesting what you may find while taking apart an older gun. In my case however, it was only worth a nickel.


- Bullwolf