Win.M92 .357 loading hangups

Longwalker

Longwalker

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I'm enjoying shooting a new little Miroku/Winchester M92 .357 Mag carbine. It loads and shoots jacketed bullets just fine, but what I really bought it for is cast bullet shooting.
When I push lead bullet cartridges into the loading gate, most of them hang up on something inside, perhaps the end of the magazine tube, or cartridge cutoff, I don't really know what.
If I push hard, the bullet shaves a bit of lead off the semi-wadcutter bullet shoulder and goes in, but I'd rather have intact bullets and not have a sore thumb. Looking in through the depressed loading gate with a powerful flashlight, I don't see anything obvious for the bullet to hang up on. Have any of you faced this problem, and found a solution?
 
stick to a jacketed bullet or a something with more taper to help feeding. have seen plenty of lever rifles that won't readily shoot blunt or lead ammo reliably
 
gunpro said:
stick to a jacketed bullet or a something with more taper to help feeding. have seen plenty of lever rifles that won't readily shoot blunt or lead ammo reliably
Click to expand...
I'm thinking a powder coated heavier 9mm bullet (125-147 gr.) that doesn't have a shoulder should feed well. First is an MP 125 gr. powder coat mold, second is a Lee 147 gr. mold.
 

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Stick with round nose flat point...they don't have a shoulder to get snagged and the flattened tip will prevent any slight chance that a primer could be hit while the cartridges are in the tubular magazine.
 
Common problem with any lever gun, your "angle of attack" when inserting a round is too steep . Lay the round flat against the feed gate, start the insertion with one finger and when bullet clears entrance start pushing with thumb and it will slide in easy peasy.
 
My Browning B92, which is the same as the Winchester/Miroku feeds my .38 Specials very smoothly.
It loves the Lee RN/FP bullet.
Keep in mind that these rifles (92's) were all designed to feed cartridges with a bottleneck or slight taper.
The longer cartridges seem to be better at feeding.
 
Back in the late 1800's when these guns were designed they were all made to feed lead bullets.
Having owned and shot originals and modern day clones I can't see where much has changed other than better metals and finishing.
A different taper will help. Try the " Cast Boolits" website. They have lots of useful info for lead casting.
 
The lead SWC is a great bullet, my hands down favourite is the RCBS 358-150, can handle magnum velocities without a gas check, is accurate and easy on the lead stores.

It’s down side is it’s terrible to feed in a lever action, I’ve chamfered the chamber mouth on my marlin and it’s helped a lot, but at the end of the day if you want fast and reliable feeding nothing will beat the round nose flat point profile. It’s what those guns were designed to feed. If you cast use the Lee 358-158-rf, otherwise lots of bullet makers offer something close to that shape
 
Longwalker said:
I'm enjoying shooting a new little Miroku/Winchester M92 .357 Mag carbine. It loads and shoots jacketed bullets just fine, but what I really bought it for is cast bullet shooting.
When I push lead bullet cartridges into the loading gate, most of them hang up on something inside, perhaps the end of the magazine tube, or cartridge cutoff, I don't really know what.
If I push hard, the bullet shaves a bit of lead off the semi-wadcutter bullet shoulder and goes in, but I'd rather have intact bullets and not have a sore thumb. Looking in through the depressed loading gate with a powerful flashlight, I don't see anything obvious for the bullet to hang up on. Have any of you faced this problem, and found a solution?
Click to expand...
It's the semi-wadcutter. You may need to stick to something with a more rounded profile. Round nose flat point is the way to go for easy and reliable feeding.

Jacketed / not jacketed, shouldn't be an issue either way - it's the shape that causes the problems.
 
You were right about the bullet shape!

After a bit more frustration, I figured out the solution. The problem was indeed the shape of the Lyman 358156 and another wide round nosed bullet that I tried. And I complicated my problem by wanting to use my stockpile of cheap .38 special brass. My Winchester M92 rifle will not feed .38 special length ammo. Winchester recommends shooting .357 mag only.

The Lyman cast semi-wadcutter bullet that I planned to use is specially designed with two crimping grooves. It can be roll crimped at proper length when loaded in either the .38 or .357 case with bullet seated to .357 mag standard overall length. But other bullets like that don't seem to exist. I knew no way to crimp more suitably shaped bullets at the proper over all .357 magnum cartridge length since their cannelures were too far forward. They could not be loaded and crimped in the cannelure while using shorter .38 special brass because then they would not feed into the chamber from the magazine.

Lee Factory Crimp die to the rescue!

I found I can load CamPro copper plated round/flatnosed 158 gr. bullets in .38 special brass but with bullets seated to .357 magnum length. I then crimp in place using a Lee Factory Crimp die which works well even though the original cannelure is completely out of the case.

I was also successful with loading a plain lead cast bullet that was of a more suitable round nose/flat point shape. RCBS BULLET MOLD 38-158-CM 158GR FLAT NOSE - 82305. Seated long, to .357 mag length, crimped with the Lee die, and got the same satisfactory result.

Cartridges loaded with both bullets slide into the loading gate now without hanging up, and load into the chamber properly too.

Thanks for the inspiration.
 
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