rossi leverguns any good?

[Marlin Junky]

I don't see evidence of a safety from the M92 photos on Rossi's website. Where's the safety?

It also doesn't look like they're d&t for a receiver sight. What if one wants to use a ghost ring sight on a Rossi?

MJ

[fecmech]

They all have the saftey at the top rear of the bolt, it blocks the firing pin. The carbines are not D&T'd for anything, the 24" rifles are for a tang sight and come with an extra long tang screw for that purpose. If you want to go the Ghost ring route you can get a peep set up from Steves Guns that replaces the saftey

[Poohgyrr]

+1 on Rossi's M92's and Steve's Gunz.

[WyrTwister]

The 454 would be a rear bear to shoot with full house loads, but..................., having siad that, if I was going to buy one in 45Colt, I would go with the 454 because it would give me more flexibility and just shoot 45Colts most of the time, saving the big uns for the big uns!

If I wanted 454 power all of the time, I would go for a 45/70, same power, half the pressure, 10 times the amount of brass and ammo available (and probably cheaper to boot).

What you are experiencing with Rossi importers is pretty much what we experience with all importers in Australia. I find it is just easier and quicker to get a local guy to fix anything that goes wrong rather then screwing around returning things for warranty repair. Steves Gunz would be the place to get the Rossi fixed if a local guy couldn;t do it.

I could have bought a user ( or display model ? ) .454 , a year or two ago , at Gander mountain . Since I already owned a .45 LC Rossie ( and a NIB .45 LC Marlin ) and 2 Marlins in .45-70 , I talked myself out of it . Just could not justify the purchase .

So , my thoughts were much the same as your thoughts .

Besides , The .45-70's are heavier , which helps tame the recoil .

And I also have a Marlin .44 Mag , if I need more power than the .45 LC .

I recently bought a Rossi in .357 Mag . I really like that gun , too . And pretty economical to shoot , with my reloads of home cast bullets .

God bless
Wyr

[Four Fingers of Death]

Those 357 Rossis are a great little gun, Wyr. That is one in my avatar. Apart from some old junker milsup rifles, it is the cheapest rifle I have ever bought and pretty much the best. It never misses a beat and is as cheap as chips to feed. It is about to become my wife's cowboy action rifle. She is just starting out with SASS shooting.

[wellfedirishman]

I recently purchased a Rossi 92 Stainless in 44 Mag, 24" octagon barrel. It cost about $450 from Buds.

I was impressed by the machining, the wood to metal fit, and the overall heft of the rifle. I shot about 100 rounds of various mixed 44 Mag (cast and jacketed, hot and mild loads) and it functioned great, no jams or problems. The lever was a bit stiff, and it ejected brass about 15 yards behind me. The stock sights left a lot to be desired too, I found them small and hard to acquire a sight picture quickly.

I ordered the following from Brownells to improve it:
100-000-512 ROSSI 92 GUNSLINGER SPRING KIT
579-000-163 BULLS EYE SHORT SIGHT
579-103-731 103731 MARBLE 37W 1/16 GOLD

Total cost for these was about $40, and it took about 1.5 hours to install. I just changed out the springs and lubed up the internals. I did not do any polishing of metal.

The end result is excellent. The lever is slick and fast, it feeds and ejects perfectly, and the trigger is light and smooth. The brass ejects about 2 feet and lands beside me. The sights give a very good quick sight picture, with a bright gold bead in front and a circular ghost-ring type sight in the back.

The first time I shot this at a CAS meet, I hit almost every rifle target. I was very pleased with the rifle's action and accuracy.

I will post pics in a couple of days. Here it is at Buds in stock form:
http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/p...ducts_id/56486

[Linstrum]

Quote:
I recently purchased a Rossi 92 Stainless in 44 Mag, 24" octagon barrel. - - - and it ejected brass about 15 yards behind me

I don't know if all model 92 Rossi lever guns in .357 Magnum do this, but mine ejects the empties in a rather interesting fashion by throwing them slightly forward and about ten feet high so they land in front of me. If levered hard they can go twenty feet high and land ten feet in front of me, and by tipping the muzzle up slightly and then working the lever a bit easy the empties go straight up about five feet and if I don't bother to cycle the action I have time to catch them in my right hand. When I'm going to catch an empty I wait a few seconds before ejecting because the empties can be a bit on the warm side when using full house loads with 158 grain projectiles.

rl878

[Four Fingers of Death]

My 357 Rossi throws the cases forward (I don't know how high) which is a bit of a PITA in cowboy shooting and I lose a lot of cases. I use 38s in it, which is cheap, but most of my shooting is 44/40. If I had a 44/40 that did this I would have to sell it because the brass is wayyyyyyyyyyyyy expensive!

[mattbowen]

NWFLYJ;

I went to Steve's website the other day and asked him about how he sells his rifles for and he e-mailed me back and said to get one from EMF, because they refine the rifle a little when they get them. Steve stated that the wood is a better fit also. Steve also can remove the safety and replace it with a cap to fill the hole and make it look like it wasn't there. If anyone wants I can forward the e-mail to you, it has photos of his work and pricing.

Matt

[Ekalb2000]

That little safety can be removed in a about 5 min, while you have it apart slicking it up. After grinder, on both top arms and the bottom pin block ( so the firing pin moves if the safety plug rotates).

Of course, use finer grits till you get the polished look you need. If you got a blued gun, I guess you could cold blue it.

Also while your in there take about one loop off the ejection spring. And then flatten where you cut off so it rides smooth. Brass will then start dropping a lot closer to your feet.
If I can do it, any one can.

andy

[AnthonyB]

I had been looking for a 357 M92 for about six months with no luck. Last gunshow I found a 24 inch Rossi octagon barrel rifle for $439 but passed. Saturday at the Richmond show I finally found a carbine in a private sale. Guy said it was unfired and it looked it, with one ding on the forearm. Got it for $375 and thought I had done well until I was walking out the door. The policeman who was inspecting and tying guns coming into the show had a carbine on his desk, so I stopped to look. It was a SRC in 357 that had already had an action job, and had much nicer looking wood than the black one I had just bought. He wanted $350 for his, and I would have bought it had I seen if first. Hadn't seen one in six months, and then immediately found one better and cheaper literally ten minutes after buying the first one.
Took it to the range yesterday and shot it at rocks on the berm at the 25 yard pistol line. I can see this will become a favorite. Got the spring kit on order, and will replace the safety with the peep sight. What is the best way to remove the black finish on the wood?
Tony

[Four Fingers of Death]

Hadn't seen one in six months, and then immediately found one better and cheaper literally ten minutes after buying the first one.
Tony

That is one of the indisputable laws of nature, like I always say, 'how do you find cheap petrol (gasoline)? Fill up on expensive stuff, you will then see some impressive discounts' Always the way!

[pietro]

I replaced the bolt-top lawyer safety on my Rossi Model 92's with a handmade/homemade plug, which I then D/T'd for a peep sight stem.

It makes a very compact sighting arrangement, and allows zeroing with the issue height front sight blade - I was able to zero my rifles in about 5 shots.



.

[Linstrum]

Hi, pietro, your idea looks like a winner if the bolt locks up tightly and consistently from one shot to the next.

I'm 1000 miles away from home at the moment and don't have access to my model 92 Rossi to check out how tightly the bolt locks up, but I seem to recall that it does lock up pretty tight just as long as a bit of upward pressure is applied to the lever from holding the rifle normally. As such it would be consistent from one shot to next.

What size thread did you tap the hole for?

rl885

[AnthonyB]

pietro; that looks very much like the same idea Steve (of Steve'sGunz) had for the peep sight he sells. I have a spring kit on order and will get the sight ASAP. The new Rossi is gonna be a favorite!
Tony

[pietro]

When Steve first started discussing his idea, and showing his prototype around, I thought he had an excellent idea, too.

I would have ordered one from him, but at the time, he was almost a year from offering them publically F/S - so I cobbled together one of my own ( I was impatient).

I handmade the plugs from Remington 1100/870 crossbolt safety buttons I had in my scrounge box , then special-ordered Skinner LoPro peeps with a 6-48 stem (no extra charge) - which is what I D/T'd my plugs for.
I thinned the Skinner locking rings, incase I had to get the aperture lower.

Windage was adjusted via the front sight - less than 1/32" of movement, because the safety hole is centered on the firing pin/bore.

FWIW, Steve's peep is designed differently - to be turned as a safety. In the "safe" position, Steve's peep is unusable because the aperture is crosswise to the line of sight.

.

[Four Fingers of Death]

They are a sweet little rifle, very durable, you can tune them yourself with the help of Steve's DVD and they are also as cheap as chips, whats not to like?

[saz]

I have a later LSI Puma 454 in stainless with the 16.5" barrel, and with full house loads I can say the recoil is a bit "brisk". But how often am I going to shoot loads like that without my PAST recoil pad on? Not very much. On the flipside of that coin, I dont own an easier carrying rifle. This little carbine is the cat's "meow" in the field with the balance point right in the middle of the reciever when there are 8 rounds in the mag. That is my camp gun most of the time, and whenever I am playing back-up to one of my friends hunting bear, there is no question as to what rifle is coming with me. It is a very solid little shooter for the money and carries in the field like a dream, even without a sling.

As for the 454 vs 45/70 issue, I look at it this way. I can deal with the reciol at the range as I can pad for it there because out hunting I will only fire a handful of rounds anyways. But, I dont always hunt with the firebreathing loads. I have a sweet little load for it that consists of the Lee 255 ahead of a full case of Trail Boss that runs right at 1100fps that will dipatch deer with ease and almost no recoil. The darling wife loves this load. On the other end, I also have a load that will spit out a 330gr boolit up to 1850fps which will go stem to stern thru even the biggest bear up here.. The point is that you can load it however you want. I have fired a LOT of hot loads through it and there are no signs of things loosening up. IMHO it is a very solid little carbine and would not hesitate to pick up a 24" octagon barrel'd 357.............

[pricedo]

I'd love to find one in .454. I've got a .357 and love it.

Just bought a "blue" pre-safety Rossi 92 in .454 Casull with a round 20" barrel..........last one the dealer had in stock.

Nice looking rifle. Has the old fashion buck horn sights....not that disgusting plastic HiVizz abomination.

Anxious to range test it.

The action is a little stiff but no stiffer than a new 1895, 336C, 94 was out of the box. The front sight looks a little off center but I have a Williams sight mover that will adjust the front sight without any destructive, finish marring pounding at the range as part of the sight in process.

Stripped it apart and looked for grit, loose metal fragments, cuttings, shavings, etc. & other loose material left over from manufacturing & didn't find any.

Applied a drop or 2 of light machine oil while putting it back together.

Polishing? Why would I put grinding compound into a mechanical action to accelerate wear? It will become smoother with use like lever actions have for generations.

The trigger is OK....not a Timney by any means......but OK....it's not a $50,000 Westley Richards for frak sake !!.......it's a < $500 knock around, bang around, pick-up truck, canoe & saddle gun......gimme a break!

The stock & butt wood has a rather nice looking, dark veneer, walnut-like finish.

Looks & feels like a good, solid little gun but will reserve judgment til after a few range outings.

[pricedo]

I replaced the bolt-top lawyer safety on my Rossi Model 92's with a handmade/homemade plug, which I then D/T'd for a peep sight stem.

It makes a very compact sighting arrangement, and allows zeroing with the issue height front sight blade - I was able to zero my rifles in about 5 shots.



.

I found a pre-safety Rossi 92 with legacy iron sights in .454C that the shop had in a dark corner in the back for a while & grabbed it faster than a starving pit-bull terrier would grab a raw sirloin out of your hand.

I like that Williams style aperture sight for speed & accuracy.

I have a Williams adjustable sighting system on my .416 Rem. Mag. Alaska bear back-up gun.........works great.........on target in heavy brush and animal on the ground in a fraction of a second.

And I get to go home in one piece with the only toothmarks on my carcass being self inflicted ones on my fingernails.