Marlin 1892 Conversion

[Green Frog]

I’ve spent the last hour or so doing searches and googling, but I still have an unanswered question. Nearly fifty years ago I owned (briefly) a Marlin 1892 rifle in 32 caliber with both firing pins. The ancient rimfire rounds that it came with were dead and finding newer ones would have been expensive if even possible. OTOH, the local hardware wholesaler had a few dusty yellow boxes of Winchester made 32 Long Colt, so I bought a box or two and blasted away until the next shiny thing came along and I traded it off. After all, it had a big area of pitting near the muzzle of its otherwise beautiful octagon barrel, so even with its near pristine bore I let it go.

Flash forward nearly a half century and I’m in the midst of a love affair with 32 caliber revolvers as evidenced by my many postings in the “Wheelguns, etc” Forum and elsewhere. I remembered through the fog of the years that an old timer mentor of mine back then suggested that I could make my Marlin more shootable by simply running a 32 S&W Long reamer into the chamber to give access to much more available ammo. The question I have tried to resolve with today’s search is whether ol’ George was talking through his hat or whether it would really work(?) has anyone here actually done such a conversion or know of one being done? Did it work and was the action still smooth and reliable? Was any further modification to the gun (other than chamber reaming) necessary?

I would greatly appreciate any and all first hand experience anyone here would care to relate about the efficacy of this possible project. Thanks in advance!

Green Frog

PS Just to carry things a bit farther, would it work to set the rifle up in 32 H&R?

[Nueces]

GF, I enjoy reading of your 32 explorations and share a similar infatuation. I had the same experience with the M1892 I bought in the 80s, 32 Long Colt worked a treat until the firing pin broke. I have an unfitted new one from Wisners. Back then, I could buy boxes of new Long Colt ammo for less than $3.

I also have planned to convert it to 32 S&W Long and went so far as to investigate feeding. A 32 Long round will cycle through the magazine and the lifter will pick it up and present it properly to the chamber, so I believe a simple chamber job will be all that is required for my rifle.

I think the 32 H&R to be too long to work, and it's a good thing. Even strenuous S&W Long rounds should be avoided, as the action is essentially the same as that of the 1897 or 39 in 22 LR. It lacks the solid lockup of the 1894. I would trust it only with target loads, but still it would make a fine squirrel rifle.

[Ithaca Gunner]

So long as the gun and bore are worth the effort, it might work. The .32 S&W being only slightly larger diameter and the same length should work, but as Nueces stated, take the loading easy.

[Jedman]

I have a 1892 that I have reamed to 32 S&W long and it feeds and shoot fine. The situations I have is that the cast bollits I have are 100 + grs. and I had to cut my brass down to .885” to be able to lightly crimp the long boolits. I only load 2.4 grs. of powder in them and I can hit steel 6” targets at 100 yards with them so the boolit is stabilized. The bore in mine is not great but still shoots with enough accuracy that it’s fun to shoot. A lot of the problem is my eyesight has really gotten poor where iron sights are not clear anymore but in bright sunlight I can shoot it OK.
I first went the route sizing down 32 S&W long and lathe turning the base and had a heeled boolit mold to load ammo for it but tired of it quickly and sold what I had and reamed the chamber.
I did also take out the lever and lightly hammered the locking tip until I got the movement of the bolt to where it locks up good. As others have said keep your loads light as the action is quite weak for a centerfire.

Jedman

[ATCDoktor]

I have 3 Marlin M92’s and shoot them regularly with hand loaded 32 Long and Short colt ammo using heel based bullets.

I get my brass and bullets from Gunbroker (Buffalo Arms has it every once in a while) and loading the ammo (on a single stage press) is no different than loading any other straight walled cartridge.

That said, finding dies for 32 Colt and using a special heel based crimp die from Old West Bullet Molds is a slow and tedious process so I can see where converting one to 32 Smith & Wesson Long would make a lot easier/faster reference reloading.

Just because I shoot mine with heel based handloads doesn’t mean I’m opposed to the conversion and have (at times) heavily considered converting one of mine.

Here is a link to post from the Marlin Collectors Forum that covers the guns and the conversion to 32 S&W Long in some detail and it appears that it’s a skosh more involved than running a reamer into the chamber (although it appears that some have gone that route with success).

https://marlin-collectors.com/forum/...ic.php?t=27604

As far as the rifles are concerned they are quite neat l, fun to shoot and accurate (even with heel based handloads) and inside 75 yards the round is quite effective on small game.

One of my round barreled M92’s 5 rounds at 100 yards off the bench:


50 yards offhand:


They will assuredly hold minute of cottontail/jackrabbit at iron site distances:





If you do go through the trouble of having a conversion done please let us know how it goes and post some pics and a few details.

[Mk42gunner]

I have thought about doing this very conversion, the first time was in the late 1980's when SASS was first starting. Alas, I could never find a decent condition rifle to convert that was affordable.

I think the .32 H&R is entirely too long for the relatively tiny action to handle, to say nothing of the pressure potential.

One good thing is the breechface should work okay with the S&W rim.

Robert

[Green Frog]

Thanks folks. This is just the kind of input I’m looking for. Keep it coming!

Has anyone here had their 1892 X 32 barrel, relined? I figure a shot out barrel with extra poor bore may make the rifle for this project more accessible financially. Then I could chamber it as I want to.

Froggie