The Spanish government made copies of the Winchester M-92 to equip police forces, and they were carried for a long time, at least to WWII. They appeared at times in trade, and are not unusual, though not common, in this country. I have not heard anything about their metallurgy, as was a case with a number of the handguns that were produced in Spain. Any mechanical weakness is due to the nature of the M-92 design, which was never meant to handle high pressures. Heavily loaded 44-40's and rebarreled .44 Magnums have been known to fail in original M-92's made by Winchester. I have hunted and taken game with a M-92 in .44-40 both with smokeless and with black powder. There are any number of modern clones, and they are nice carrying, reliable weapons. If you look long enough, you will probably find a replacement for your stolen rifle, or you can buy one of the newly made ones, with complete satisfaction and not a lot of money.
