Winchester Model 1892: John Wayne’s Lever-Action and The Rifleman

Watch a John Wayne film and the rifle in his hand is almost always the same one: a saddle-ring carbine with a custom oversized lever loop, cycled with a one-handed spin that became Wayne’s signature on-screen move. That rifle, across Stagecoach (1939), Red River (1948), Rio Bravo (1959), True Grit (1969), and on through Rooster Cogburn (1975), was a Winchester Model 1892. When Heritage Auctions sold Wayne’s original loop-lever 1892 in 2011 with documented estate provenance, the hammer fell at $179,250.

Watch the opening credits of The Rifleman (ABC, 168 episodes from 1958 to 1963) and Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain works a similar large-loop carbine down a Western street, firing in rapid bursts. That rifle is also a Winchester Model 1892, modified with an internal screw inside the loop to trip the trigger on each lever close. The original survives in the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles.

The 1892 is the lever-action carried by John Wayne for nearly four decades of films and by Chuck Connors for the entire run of one of the most-syndicated Westerns in television history. It is also the rifle most often misidentified by viewers as a Winchester Model 1873, because Hollywood routinely used 1892s in scenes set decades before the rifle existed and few audiences could tell the difference. The 1892’s mechanical story, its production volume, and its modern reproduction market all argue that it, more than any other Winchester, is the rifle Americans actually picture when they picture a cowboy rifle.

Browning’s Scaled-Down 1886

By 1890 Winchester had a strategic gap. The Model 1873, the company’s pistol-cartridge lever-action, was selling well but its toggle-link action had reached the design ceiling: smooth, mechanically iconic, and pressure-limited. The Model 1876 had scaled the toggle-link up into larger cartridges and proved heavy and expensive. John Moses Browning’s Model 1886, Winchester’s first Browning design, replaced the toggle-link with twin vertical sliding locking lugs and handled .45-70 Government and the larger black-powder cartridges with no difficulty. The 1886 was strong, but it was a big rifle.

What Winchester needed was a modern action for the pistol-cartridge market, to replace the aging 1873 in the same .44-40, .38-40, and .32-20 chamberings. Browning’s solution was to take his 1886 action and scale it down. The result kept the 1886’s twin vertical locking lugs and its operating geometry, in a receiver sized for pistol cartridges. The principal action patent, U.S. Patent No. 465,339, issued to Browning on December 15, 1891. Winchester company sources later claimed Browning produced a working prototype in two weeks; the story is widely cited and originates with Winchester marketing, with thin independent documentation. What is well documented is the strength differential: the 1892’s twin-lug action tolerates substantially higher chamber pressures than the 1873’s toggle-link, which is why modern reproductions of the 1892 safely chamber .44 Magnum, .357 Magnum, and even .454 Casull, while modern reproductions of the 1873 cannot.

The 1892 is one of four Browning lever-actions Winchester brought to market across a decade: the 1886 (large frame, big-bore black-powder cartridges), the 1892 (small frame, pistol cartridges), the 1894 (medium frame, smokeless rifle cartridges led by the .30-30), and the 1895 (box magazine, high-pressure smokeless cartridges including .30-06 and .405 Winchester). All four share the vertical-lug locking concept refined across the series. The 1892 is its most compact expression.

The Winchester Model 1892 Itself

Winchester produced the Model 1892 at New Haven, Connecticut, from 1892 to 1941. Total production exceeded one million rifles, with figures cited at approximately 1,007,000 to 1,007,608 depending on source; George Madis’s The Winchester Book is the canonical count. That production volume is substantially higher than the 1873’s roughly 720,000 across a comparable original production span, despite the 1892 entering the market 19 years later. By the late 1890s the 1892 had displaced the 1873 as the rifle Winchester customers actually bought.

The mechanism is straightforward. A side loading gate on the right of the receiver, the Nelson King design carried forward from the 1866, feeds cartridges into a tubular magazine under the barrel. The lever, pulled down and forward, drops the twin locking lugs out of their mortises in the receiver walls, retracts the bolt, ejects the spent case, and lifts a fresh round from the carrier; on closing, the bolt chambers the new round and the lugs slide back up into the receiver mortises to lock. An external hammer with a half-cock safety. No sliding dust cover; the 1892’s receiver top is enclosed and plain, which is the easiest visual distinction from a 1873.

Winchester cataloged the 1892 in several configurations.

A 24-inch rifle weighs roughly 6.75 pounds; the 20-inch carbine drops under 6 pounds. That is meaningfully lighter than a 1873 in the same configuration, where a 24-inch rifle ran closer to 8 pounds. Browning’s design used less steel for equivalent strength, and the difference is noticeable in the hand. Trapper variants are a recurring source of buyer confusion. Pre-1934, Winchester sold short-barreled 1892s freely across all barrel lengths down to 14 inches. After the National Firearms Act of 1934, Trappers with barrels under 16 inches became regulated short-barreled rifles requiring federal registration. Modern reproductions in 16-inch Trapper configuration are common; sub-16-inch original Trappers are rare and command collector premiums into five figures for fine examples.

Chamberings

The 1892 launched in the same pistol cartridges as the 1873: .44-40 WCF, .38-40 WCF, and .32-20 WCF. Winchester added .25-20 WCF in 1895 as a small-game and varmint chambering unique to the 1892 in the Winchester pistol-cartridge lineup. Late in the production run, in 1938, Winchester introduced the .218 Bee, a smokeless varmint cartridge developed specifically for the 1892’s action; it drives a 46-grain bullet at roughly 2,800 fps from a 24-inch barrel and remains a niche but well-regarded small-game cartridge. A few catalog runs in .32 Winchester Special and other minor chamberings show up in the Madis serial-range tables; verify per serial number before claiming an unusual original chambering.

What original 1892s were not chambered is as significant as much as what they were. The Smith & Wesson .44 Remington Magnum cartridge was introduced in 1955, fourteen years after Winchester ended 1892 production. The .357 Magnum dates to 1934 and was never an original 1892 catalog chambering. The .454 Casull (1959) and .480 Ruger (2003) are 20th- and 21st-century high-pressure revolver cartridges. All four are common chamberings in modern 1892 reproductions, because the Browning twin-lug action handles their pressures safely, but no original New Haven 1892 left the factory in any of them. If a seller offers an original Winchester 1892 in .44 Magnum, the rifle has been rechambered, the seller is mistaken about provenance, or both.

In practice

The 1892 or ’92 is just a pleasure to shoot. It’s slender and light design, especially in shorter barrel configurations make it light, maneuverable and just plain fun to shoot. They’re accurate, quick to aim, and have a decent trigger. In many ways, they’re the classic real-deal lever guns.

John Wayne, Chuck Connors, and the Loop-Lever 1892

The 1892’s place in American cinema is anchored by two performers and one prop modification: the large-loop or “loop-lever” carbine, an oversized D-shaped lever loop that allows the action to be cycled while wearing gloves, on horseback, or with a one-handed spin.

John Wayne’s loop-lever 1892 first appeared on screen in John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939), the film that made Wayne a leading man. Wayne plays the Ringo Kid; his rifle is a Winchester 1892 saddle-ring carbine, cut down at the lever and modified with the oversized loop. Ford’s camera lingers on the rifle’s one-handed cock during Wayne’s introduction in the film. The Wayne 1892 is identifiable across nearly forty years of his subsequent work: Red River (1948), Hondo (1953), The Searchers (1956), Rio Bravo (1959), The Comancheros (1961), El Dorado (1966), True Grit (1969, where Rooster Cogburn’s signature long-gun is the same loop-lever 1892), Big Jake (1971), The Cowboys (1972), and Rooster Cogburn (1975), among many others. Wayne carried more than one physical 1892 across his career, with at least one rifle reused across multiple films and others built and matched to keep the silhouette consistent. The Heritage Auctions 2011 lot at $179,250, with documented Wayne estate provenance, is one of those rifles, not the only one.

Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain in The Rifleman carried a parallel custom: a Winchester 1892 carbine with a large lever loop and a small screw protruding inside the loop, positioned to trip the trigger as the lever closed. The rifle could be fired with a continuous lever-cycle action, producing the rapid-fire effect that opens every episode. The Rifleman ran 168 episodes on ABC from 1958 to 1963 and stayed in syndication for the next sixty years; for two generations of American viewers, the silhouette and the sound of that opening rifle work was the lever-action. The original Connors rifle resides in the Autry Museum of the American West.

Other notable 1892 cinema appearances are abundant. Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969) put 1892 carbines into multiple cast hands across its long firefight sequences. The Lonesome Dove miniseries (1989) featured 1892s alongside other period arms. Tombstone (1993) used both 1873s and 1892s with reasonable period correctness for the early 1880s setting. The 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma, Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight (2015), and Iñárritu’s The Revenant (2015) all relied on 1892s. The Internet Movie Firearms Database catalogs hundreds of additional appearances. The 1892 is, by reasonable measure, the most-filmed rifle in Western cinema.

That cinematic dominance creates the most consequential firearms misidentification in the Western genre. Hollywood prop houses stocked 1892s because they were more available and more durable than originals of the 1873. Films set in the 1860s, 1870s, and early 1880s, the era before the 1892 existed, routinely show actors carrying 1892s. Knowledgeable viewers note the anachronism; most audiences see “lever-action carbine” and read it as the Old West. The 1873 had the marketing claim to the frontier; the 1892 had the camera.

The Mare’s Leg: McQueen, the Original Prop, and the Modern Niche

Steve McQueen as bounty hunter Josh Randall in Wanted: Dead or Alive (CBS, 1958 to 1961) carried a distinctive short-barreled, butt-stock-removed lever-action rifle, worn in a thigh holster and nicknamed the “Mare’s Leg.” The on-screen prop has been described variously and inconsistently in popular sources over the decades; the consensus position from prop-research sources, including the Internet Movie Firearms Database and curatorial records at the Autry Museum, is that the McQueen Mare’s Leg was built on a Winchester Model 1892 receiver, with a cut-down barrel, a cut-down stock, and modifications to the lever and forearm.

What complicates the story is the modern commercial Mare’s Leg market. Several current manufacturers sell “Mare’s Leg” pistols (federally classified as pistols, because they were manufactured under 26 inches overall with no buttstock ever installed) inspired by the McQueen silhouette. Those modern products are built on a range of platforms. Rossi’s Ranch Hand uses a Rossi 92 receiver, which is a Winchester 1892 reproduction. Chiappa’s 1892 Mares Leg is also built on the 1892 pattern. Henry Repeating Arms’s Mare’s Leg, by contrast, is built on Henry’s Big Boy receiver, which is a modern Henry design, not a 1892 reproduction. So the question “is the Mare’s Leg a 1892?” has two answers: the McQueen original was; the modern commercial market is mixed, with some 1892-based and some not. The legal classification depends on the firearm never having had a buttstock attached at any point in its history, which is a regulatory trap worth understanding before any purchase.

Other Owners and Cameos

Outside of cinema, the 1892 has a thinner famous-owner record than the 1873, for a chronological reason: the rifle reached market saturation in the late 1890s, after the open-range frontier era had effectively closed around 1890. The lawmen, outlaws, and Native combatants whose mythology drives the 1873’s collector premiums were operating before the 1892 was on store shelves. The 1892’s documented historical use sits in the next era: late-frontier ranching, the closing decades of Western law enforcement, and the borderland conflicts that bridged into the 20th century.

Pancho Villa and the División del Norte during the Mexican Revolution (1910 to 1920) carried 1892s in significant numbers. The rifle was the dominant smuggled lever-action across the U.S.-Mexico border in that period, moving south through Texas and Arizona arms dealers. Several documented Mexican Revolution-era 1892s with provenance to Villa’s forces survive in museum and private collections. Theodore Roosevelt owned multiple 1892s, used primarily for varmint and small-game work, typically in .25-20 or .32-20. Roosevelt’s more famous Winchesters were the 1876 (his bison and grizzly rifle) and the 1895 (his African game rifle), but the 1892s are documented in his personal correspondence and rifle collection at Sagamore Hill.

The Modern Reproductions Market

The 1892 reproduction market is deeper than the 1873 market, for three connected reasons. The 1892’s stronger action allows safe chambering in modern high-pressure revolver cartridges that the 1873 cannot handle. SASS competitors who want full-power loads or non-traditional cartridges choose 1892s. And Rossi’s volume production in Brazil opened a budget tier that does not exist in the 1873 market. The practical count: three consistent current producers (Rossi, Winchester-Miroku, Chiappa), plus Uberti on intermittent runs, plus the U.S. importer-finisher ecosystem that distributes the Italian-made rifles.

Rossi (Brazil, the volume seller)

Rossi, a Forjas Taurus subsidiary based in São Leopoldo, Brazil, produces the Rossi 92 at higher annual volume than any other 1892 manufacturer globally. The rifle is distributed in the U.S. through Taurus International and reaches American big-box retailers (Cabela’s, Bass Pro, Academy Sports) at price points the Italian and Japanese makers do not match. The Rossi 92 catalog covers blued and stainless finishes, hardwood and synthetic stocks, barrel lengths from 16 to 24 inches, and chamberings across .357 Magnum/.38 Special, .44 Magnum/.44 Special, .45 Colt, .44-40 WCF, .454 Casull, and .480 Ruger. The Rossi Ranch Hand is the Mare’s Leg pistol variant. The “Triple Black” line is a modern tactical/utility configuration in synthetic stock and black-nitride finish, aimed at the survival-and-truck-gun market. Rossi catalog configurations shift year to year, so verify current SKUs at rossiusa.com before ordering.

The Rossi tradeoff is well documented in the SASS community: the rifle is functional and reliable at the price point, but the out-of-the-box action is stiffer than a Miroku-Winchester, and competition-level smoothness typically requires a gunsmith action job ($200 to $400). For plinking, ranch use, and casual hunting, an unaltered Rossi 92 works fine. For SASS competition the action job is the standard path. Browse current Rossi 92 listings at Guns.com.

Winchester Repeating Arms (Miroku-manufactured)

The modern Winchester-branded 1892 is built by Miroku Firearms Manufacturing in Kochi, Japan, under the same licensing arrangement that produces the Miroku-built modern 1873: Olin Corporation owns the Winchester ammunition brand and licenses firearms to Browning Arms Company, which contracts manufacture to Miroku. Miroku 1892s are widely considered the premium tier of modern 1892 production, with very fine fit and finish, blued steel receivers, premium walnut stocks, and tight tolerances. The current Winchester catalog (winchesterguns.com) covers the Short Rifle (20-inch octagonal), Carbine (20-inch round, saddle ring), Sporter (24-inch octagonal), Trapper (16-inch), and engraved Deluxe configurations. Chamberings are .357 Magnum/.38 Special, .44 Magnum/.44 Special, .45 Colt, and .44-40 WCF. The .44-40 chambering matters for buyers who want historical correctness; it is the original 1892 cartridge.

Miroku-built 1892s ship with out-of-the-box action smoothness that many shooters find competition-ready without further work. The tradeoff is price: standard configurations run in the upper-mid tier, Deluxe and engraved variants into the premium tier. Browse current Winchester Model 1892 listings at Guns.com.

Chiappa Firearms (Italy)

Chiappa Firearms of Brescia, Italy, founded in 1958, has built a broad 1892 catalog with configurations that the other makers do not offer. The standard 1892 Lever Action Rifle covers traditional rifle and carbine setups. The 1892 Take Down separates barrel-and-magazine assembly from the receiver for portable carry. The 1892 Mares Leg is Chiappa’s pistol-classified Mare’s Leg variant. The 1892 Wildlands is a modern stainless and synthetic-stock “tactical” lever-action aimed at the survival and utility market. The 1892 Alaskan pairs a large-loop lever with big-bore chamberings (.44 Magnum, .454 Casull). The 1892 Skinner is peep-sight equipped for hunting. Chiappa chamberings run .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, .45 Colt, .44-40 WCF, and .454 Casull. Consensus quality places Chiappa between Rossi (budget) and Miroku-Winchester (premium) on build and out-of-the-box smoothness. Browse current Chiappa 1892 listings at Guns.com.

Uberti (intermittent)

A. Uberti S.r.l. of Gardone Val Trompia produces 1892 reproductions on intermittent catalog runs. The Uberti 1892 is not a consistent annual SKU the way the Uberti 1873 is. As of recent catalogs, Uberti’s 1892 is absent or limited. When Uberti does run 1892 production, the rifles distribute into the U.S. market through the same importer ecosystem that handles their 1873s: Cimarron, Taylor’s, EMF, and Stoeger. Verify Uberti’s current 1892 availability at the point of purchase rather than relying on older buyer’s guides.

Who does not make a 1892

Several manufacturers come up in buyer questions and do not produce a 1892:

• Henry Repeating Arms (Bayonne, NJ) does not produce a Winchester 1892 reproduction. Their lever-action line is the “Original Henry” (1860 reproduction), the “Big Boy” (a modern Henry-designed lever-action in pistol cartridges), and a rimfire lever-action. The Big Boy is frequently mistaken for a 1892 because it chambers similar cartridges and shares the general lever-action silhouette, but it is a mechanically distinct design.
• Davide Pedersoli & C. does not produce a 1892. Their lever-action focus is the Browning-designed 1886 in modern hunting cartridges. Their wider catalog covers Sharps rifles, rolling-block actions, and Kentucky-pattern long guns.
• F.lli Pietta does not produce a 1892. Pietta’s focus is cap-and-ball revolvers and SAA-pattern revolvers.

Your real choices for a new-production 1892: Rossi (budget volume tier), Winchester Miroku (premium tier), Chiappa (mid-tier with the broadest configuration range), and Uberti when available through their importer brands.

Buyer’s Framework by Use Case

Cowboy Action Shooting (SASS). The 1892 is the second-most-common SASS rifle behind the 1873 and the volume SASS option for shooters who prioritize the stronger action over the 1873’s smoother short-stroke. Top-tier competitors generally favor the 1873; the 1892 dominates the Wild Bunch subcategory (1900-to-1920-era equipment, where the 1892 is more period-correct than the 1873) and the Long Range subset. Dominant chambering: .357 Magnum firing .38 Special cowboy loads, the same as the 1873. The Rossi 92 with an action job is the budget SASS path; the Miroku Short Rifle in .357 Magnum is the premium path. Browse SASS for match rules and category structure.

Hunting. Where the 1873 is suboptimal for modern hunting, the 1892 is a legitimate close-range hunting rifle, because the stronger action opens chamberings the 1873 cannot use. A 20-inch 1892 in .44 Magnum drives a 240-grain bullet at roughly 1,500 to 1,800 fps for 1,200 to 1,700 ft-lb of muzzle energy, adequate for whitetail and black bear at close range. A 1892 in .357 Magnum delivers around 1,800 fps and 1,140 ft-lb with a 158-grain bullet, a deer cartridge at moderate range. .45 Colt loaded to “Ruger-only” pressures in the modern 1892 reaches 1,200 fps with a 250-grain bullet. .454 Casull in a Chiappa or Rossi 1892 delivers around 1,900 fps with a 300-grain bullet for 2,400 ft-lb at the muzzle, a serious large-game energy level effective on black bear, elk at close range, and large feral hogs.

Plinking, ranch use, truck gun. The Rossi 92 in .357 Magnum, firing .38 Special, is one of the most popular general-purpose recreational lever-actions of the past three decades. Cheap ammunition, mild recoil, quick handling, and the iconic Western silhouette make it a default ranch and range rifle. The Rossi Triple Black and similar utility configurations target this market specifically.

Western reenactment and cinema/cosplay. The Rossi 92 Ranch Hand is the entry-level Mare’s Leg path. For a screen-accurate Wayne or Connors loop-lever silhouette, a Rossi or Chiappa 1892 with an aftermarket large-loop lever upgrade gets close to the look. For historical correctness in 1890-to-1920 reenactment, a Miroku 1892 in .44-40 WCF is the right rifle; originals are available at comparable prices but with the usual condition tradeoffs.

Collecting. Original Winchester 1892s trade actively at lower price points than 1873s, reflecting the much larger production volume. Approximate late-2020s tiers: standard rifle in average condition, low to mid four figures; fine condition with original finish, upper four to low five figures; carbines in fine condition, mid four to upper four figures; pre-1934 NFA Trapper variants in fine condition with documented short barrel, mid five figures and up; engraved factory-deluxe examples, five to low six figures depending on engraving quality. Famous-owner provenance reaches six and seven figures, as the Wayne 2011 sale demonstrated. Authenticate against Madis serial-range tables before any significant purchase.

Quick Buyer’s Reference: Caliber and Barrel

On caliber, if period correctness matters, choose .44-40 WCF, the original 1892 chambering. For broadest modern ammunition availability and lowest shooting cost, choose .357 Magnum / .38 Special. For close-range deer and black bear, choose .44 Magnum or .45 Colt. For elk-class large game at short range, choose .454 Casull (Chiappa or Rossi only). For original-spec small game and varmint work, .25-20 or .32-20 WCF.

On barrel length, the 16-inch Trapper is maximum handiness and legal as a rifle in most U.S. jurisdictions. The 20-inch Carbine is the traditional cowboy and ranch configuration and the most-produced reproduction. The 24-inch Rifle in octagonal barrel is the most period-evocative and the traditionalist’s choice.

One caveat carries over from the 1873: a modern “Winchester” 1892 is a Japanese rifle manufactured by Miroku in Kochi, imported under Winchester’s licensing arrangement, and marked “Winchester” on the receiver. It is not made in New Haven. Original Winchester 1892s ended production in 1941; the Miroku-built modern Winchester resumed 1892 production in the 1990s. Miroku’s manufacturing standards are excellent; just know what you are buying.

Adjacent Rifles — Do Not Confuse

Several rifles in the Winchester lever-action lineage get confused with the 1892.

The 1873-versus-1892 distinction is the most consequential confusion in the Winchester lever-action world, and the one that drives the largest single category of misidentification in Western cinema. Two reliable visual cues: the 1873 has a sliding dust cover on the receiver top, visible as a rectangular plate that slides on rails; the 1892’s receiver top is plain. The 1873’s receiver shape is more rounded and Victorian; the 1892’s is more squared and industrial. Mechanically, the 1873’s toggle-link is pressure-limited to moderate-pressure cartridges; the 1892’s Browning twin-lug handles modern magnum chamberings. Production dates: 1873 to 1923 for the 1873, 1892 to 1941 for the 1892. Any rifle in a pre-1892 scene that looks like a lever-action carbine without a dust cover is, by definition, anachronistic; the 1892 did not exist yet.

Which is “the cowboy rifle”? Both have legitimate claims. The 1873 carries the iconic 19th-century historical mythology, “The Gun That Won the West” marketing, and the documented frontier-era owners. The 1892 carries the larger production volume, the dominant 20th-century cinema presence, and the larger modern shooting and reproduction market. The honest framing: the 1873 won the marketing war for the late-19th-century West; the 1892 won the 20th-century cinema and the modern shooting market.

Related historical arms: the Henry 1860 and the Winchester 1866, the toggle-link predecessors that opened the Winchester lineage; the Winchester 1876, the scaled-up toggle-link Centennial rifle; the Sharps Rifle, the single-shot breech-loader that defined long-range and buffalo work in the same period; the Hawken Rifle, the half-stock plains rifle that preceded the cartridge era; the Pennsylvania Rifle, the long-barreled flintlock that built American rifle culture; and the Enfield Pattern 1853, the British military percussion rifle-musket that armed both sides of the U.S. Civil War.

References and Resources

The canonical reference for any Winchester 1892 research is George Madis’s The Winchester Book (1961, with revised editions through the 1980s, ISBN 0-910156-04-9 for the 1985 edition), supplemented by Madis’s dedicated The Winchester Model 92 monograph. Both are out of print and trade on the secondhand market; the 1892 chapter in The Winchester Book remains the authentication standard for serial numbers, variant identification, and original-chambering verification. R. L. Wilson’s Winchester: An American Legend (Random House, 1991, ISBN 0-394-57870-2) is more accessible and visually richer but less technically deep. Herbert G. Houze’s Winchester Repeating Arms Company: Its History & Development from 1865 to 1981 (Krause, 1994, ISBN 0-87341-262-7) is the corporate-history reference. Browse used copies of Madis’s The Winchester Book.

Online: the Winchester Collectors Association (winchestercollector.org) hosts a free serial-number lookup and authentication forum. The Rock Island Auction Company catalog archive (rockislandauction.com) is a searchable historical auction database. The Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West (centerofthewest.org) holds the most important physical Winchester collection and production records. The Autry Museum of the American West (theautry.org) holds the original Chuck Connors Rifleman 1892 and the original Steve McQueen Mare’s Leg. The Internet Movie Firearms Database (imfdb.org) catalogs the 1892’s extensive film and television appearances.

The Morphy Auctions (morphyauctions.com) catalog archive is one of the standout marketplaces for rare and historically significant American firearms. Their Winchester 1892 lots, across all variants and chamberings, are worth following whether you are buying, researching original Winchesters and their period contemporaries, or just looking at very good firearms photography.

The Texas Gun Collectors Association (tgca.org) holds two shows a year that always feature a large number of historical Winchesters alongside other significant American firearms. Worth attending whether you are buying, researching, or just looking.

If you know of any forums or sites that should be referenced on this listing, please let us know here.

Further Reading