What to do with Damaged Browning 92 .44mag

I'd get a 2nd opinion from another gunsmith. I'd bet it is still safe to shoot and he is going err on the side of caution with his advice. I still don't see the problem with shortening the barrel if the bulge is that close to the muzzle. cutting down Marlin 30-30's to 16-17" is a fairly common modification.
 
You should be good with cutting it down. Sounds like the bulge would put it very close to the 16" mark and could easily be lengthened to legal with a pinned/welded muzzle device. Plus it would be a practically free alteration and make for a pretty interesting one-of-a-kind rifle.

My favorite suggestion is the mares leg, but would require the 200$ since your starting with a rifle.
 
I was given one of those carbines as a Christmas gift.I'm 6'3" and large.That gun just did not fit me.
A friend,who also had one,is 6'6".He also has a lathe and a Bridgeport...and an assortment of old gun parts.
We bought two Douglas basic unturned barrel blanks.A couple of evenings work,and both were rifle length tapered octagons.I had an English walnut blank,plain,but hard and fine grained.Proper crescent butt plates,old Win forendcaps,mag tube hanger,etc was scrounged.

Time they were done,only the action itself was used.

I marked the height center of my eye ,standing,on a doorjam with a pencil.Top of my shoulder,etc.Used a shotgun LOP gauge,etc.Figured stock dims,laid it out.

If I look at a spot,close my eyes,shoulder the rifle,open my eyes,I have sight picture on target.
Both of those rifles are beautiful,and in public,folks want to know where they can get one.
 
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You could cut it way down to 10" or so and have a very large muzzle attachment permanently affixed to the barrel to make it 16" and keep it legal. I bet you'd be the only on that had a rifle like that :D
 
Either sell it as parts gun, piece it out and sell the parts themselves, or cut it down, have the barrel threaded, and fix a muzzle device to bring it up to 16"

What it really comes down to is do you want to sink any more money into the gun.
 
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Mmmm, are you sure about that?

If it starts out as a rifle, and you cut the barrel back past 16", its now a SBR, is it not?

I believe the Mares Legs are sold as handguns.
 
Only if you keep the buttstock intact. Cutting down the buttstock so only the grip portion is useable makes it a pistol.
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But it started life as a "rifle", its still considered a rifle to the ATF, and its now a SBR if the barrel is less than 16", stock or not.

The Mares Legs being sold, start out as a pistol, and have to be SBR'd, if you add the stock.
 
I'm going to try to get over and talk the the smith this weekend to see if there are any new developments.

The SBR is really not an option since I don't want to put money into a stamp.

I will take a look and see what he is seeing on the barrel. The new custom barrel would be more than I want to throw into it. Unfortunately there's a big (although understandable) difference between a factory barrel cost and a custom barrel cost.
 
I see that Dragline45 edited his original post, so my reply may be in regards to something that's now out of context. But, just in case there's some confusion over the muzzle device legality....

Mmmm, are you sure about that?

If it starts out as a rifle, and you cut the barrel back past 16", its now a SBR, is it not?

I believe the Mares Legs are sold as handguns.
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If you permanently install a muzzle device that brings the barrel length back to at least 16 inches, it is legal. The "permanently installed" qualifier is the key. Permanently installing something makes it integral to the barrel and, therefore, a part of the barrel - not an attachment.


I own an upper receiver for an AR-style rifle, which has a 14.5" barrel. However, it also has a pinned and welded muzzle brake installed. That brake brings (legal) barrel length to 16.25". As such, it can be a "rifle" without the need for a tax stamp. It doesn't change the fact that performance is based on the muzzle being at the 14.5" mark, but it does make it legal as a rifle.

On the other hand... when I was initially testing that upper receiver and had not yet had the muzzle brake permanently installed, it was 100% illegal to install on a lower receiver with a butt stock. For testing, I had to use that beast on a "pistol" lower, in order to make sure I wouldn't get a complimentary visit from the ATF.


I could even make the upper receiver for my 7.5" AR pistol into a "rifle" upper, if I wanted. All I would need to do is have a 10" piece of tubing threaded, and then get it pinned and welded for permanent installation. At that point, it would be a 17.5" barrel, in the eyes of the law.
It would be stupid, because I would have the performance of a 7.5" barrel, combined with the negative effects of a 10" piece of tubing hanging past the true muzzle, but it would be legal on a lower receiver with a butt stock.
 
I see that Dragline45 edited his original post, so my reply may be in regards to something that's now out of context. But, just in case there's some confusion over the muzzle device legality....
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The post I edited was recommending that turning it into a Mares Leg was an option since it would be considered a pistol not an SBR, but I forgot about the ATF ruling that if it started it's life out as a rifle, it can't be turned into a pistol unless a new unused receiver is put on the gun.

But you are correct about the muzzle device, I also have a 14.5" AR that has a 1.5" comp pinned and welded to bring it up to the 16" length requirement.
 
Browning 92 Carbine converted to 92 Rifle

Its interesting to me that folks get all fired up if someone wants to "Bubba" a milsurp,yet a discontinued Browning 92 gets a lot of "cut it down and weld a pickle on it"advice.

This was the Browning carbine I described in an earlier post.I made the stock from a board,Cut the tapered octagon barrel from a Douglas blank,made the mag tubeand mod'd an 1886 Win forend cap.I did a boiling water rust blue with Mark Lee browning solution.I just carded the brown off.
 

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HiBC it looks nice. Unfortunately, a re-barrel is beyond what I want to hire done and I dint have the capability to do it myself.

I saw the ring bulge and it is on the receiver side of the barrel band on the fore stock
 
Sell it for parts.

Unless you are handier than the hamfisted gunsmith that already worked on the gun, you'll be throwing good money after bad. There is no way to inexpensively get to where you want to go without the ability to do a lot of the work yourself.

Let someone with their own well-equipped home hobby metal shop fool around with it.
 
bulged barrel? That can be fixed with a new barrel. It's a matter of threading and then headspacing it before cutting the profile to match, making an extractor cut and finally dovetails for the sights.
 
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