Customer brings you an early-1900’s Winchester 1892 that he recently inherited. He states that it has been in his father’s gun cabinet for at least 50 years, and he can not remember the last time he saw his father take it out. Besides a little surface rust, the rifle appears to be in fairly good working order. The customer’s complaint is that the rifle is not feeding when he charges the action. He claims he can “get it to work once in a while, but not consistently”. He is only attempted one type of ammunition, that he found in the drawer of his father’s gun cabinet. He has not fired the rifle since inheriting it; he is only tried to cycle ammunition.
(Safety)
1.How would you safely clear the feed source, chamber, and barrel of ammunition and potential obstructions?
First, I would make sure the firearms safety was on and working. With leaver actions that
function using a feeding tube you often have a knob on the end of the tube the user can turn
and pull the tube and spring out. Then the ammunition can slide out of the tube at the muzzle end of the rifle. Some models allow you to remove the ammunition through that loading gate used to load the firearm. By pressing all the way down on the gate the ammunition loaded in the tube will eject one at a time. Once I am sure there is no ammunition in the feeding source, I would then open the cocking leaver exposing the chamber of the barrel and I would both visually and physically check for the presence of a round.
(Initial Inspection and Diagnosis)
1.What action type is the firearm in question?
The 1900’s Winchester 1892 is a Lever Action.
2.What is the most likely type of failure (failure to fire, failure to feed, etc.) the customer is
describing? If more than one type of failure is equally likely, list it below.
Failure to feed sounds like the most likely reason the user can not get the rifle to load correctly when he “charges the action”. We cannot determine if it has a failure to fire yet because the client has said they have not fired it since inheriting it.
3.What is “short stroking”, how is it caused, and what steps within the Cycle of Operations can it negatively affect in this firearm?
Short Stroking is something that falls into the category of operator error. This is when someone using a lever action is not cocking the leaver all the way open but rather is only using maybe half the needed “stroke” on the leaver for proper operation. This can effect the feeding and ejecting portions of the cycle of operation. If the lever action is not fully cocked the round may never be dropped onto the lifter bar to chamber a round. Also, when a round is fired and the lever is not used correctly then the spent casing may be extracted but without the full cock of the lever the bolt may not reach a point to eject the casing from the firearm.
4.Could “short stroking” be a cause of the malfunction the customer is experiencing?
Absolutely this could be the customer’s issue. Remember the client has only tried cycling ammunition but still has not tried to fire it yet. If it is loading sometimes and not others it is very possible they are not opening the action all the way with every stroke and it is loading ammunition intermittently.
5.After verifying that the firearm is safe and prior to disassembling it, are there any tests that
you would perform? If so, what do you hope to learn by performing them?
Yes, there are a few tests we can try before heading to the range or breaking down a firearm. The customer has stated that the rifle feeds sometimes but not others so I would determine the caliber of the firearm and grab inert training ammunition like Snap Caps and try to recreate the issue with the client just to confirm what the issue was with them. This allows me the opportunity to test the rifle’s ability to feed, chamber, locking, unlocking, extraction and ejection in a safe way. It is possible I ran into an issue the customer has not yet and that created the issue the customer was complaining of in the first place.
(Detailed Assessment)
1.What single component would you most suspect is causing this malfunction and why?
If I were expecting something to be wrong with any part of the firearm it would be the feeding spring in the feeding tube. These are often very long and don’t put a ton of pressure on the rounds in the first place. Someone like the client’s father may have left the rifle loaded for a long time and the prolonged compression on that spring may have caused damage. No push from the feeding spring and no next round especially if the muzzle is pointed down and rounds need to push straight up.
(Post-inspection and repairs)
1.After completing your repairs, will you perform any tests to verify operation? If so, what tests would you perform and why?
Often I will stop work at the point where I have fixed the issue that was discussed with the client. If during my repair work, I see other things that need to be addressed I will later inform the customer that these things may create future issues. But if the customer’s issue was with the feeding of the firearm and that alone, then once I have finished my repair, I would not feel the need to test fire the rifle. The customer asked me to address every part of the cycle of operation except the firing portion so I would leave that to them especially with regard to something that could be considered a family heirloom. They may not want it fired and have not asked me to do so.
2.Assuming a worn lever was the cause of the malfunction, in a short customer summary,
describe the type of failure, what components caused the malfunction, the components you
removed/replaced, and the tests that were performed to verify operation:
The type of failure you were experiencing was due to a worn leaver that was not allowing the internal components of the rifle to cycle correctly. After a detailed inspection of all of the parts in the rifle I spotted excessive wear on the lever itself that was not dropping your elevator or “lifter” bar correctly and this is why it would load sometimes and not others. The extractor hook and ejector look to be in good working order as we did not experience any issues with these operations. Also, the loading tube, spring and follower seem to be in good working order as well so I installed a new lever and tested the rifle for consistent operation. It is my belief that the issue we discussed is now fixed and if they need any more help with the rifle, to swing back in and I would be glad to help.
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