92 short mag tube

[Rutgerssmith]

I saw a 92 barreled action for sale on GB with a half octagon half round barrel. it was long if I remember about 26". I couldnt tell from the pictures what the mag tube attachment point looked like. I was out bid but it got me wondering if they ever made any with shorter mag tubes. I bought a badly rusted parts gun that I thought I might turn 1/2 round and shorten the mag tube to make it even lighter and handier. I might leave a 1" chunk of octagon at the muzzle with wedding band transitions at either end of the round part. The bore is not bad so relining wont be necessary but I need to slug it. its an earlier gun without the magazine cut off so it will be a 32 S&W long.

[marlinman93]

Yes, they made them in half magazines in both calibers of .22 and .32 Long. I owned a very pretty deluxe 1891 and 1892 rifles in .32 Long that were half octagon and pistol gripped, checkered, half magazine. Since the retaining stud simply fits into a dovetail, it only needs a dovetail back at the shorter position.
But one issue of shortening a longer tube is the dovetail will still be out at the original position, and you'll need to deal with filling it. Can't be welded in as it will constrict the bore and ruin accuracy. Needs to be a tight filler that just gets polished and blued. Turning the front to round wont get rid of the mag tube dovetail, as the cut is too deep. Or cut the barrel shorter to remove the dovetail, and then cut a new front sight dovetail on top, and the shorter tube dovetail at the rear. These half octagon barrels usually have about 1.5" of octagon past the forearm tip.

[Rutgerssmith]

Thanks Marlinman. I think 1.5 " past the forend cap will look just right. If I ever figure out how to post pictures, I'll show how it ends up (i'm much better with a lathe than a computer !)