Another neat old lever gun. For whatever reason, I'd decided I wanted a .32 caliber Model '92. My late grandfather had given me his Stevens Favorite Model 1915 in .32 Long rimfire back in 1989 when I turned 16. I'd always liked the little rifle/cartridge and still take it out to the squirrel woods at least once a season. Even though I have amassed nearly 500 rounds of .32 rimfire ammo over the years, I rarely shoot any of it, due to it's value. So a Model '92 that also shot reloadable .32 Colt cartridges seemed like fun.
I found this 28" barreled one at a Cabelas, of all places, and at a very fair price. Besides the apparently rare barrel length, this one also sports S/N 436525, which is 30 higher than Col. Brophy's highest observed serial number.
I worked up some .32 Long Colt loads, using the original heel-type bullets and 2.7grs of Unique. The rifle is quite the shooter, and I hope to find a nice tang sight for it some day.
With a serial number in the 436,000 range, your Marlin Model '92 would have been made either late 1912 or early 1913.
A proper Lyman tang sight will have the letter "B" on the bottom, and a proper Marbles sight will have M-1.
A very nice Model '92 with the extra long barrel. Nice find!
Due to the increasing cost of ammunition, there will be no warning shot!
The growing federal deficit = generational slavery to the national debt.
Thanks for the kind words everyone. I really enjoy this little rifle and learning how to handload the unusual .32 Long Colt has been enjoyable as well.
Luckily, there's a gentleman on Gunbroker who sells the proper-size heel-type bullets for the .32 Colt. He uses old Ideal moulds. His boolits drop at 87grs and are sized at .315". "Newer" cases (ones made after the change to the under-sized, hollow-based inside lubed boolit) need to be trimmed to the original .820". The dies were pieced together from old .32 S&W and .32 ACP dies, along with another die bored out to 7/8", with a Letter "O" drill bushing pressed into it. The "O" bushing just happens to measure .314" and is used as a final "sizing" die for the completed cartridge.
The original advertised loading pushed a 90gr bullet to 1070fps from a 24" rifle barrel. My loads, using 2.7grs of Unique average 1087fps from my 28" tube.
After I got the Long figured out, I decided to takle the Short. It's teeny case is only .65" long, with the original load pushing an 80gr pill to 720 fps in a pocket pistol and roughly 900 fps from a rifle. I ran a few factory loads over my chrony, which averaged 930fps.
Since I don't plan on shooting this rifle a whole lot, especially with shorts, I wasn't going to get terribly involved in making them tack drivers.
My 1st obstacle was bullets. To the best of my knowledge, nobody makes an 80 grain heel-type bullet mould. My solution was to load the 87gr bullets into the Short cases, and use my case trimmer, a 1/8" drill bit and a guide to bore 7grs of lead from their noses. I now have .32 Short Colts loaded with 80gr hollow point bullets! 1.5grs of Unique lob them from the '92's barrel at 920fps and they don't shoot half bad either!
The .32 rimfire is a GREAT squirrel cartridge! Even the Longs are sub-sonic, so they are pretty quiet... even when compared to High Velocity .22LR. The bullet pokes a neat little .32 caliber hole through em without wrecking any meat while hitting hard enough to knock em off their perch, avoiding the "death hang" common with .22 rimfires and shotguns.
