Were any Winchester 1892 saddle ring carbines ever made with a 24 inch barrel?  Were any 24 inch barrel rifles ever equipped with a saddle ring?  Were any made in 25-20?

What I'm going to post is from Duncan Barnes, "The history of winchester firearms 1866-1980































 

It might.  Well I know the one I'm looking at is an 1892 chambered in 25-20, it has buck horn sights, and the seller says the barrel is 24 inches, and it has a saddle ring, think it might have been a custom order?  Or is this likely something someone put together?  How much would it cost to get a factory letter from Winchester?

We think about how Winchester did business 100 years ago from our everything-a-commodity perspective of today.

That isn't how they did it at Winchester.

Every rifle they made was built to the specifications of the person (or, more likely, retailer) who ordered it.  So, anything is possibly factory correct on a Winchester rifle from the 19th century.  They plated rifles in every conceivable finish.  They put all kinds of sights on them.  They had several butt plate and wood quality options.  The sky was the limit back in the day.

We've come a long way down from those times -- I blame Walmart, the internet, and cheap bastards.

It is entirely possible that Winchester would have made a model 92 with a saddle ring in any barrel length from 18" to 30".  They made a lot of rifles to the specifications of many customers.  The 25-20 was the most popular deer hunting cartridge at the beginning of the 20th century and folks still rode horses back then.  So, a saddle ring on a deer rifle was most likely a regular and popular demand from customers.

Most Winchester records were lost to fire long ago.  The Cody Firearms Museum has what remains of the Winchester factory (records, production lines, specifications, etc.).  The contents of the Winchester factory were moved to Cody several decades ago.

The company now called "Winchester" only owns the name, not the heritage.  The current company contracts the building of old Winchester designs because the patents ran out long ago and the designs are in the public domain now.  The rifles stamped "Winchester" are mostly built by Miroku Firearms of Japan, and are better quality than anything Winchester ever made.  They are commodities, however, not rifles built for customers.  Several Italian companies also make the historical Winchester designs and sell them in this country without legal consequence.  But, there is no longer a Winchester Firearms Company in the sense that there was 100 years ago.

Round barrels were standard on both rifles and carbines, but most Model 1892 rifles ordered prior to 1900 had octagon barrels as the general belief was that the octagon profile was stronger.  

Twenty inches was the standard length for the carbine barrel, and 24" was standard length for the rifle barrel, and in total about 66% of all model 1892s came with 24" barrels and about 33% came with 20" barrels with less than 1% having barrels of all other lengths.

A rifle with a barrel shorter than 24" was a "short rifle".  Longer or shorter barrels on rifles and carbines could be specified as part of a regular order until 1908.  After 1908 they became a special order only item.   In either case, special length barrels were not common and comprised less than 1% of total Model 1892 production.

Octagonal rifle barrels were available on special order - but Model 92 carbines had round barrels - period. If you wanted an octagon barrel, you had to order a rifle or short rifle.

80% of all Model 1892s were chambered in .44-40 with 8% in .38-40, 7% in .32-20, 4% on .25-20, and less than 1% in 218 Bee.    

Saddle rings on the Model 1892 used a u shaped double staple  stud.  The screw in type stud found on the Model 1886, Model 1894 and Model 1895, as well as on some of the Model 1886 and Model 1873 carbines were never fitted to the Model 92, so if you find one with a screw in stud, it's been added after it left the factory.

Similarly, if you find a SCR with a barrel shorter than 20", be aware Winchester only made about 1200 of those, so the odds are that it was shortened after it left the factory.  Same with a Model 1892 short rifle - Winchester only made about 800 of them.  Model 1892s had a bad habit of developing a ring in the barrel under the froth sight, so it was not uncommon to shorten one to remove the ring and improve accuracy, so the odds of finding a post factory modified rifle or carbine with a shorter than standard barrel are much higher than the odds of finding an original.

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In that regard, a 24" saddle ring carbine (round barrel by default) is a possibility, but would be quite rare, since fewer than 1% of carbines (less than 1200) would have a non standard barrel length, and those would be more likely to be shorter, not longer.  It's slightly more likely that you might encounter a 24" rifle (round or octagon barrel) as they were 66% of the Model 1892 production,  and the only special order item would be the saddle ring.  But again, check to be sure it's got a u shaped stud, not a screw in stud.  Given the use of a saddle ring, it would be more likely to see one on a short rifle than it would be on 24" rifle, just because of how it was used.  If a customer ordered one on a 24" rifle, he'd have done it just for looks, not as a practical accessory.