Miroku 1892 Manufacture Dates

Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 5:17 pm

Hello all,
I am new to this forum. I initially found it after googling some stuff on 1892 rifles to see what kind of information I could gather. In July of 2014, I purchased a Winchester 1892 out of the blue. My gun purchasing tends to be impulsive and I am not sure how, but the urge to acquire a lever-action rifle popped into my head and wouldn't go away. I was working long, 12-hour shifts at a stressful job and my outlet was purchasing lever actions for some reason. By summer's end, I had three; two Winchester 1892 short rifles in .44 mag and a 'JM' Marlin 1894 Cowboy Limited in .357 Mag.
Up until that point, I had never even handled a lever gun before. But now they're the most fun and interesting guns in my collection. I have fired both of my Winchester 1892 rifles, putting a couple hundred rounds of .44 through each, including some factory loads but mostly reloads. I wanted to write up a review from a guy who owns two of these new production guns in case somebody here is looking to purchase one.
Fit and finish
The fit and finish of these guns is gorgeous. The wood, while often plain-looking compared to some of the Chiappas I have seen, is smooth and fits the metal very nicely, just a tiny bit higher around where the buttstock meets the action. The internal parts seem extremely well done, and I don't see any indication of stamped or cheap parts used anywhere. I own a few American made guns (Remington, Mossberg, Sig Sauer, Colt, Marlin) and while many of them are absolutely beautiful, I can tell where money has been sacrificed or parts have been cheapened to ensure that they stay below a certain price-point. You don't get that feeling with the Winchester/Miroku gun. Even the little carrier appears to be machined (you can see little lines on it).
The bluing is amazing. It is very rich and deep and shiny. You can tell that a lot of quality was put into assembling the gun and finishing it.
Function and features
The action is smooth out of the box. There's only one caveat to that; the initial effort to cock the hammer with the lever is heavy. As many already know, this Winchester is not a 100% faithful replica of the original 1892; it has some new features with safety in mind. One of those features is a rebounding hammer. Essentially, when you fire the gun, it will discharge the cartridge, and then put itself into the half cock position automatically. This seems to need a stiff spring, so when you initially cock the gun, you feel the bolt overcoming the stiffness of the hammer spring.
With some cycling and firing, this seems to have lightened up noticeably. Also, when you're out in the field actually shooting the gun, you're not going to notice it anyways. When I fire my lever guns, I cycle them with the stock still against my shoulder so I don't even notice any stiffness. But at home, just cocking it, you will. Some people have reported misfires or light strikes when shooting with this gun. I have not with any of the ammo I have fired, and I find that a lot of the complaints of this comes from forum posts that are a few years old. Perhaps this means the design was modified to fix this problem, or maybe there was a bad batch? Some people will modify the gun to eliminate the rebounding hammer system (instructions available online) but I leave mine.
The gun also has a tang manual safety. I know a lot of people have a bone to pick with the idea of a manual safety on a lever gun. My Marlin has a crossbolt safety and people seem to dislike that, too. Honestly, if you don't want to use it, don't. I have never once accidentally tripped mine on, but I know it can easily be actuated and my girlfriend has snicked it on by accident whilst shooting before. Just be aware of where it is.
Other than those two features, it operates just like any model 92. Cycle the action firmly, and it'll bring up the carrier, throw a round in the chamber and fire. Rinse and repeat until all 10 cartridges are spent. Because it's a top-eject gun and not an angle eject one at that, ejection can be unpredictable with a brass casing hitting you on the head every so often. I try to keep a mental note of where my brass goes, because .44 brass can be expensive. Some casings tend to fall close to the gun, some get projected a lot further away.
Every round I have fired through the gun has gone bang. As many of you know, lever guns can be picky about cartridge length. Find out what OAL it likes and keep it to that. The first cartridges I put through my 1892 were Sellier and Bellot .44 mag 240 gr. Much to my surprise and frustration, they didn't feed worth a damn. I had to put some serious muscle into feeding them. My neighbour put a crimp on the case and now they feed fine. Go figure. I have purchased a lot of his reloads (I trust his reloading) and they feed like butter through this gun. Initially though, the long SWC bullets he was firing through his S&W model 29-2 revolvers was far too long to cycle in this gun and seized it up. Again, lever guns can be ammo sensitive. With a revolver, if the damn thing closes and rotates, you're good to go.
A lot of people complain about the crescent steel butt plate on this gun, especially in .44 magnum. You can load some stout cartridges and the 92 action is strong enough to take them. But is your shoulder? Thing is, the design of the crescent butt plate pays homage to the original 92, but the original 92 didn't quite have the power of a .44 mag!
With 240 gr bullets and loads of H110 in the 22 - 23 gr category though (read: not target loads), I find the recoil manageable. My lightweight Remington 700 30-06 with a limbsaver pad kicks a hell of a lot more and that's a rubber pad! The steel butt plate doesn't kick nearly as much and I find it manageable. With some 300 gr max loads or extended firing sessions, who knows. My girlfriend can fire this gun without complaint about the recoil. But I noticed the next day her shoulder was bruised up. Maybe that was more of the Mossberg's doing though - I got an M7 bayonet and we went to town with some melons with some 00 buckshot.
The barrels for the .44 and .357 version are marked .44 Magnum ONLY and .357 Magnum ONLY respectively. In a revolver, .44 special can be fired from a .44 mag and .38 from a .357. Will these rifles feed the shorter, less powerful cartridges? Answer: Maybe. It seems a crapshoot whether the .357 will feed .38 especially. Some will, some won't. I think they put the ONLY on the barrel so that people didn't get all up in arms if they didn't.
To be fair, my Marlin Cowboy seemed to choke up on the .38 cartridges when I first bought it but when a cowboy action gunsmith tuned it up, it now seems to feed .38s without a problem.
Sorry, I don't have paper accuracy. But with semi buckhorn sights, it's not going to be a precision rifle. Lever guns tend to lose a lot to bolt guns and even a good semi auto like an M4 in the accuracy department.
Wow, it's pricey
The short rifle version was around a thousand dollars. My second Winchester was actually a private trade...I traded off a CZ SP-01 pistol for another 92 because I liked my first one so much. But yeah, it's a thousand dollar plus gun. Is it worth it? I'm going to say YES, to me it is worth it. But to some others, they might see the value in the Rossi which can be less than half the price. Or if you want to use a gun like a ranch gun or bang it around extensively, you might want just a cheap beater for that.
I'm the kind of person who enjoys the way a gun feels and looks as well as how it functions. I like looking at well fitted parts. At glossy bluing. At high quality wood. But a lot of people will still balk at the price.
Hey, lever guns require hand-fitting. They require somebody who knows what they're doing to put one together. They're fitted, not just assembled. My Mossberg 590A1 looks like parts came off the assembly floor, and somebody just affixed them together and put it in a box. Lever guns are not that simple, they're a lot more complex mechanically. That's why Marlin's quality took such a nosedive when they moved from CT to NY. They thought the same guys assembling 870s could put a lever gun together. Well, lesson learned.
But it is an expensive gun, and I'm sure skilled labour in Japan is not cheap. When people compare these to Rossis, they have to realize
a.) the cost of labour in Japan is going to be more money than Brazil
b.) they're more closely hand-fitted and have a much higher attention to detail, and quality of parts.
There's a reason why Rossi can sell the gun for 500 bucks or less.
Obviously the pricetag and quality of parts means a lot of people won't be doing ranch work with this being scuffed up in a scabbard. But it doesn't mean you can't. But think of how many high-end Range Rovers are being relegated to serious off-road duty when you can get a dinged up pickup truck to take the beating instead. Doesn't mean the Range Rover is not capable (in fact they are extremely capable) but for the price, most people don't want to expose them to such harsh treatment.
I shoot mine with stout ammo, and I love to take it out whenever possible. But when it started raining, I got it in the case as fast as possible. I think it's a rugged and capable gun, but I have guns a lot cheaper to endure serious punishment.
There are other guns that are more suited to be beaters.
This gun can be a reliable, rugged, great gun. But i'm not going to pretend it will have the accuracy of a bolt gun or even a good semi auto (or rate of fire at that). But it's just a lot of fun.
Conclusion
I quite like these guns. I think they're a lot of fun, beautiful to look at, lightweight, easy to shoot and just overall a great time. Sure they're not 100% faithful replicas of the old 1892 models, but then again they're made in modern calibers and for modern times. It's funny to come from being a guy who likes shooting Glocks to shooting old-style lever guns. But they're just too much fun to put down. It's a blast to shoot water bottles, fruit, veggies, reactive steel, bowling pins, etc. There's no other gun I have owned that puts a smile on my face like a lever gun, and I love the top eject Winchesters for sheer fun.
If you want something as a beater, you can look at less expensive Rossis. I don't know if they use true walnut for their stocks or have as nice and uniform of bluing, but you probably won't feel as bad dinging them up. Plus, they are more faithful reproductions of the original Winchester if that matters to you ,and I've seen some extremely light and smooth actions on them from some YouTube videos.
Some see these lever guns as relics. Sure more modern guns can have some more convenient features, but none as fun as this gun.