Rossi '92 & Lee 358-158-RF

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

The Lee 358-158-RF seems to be the ideal bullet for the Rossi '92. Except I went and had the headspace problem corrected. My '92 had excessive headspace so I had a smith turn the barrel in a bit which fixed the headspace problem but now I have a feeding problem.

My favorite boolit jams! It seems the wide meplat of the Lee 358-158-RF contacts the top of the chamber about the same time the .357 case is entering the bottom of the chamber. There just isn't enought wiggle room for the cartridge to make the turn a feed in.

I have the "same" bullet in a 2-cavity mold which has a slightly smaller meplat and hence it works just fine. Only problem is a big part of the reason Lee's 358-158-RF is so well matched with the '92 is that the six-cavity mold can actually keep up with the gun.

I might buy another 2-cavity mold if I knew it would be more like my old 2-cavity mold.

Does anyone know if the 358-158-RFs currently produced still have the large meplat?

Or are there any other suggestions I can do to fix said problem?

[fecmech]

The Lee 125 RF has the smaller meplat and should feed fine. Lee irritated me when they changed to the wider meplat, as I, like you have a 2 cav with the smaller one. When I bought my 6 cav it had the bigger meplat and it also did not shoot as well as the smaller one. Unless you need the extra weight of the 158, try the 125, they shoot great in the Rossi's and usually cast at 130-131 grs.

[marlin39a]

I bought that 2 cavity Lee 358-158-RF last month for my Rossi 92. Runs well for me in 38 and 357. Looks like my meplat runs about .270 across flat point.

[siamese4570]

You might want to make up a couple of dummy rounds using 38 special brass. The shorter cartirdge changes the angle that it hits the chamber with. You might lso read Junior's article over at "the frugal outdoorsman" site. He had a similar problem with a rossi 92 and a flat point bullet.

siamese4570

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Sigh....

I'll probably have to try the 125 RF in the six-gang mold. I had a load all worked up with the 158 that was easy to load, potent, and accurate. Then when I had my '92 fixed that load won't cycle reliably. What a bummer.

Does anyone know if the Lee 358-158-RF in 2-cavity still has the smaller meplat? Or has Lee switched the 2 cavity to match the 6-cavity boolit?

[Nrut]

Operate your lever with dummy round "very" slowly..
Watch how the rails on each side keep the round down on the lifter until the rim comes to the angled grooves on the rails which release the round to pop up and turn to feed into your chamber..
Now if to looks like your round would feed better if it was released earlier by those angled grooves you can file those grooves to do just that..
I have a 180gr WFN that won't feed very well in my old Rossi so that is what I did to make it feed smoothly..

Or you can have STEVE'SGUNS (i think that is his business name) over at Paco Kelly's "LEVERGUNS" fix your feeding problem as his specailty is Rossi leverguns..

[runfiverun]

nrut has the fix.
sometimes the screw that holds the rails gets a bit off and changes the timing just a titch too.
i'm glad this thread come up as i have been debating getting this mold and removing the bevel base.
pretty much for my rossi...
i think i'll keep on using the mold i have now...