Twirling (Twirl cocking) the 92.....

[Hankster]

Now this isn't the most important thing, but, i'd like to be able to, if it's easy to get working right. My Rossi/Braztech runs pretty smooth. it will feed jacketed 357s and .38 special semi-wadcutters as fast as you can lever em in and out, without a hiccup. BUT if you try the "twirl-cocking" stunt.... the bullet tip ends up slipping up just above (at the top of) the chamber mouth, keeping the action from closing. (I have a "dummy round",no primer, in 38, I use for testing) The setting between the guide rails seems decent, seeing how it feeds both rounds. To tighten it up, it says to slightly shim, and test, using the RIGHT side guide. Is this correct? Will attempting to tighten this up screw up the way it functions now?? I'd rather skip it, then muff up "regular" reliability!! Or can I have both worlds?? My Father-in-law would get a big kick out of seeing this, if I can make it work! Anyone???

And yes. I can do it empty. (And yes, I beat the hell out of my shoulder at first! OW!!)

[COSteve]

Simple solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Don't try to hotrod your levergun as it's dangerous!

If I saw someone doing that at our range I'd immediately call a cease fire and ask him to leave for unsafe weapon handling.

What you see in the movies many times should stay in the movies.

[Gun Smith]

When Chuck Connors "twirled" his M.92 the gun was modified to function properly inverted. A small pin and spring was inserted into a hole bored parallel with the chamber just above it. The pin protruded enough so it guided the round into the chamber when the gun was inverted. When the lever closed, the bolt pushed the pin flush. Of course this made the gun useless for firing live rounds. But since only 5 in 1 blanks were used, there was no pressure there to blow up the gun's weaked chamber and barrel. I think I do remember reading where Connors did fire live ammo during publicity appearences, but they were probably squib loads.
Straight walled cases, 38 Sp., 44 Mag., and 45 Colt, etc. in M.92 replicas will sometimes "stovepipe" even right side up due to the straight wall design. As all original cartridge chamberings for the Winchester M. 92 were bottle necked, and the cartridge guides worked well with those bottlenecked cases. This eliminated the "stovepipe" problem. I'm sure the original design of the 44/40 and other bottleneck calibers in the M. 73 was to hold more black powder in each caliber, but the bottleneck design did help solve the potential feeding problem in the M. 92.
As the Winchester M.73 design is a straight lift, the shape of the cartridge is not critical in this respect.

[horsesoldier03]

Best leave that TWIRLING of Winchesters for Ol' Roster Cogburn and Lucas McCain! You do that with ammo and your an accident waiting to happen!

[DPris]

The only time I ever tried spincocking with a 92 clone was a Rossi about 12 years ago in .45 Colt.
It'd routinely dump rounds on the floor at my feet.
It really does require the modification mentioned above to work right.

Conversely, and I wanted to know as an emergency measure ONLY if I ever have to use it one-handed, my 16-inch Winchester 94 in .30-30 does function perfectly in spincocking it.
Aside from possible emergency applications if the other arm's injured, it's a Hollywood stunt not recommended for regular use.

Denis

[jlchucker]

When it comes to gun handling, movies and real life are two entirely different things. When dealing with real life gun handling, safety should be the prime concern, Such stupidity as spin cocking a levergun is not only an accident waiting to happen, even if there's no accident such horseplay gives responsible gunowners a bad name.

[bdhold]

agree with everybody that you should never try it with live ammo - even if you become good at it.

But if you want to learn it as a trick, try it with snap caps.

[Modoc ED]

They found a guy at our range unconscious one day. His forehead was split wide open and required about 40-stitches. Turns out he was practicing for a Cowboy Shoot down near Reno, NV and was goofing around trying to twirl shoot his Winchester. He'd laid there for a couple/three hours. You can spot him at the range real easy because he has a nasty three inch, reddish, scar running from the hairline to the brige of his nose.

[Sarge]

Careful, Ralphie... you'll shoot your eye out.

[Griff]

They found a guy at our range unconscious one day. His forehead was split wide open and required about 40-stitches. Turns out he was practicing for a Cowboy Shoot down near Reno, NV and was goofing around trying to twirl shoot his Winchester. He'd laid there for a couple/three hours. You can spot him at the range real easy because he has a nasty three inch, reddish, scar running from the hairline to the brige of his nose.

If you're gonna be stupid, ya gotta be tough!

Never more appropriate. 'Sides, it musta been some kinda "show" not a cowboy "match", cause that stunt would get you DQ'd and tossed on your ear!

[KCSO]

GUNS magazine in the mid 60's had an article by Rod Redwing about teaching Chuck to shoot and how the gun was modified. I thnk if you google you can find it on the net.

[KCSO]

One thing I might mention, depening on your arm lenght you may need a 16" barrel to spin cock. John Wayne had a 16" tube and Chuck who was real long armed could use a standard carbine barrel. I am 6-2 and have long arms and I still need an 18" barrel to get the job done. By the way I NEVER use any ammo even blanks when i spin cock as the muzzle of the gun pretty much covers the whole country whey its spinning around.

[Hankster]

No way am I butchering the gun for that! Not worth it! Another "Hollywood myth" left to the Movie lot..... LOL!! Thanks for all the replies.... good advice as usual......

[Ysabel Kid]

Careful, Ralphie... you'll shoot your eye out.

priceless!

This post just made me realize that the only time I've spin-cocked my 92 has been when it was empty. Just too cautious I guess. And yes, catching the front sight in one's shoulder does leave a lasting impression - in more ways than one!

[Chuck 100 yd]

If ya want to shoot your eye out... The .357 will do a good job of it.

[gundownunder]

All sorts of images come up here,

A split head, as already mentioned.
A busted kneecap, it only takes 40lb of impact to do that.
And best of all some anti-gunner sees you do it and understands why it is that they don't want us to have guns.
Remember, when John Wayne did it, it was a movie stunt, but when you do it, its " irresponsible shooter mishandling a deadly weapon".

We used to have a guy at our gunclub who twirled his revolver, it used to be funny looking down the firing line and seeing this line of faces

[MistWolf]

Screw the anti-gunners. It's just a stunt and the OP mentioned he was only using inert dummy rounds.

I do agree I wouldn't want to see this done with live ammo or on a range. As for getting whacked, you pay your money & take your chances

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

When Chuck Connors "twirled" his M.92 the gun was modified to function properly inverted. A small pin and spring was inserted into a hole bored parallel with the chamber just above it. The pin protruded enough so it guided the round into the chamber when the gun was inverted. When the lever closed, the bolt pushed the pin flush. Of course this made the gun useless for firing live rounds. But since only 5 in 1 blanks were used, there was no pressure there to blow up the gun's weaked chamber and barrel. I think I do remember reading where Connors did fire live ammo during publicity appearences, but they were probably squib loads.
Straight walled cases, 38 Sp., 44 Mag., and 45 Colt, etc. in M.92 replicas will sometimes "stovepipe" even right side up due to the straight wall design. As all original cartridge chamberings for the Winchester M. 92 were bottle necked, and the cartridge guides worked well with those bottlenecked cases. This eliminated the "stovepipe" problem. I'm sure the original design of the 44/40 and other bottleneck calibers in the M. 73 was to hold more black powder in each caliber, but the bottleneck design did help solve the potential feeding problem in the M. 92.
As the Winchester M.73 design is a straight lift, the shape of the cartridge is not critical in this respect.

That's exactly how it was done. Also, that spring loaded plunger had to be set up just right or it wouldn't allow you to eject the crimped 5 in 1 blanks. Don't ask me how I know this!!!
I did have some success using a spring loaded right side cart guide to help hold them in but it didn't work well with straight wall carts. As Gunsmith said the 92 or for that matter any levergun will feed a bottleneck better than a straight wall. Rossi figured this out many years ago and they changed the angle of the rim slots there in the cart guides to help improve feeding for the straight walls. that's also one of the problem with the current Armi Sport 92's. They still have the old cart guide geometry

[Markbo]

Come on.... It's the Nike generation. Just do it!

But please be sure to post pics of the scars. No blood please... just the scars.

[markinalpine]

Careful, Ralphie... you'll shoot your eye out.

Man, I love that movie.