Will an 1892 .44 mag fire .44 Russian?

[kcub]

specifically Puma/Chiappa

[Books OToole]

It should chamber .44 Russians if you feed them one at a time.  To get them to cycle you have to do some smithing.

Books

[ammodave]

FWIW my modern 1894 Winchester (.44 mag) will fire .44 spcl but it will not reliably chamber the rounds from the magazine.  It only chambers successfully about 50% of the time.  Try some .44 Russian and see what happens.

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[kcub]

Funny how lever .22s that handle short, long, and long rifles have been common for decades, but centerfires?
We don't seem to have the technology.

[Montana Slim]

Probably since the rifle models we're using are 19th Century technology.....
Most period levergun cartridges were a bottlenecked design, so lowere-powered offerings that would chamber didn't exist. No one would have wanted to chamber/fire a "weak" cartridge anyway...they even jumped for joy when the 44-40 came out and overshadowed the 44 henry 

Could it be done today...sure...but, we'd end up with a totally unauthentic weapon that few of us (not I) would want.

IMO, the 1892 is one of the harder actions to alter to feed such a short cartridge. I doubt that it can be setup to be relaible, if done at all.

And, I don't recommend loading up your magazine with Russians to "try it out" it'll be quite a mess to straighten out.

Regards,
Slim