[1] When asked by Winchester to design an improved lever action to compete with a recent Marlin offering, John Browning said he would have the prototype completed in under a month or it would be free.

Admiral Robert E. Peary carried an 1892 on his trips to the North Pole,[3] and Secretary of War Patrick Hurley was presented with the one millionth rifle on December 13, 1932.

Winchester ended production of the Model 1892 in 1941; however, arms manufacturers such as Browning, Chiappa and Rossi have continued to produce copies.

The Rifleman's gimmick was a modified Winchester Model 1892 rifle, with a large ring lever drilled and tapped for a set screw.

In addition, the screw could be positioned to depress the trigger every time he worked the lever, allowing for rapid fire; as a result, he emptied the magazine in under five seconds during the opening credits.

The rapid-fire mechanism was originally designed to keep the program's star, Chuck Connors, from puncturing his finger with the trigger as he quickly cycled the action of the rifle.

[citation needed] The Mare's Leg is the name given to a customized by "Von Dutch" (Kenny Howard), shortened rifle used by Steve McQueen's character on the television series Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–1961).

John Wayne famously carried Model '92s in dozens of films, and owned several personally, some with the distinctive oversized "loop" lever.

[8] Hollywood studios purchased the '92 in quantity because it was in regular production (until World War II), but looked sufficiently like Old West Winchesters to substitute for valuable antiques, and because in calibers .44-40 and .38-40 it could fire, together with the Colt Single Action Army "Peacemaker" revolver, the standard 5-in-1 blank cartridge.

This latter practice mirrored the real cowboys, who found it convenient to carry a rifle (carbine) and a revolver chambered with the same ammunition.