For those with doubts about a Rossi 92s

[gon2shoot]

I picked up a 16" 45colt a few months ago, and finally got to shoot it yesterday.
All I had in the truck for a target was a 2"x 4" box that I hung on a branch (this wasn't a formal outing ).

Anyway, after 3 misses I saw a puff of dust that gave me an idea on sight adjustment. Slight adjustmet, then 9 rds that could be covered with a half dollar.
These were off hand about 35-40 yds.
Two different loads, 9.4gr Unique, and 18gr of 2400.
Lee RF 250gr, one set sized 453, one set 454.

I don't buy these guns cause they're pretty, but because I can throw them in the back of the truck (or under) and not worry about a scratch.

[cajun shooter]

I have two of these rifles, one a Navy and one a Interarms, both will shoot 5 shots touching at 25 yds. and are fun to own and shoot. In fact I hace a 3rd one on order with Steve Young. Just finished running a bunch of clean stages in CAS this past week end with the one. You can buy a lot more expensive rifles that will not perform like these. I just hope that Taurus does not mess things up since they just purchased Rossi. Later David

[Boerrancher]

I have nothing but good things to say about my two Rossi 92's in 45LC. As I was telling a friend of mine yesterday on the phone, that my 92's were my go to guns for anything around the Farm. I can bust a 'yote just about as far as I can see to shoot around here, which is about 150 to 200 yds. I have never had on jam on me while I was hammering at a pack of 'yotes or wild dogs, I can't say the same about my Marlin 94 in 357. They are fine little rifles that just seem to work and work well. I would be lost with out mine.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[Four Fingers of Death]

The rifle I am shooting in my avitar is a 38/357 Rossi. I I didn't really want it, but bought it real cheap. I thought it would be handy for new shooters and a back up gun for me and the guys in the club. It turned out to be the most reliable rifle I ahve ever owned and i think I have put more shots through it than any other rifle that I have had.

Great guns, not pretty, just good, reliable, useful guns.

[Old Ironsights]

+ a lot.

My 20" .357 would never be farther away than my truck if I had a truck or lived outside of an urban area...

I even (successfully) shoot Big Bore Steel Sillouhette with it.

[helice]

It appears that most of us are pretty sold on these little 92s. I have four of them and they are rapidly becoming my absolute favorite action. Mine are all 20 and 24" barrrels. I'll just bet that 16" is a dream to carry. Comfortable, fast, handy, smooth, accurate. Makes me wonder why Winchester stopped building them. Keep writin', I'm learnin'. Helice

[StarMetal]

I had a 357 one back in early 80's. One of the best shooting lever rifles I've had. I drilled the receiver for a receiver sight and it was some of the hardest steel on a gun I've drilled aside from Japs, Springfields, etc.. Only problem I had with it was with heavy hot loads the magazine tube kept creeping forward. Ended up having to silver solder a shim behind the very shallow groove where the band screw went through it. That cured it. At that time the wood wasn't very attractive either.

Joe

[bigdog454]

Have one in 454 Casull, great shooter very accurate. It will handle 454, or 45 colt interchangably . I would like to see them bring out one in 25-20 or 22 hornet, would be a great truck gun.

[Bret4207]

I have a Puma in 44 mag. Fine little rifle. I wish I could find a 357 as I have lots of 35 moulds that would be suitable. Even better would be a 32-20 or 25-20 as mentioned in another post.

Dream on!

[part_timer]

I'd like to take one and make it into a 256 Winchester mag.

[freedom475]

Mine is a 480 Ruger ..only reason I went with the 480 was to give me a companion to my 475. For it's compact size it is a pretty heavy shooter. I load it with the same boolit and powder as the 475 but with 2 more gr.s of powder.

Added a shim under the trigger spring and disengaged the safety.

After talking to Steve Young on the phone and doing a little polishing on it I now have the smoothest running rifle I have ever owned..... Did I mention it is Butt Ugly with a over stained stock and rubber recoil pad. Still one of my favorite guns to shoot.

I added a blade front and a full buckhorn ladder to the rear. I have the ladder marked out to 900yrds and still have some room left with a 400gr. boolit

. While regulating the ladder I was able to hit a little propane bottle(25lbs??) at 675 yrds with it. Lucky shot...well yeah, but it wasn't hard to bury it in a cloud of dust with most shots.

You can lever 3 rounds real fast and then wait for the volley to hit. Loads of fun and I would sure be nervous to take the place of the propane bottle

There is a 92 Navy Arms at my local store in 45 colt that has really been tempting me to put it on layaway. Not near as smooth as my my Puma though.

[rbuck351]

I have one in 454 and really like it. It feeds well and is smooth as it came from the box. It's an LSI so has the funky safety that is soon to be history. I also have 2 winchesters in 25/20 and 32/20 and am looking for another puma in 357 for a price I can get past my bean counter. Love those 92s.

[Fire_stick]

I have the 38/357 92 Rossi. Since getting my Rossi a couple of years ago, my other guns sit idle most of the time. I want another one but I can't decide whether I want another 38/357 or a 44 Mag.

[gon2shoot]

Well, it seems like most have the same opinion of the Rossi's.

I bought 3 of the 357s for the women folks the last couple years (don't get my wife mad and expect to get away at 75 yds) and a 20" 45 for me.
The 16" 45 shoots better than the 20" for me and I can actually see the sights better.

I own a couple Browning 92s but I'm always nervous about dinging them up, guess maybe thats why the Rossi's are more fun to take out.

[Ed Barrett]

I've got a .454 and a .357 both have had a couple of thousand cast loads run down the barrel and a few jacketed besides. Never had a problem of any kind wirh either of them. I would like to see them come out with chamberings for some of the original '92 calibers like 32-20 and 25-20.

[AlaskaMike]

I've got a Rossi .44 mag without the safety, and I love it except it has a really irritating tendency to eject the next loaded round from the mag tube along with the fired case when you cycle the action. I'm going to have a local gunsmith install a lighter spring kit and see if that fixes the problem. The other possibility I'm thinking is that the cartridge guide rails (dunno what their real name is) may be just a tiny bit too wide. One appears to be integral to the receiver, but the other one appears to be attached by screws to the inside of the receiver, which leads me to think about shimming it out just a tiny bit.

I talked to Steve Young, but he's so backed up now that I think I'd rather have my local guy do the work. I might order Steve's DVD though.

Mike

[KCSO]

A Lawman’s Lever gun


There is a line in Rio Bravo where John Wayne is asked why he carries a rifle and his reply is, “I found there were some better than me with a short gun”. In about 1973, long before the advent of the patrol rifle I felt the need to carry a rifle in the trunk of my cruiser. We had just come from a barricaded suspect call and were thinking that it would have been nice to have a little more range and accuracy than a pistol but we didn’t want a high power rifle that would shoot through three houses. It was about this time that Rossi came out with a copy of the Winchester M92 in 357 Magnum. Since most of the law dogs in that day and age carried a 38-357 pistol I bought one in 357 Magnum and gave it a try.
I soon found out that the 357 carbine provided about the same power at 100 yards that the pistol did at 25. My favorite load of a 158 grain bullet over a healthy dose of H110 or 2400 would come smokin’ out the muzzle of that little carbine at over 1800 fps. In addition the rifle was deadly accurate. Groups of 2” were routine at 100 yards and once on a bet I put 5 shots well centered in a playing card at the 100 yard mark.

Yes there are 5 shots there; the rifle will still perform at 100 yards with the right loads. The group with 158 grain Hornady’s is just over 2”. The stringing is courtesy of my old eyes! The gun will do better.

Trigger pull out of the box in the pre lawyer days went 3 pounds even. Shooting regular 158 grain lead loads the gun hit dead on at 50 yards and was deadly on rabbits and squirrels. I demonstrated the little carbine to the powers that governed our agency and they were impressed with what the carbine would do but refused to let us carry the guns as they “looked to cowboy”.
By 1979 I was a Deputy working a reservation area and my Sheriff was more amendable to duty weapons. In fact his only admonition was that if I did have to shoot some, “sorry SOB you better make sure you kill him”. The Rossi went back on duty and then acquired it present LOOK, when my Sioux partner decorated the rifle for me in his own tack pattern. The fact that I could carry the same ammo fro pistol and rifle was a deciding factor in what gun wound up in the trunk. I also found that in a pinch the gun would shoot several types and brands of ammo into the same 3” group at 50 yards. If I had to borrow ammo I could be reasonably sure of hitting the mark even if it wasn’t the guns preferred load.

The old Rossi with its most used load, a Lee 158 gr. rnfp bullet over 3.2 grains of Bullseye powder.

When the rifle wasn’t residing in the trunk of my car it was in the hands of my wife as her favorite plinking and also as a deer rifle. Some may consider the 357 rifle to be light for deer but since it was legal in pistol form for deer hunting and since my wife only shot deer that actually wandered INTO camp the gun has worked well. During the years the little carbine has dropped every kind of game imaginable. From bullfrogs with wad cutters to deer, hogs and cattle the gun has done it all. It isn’t a gun that is perfect for a lot of tasks, for frogs a 22 is better and a 30-06 would be a lot better all round deer hunting rifle but the little carbine was always there and always worked.
The action on this little gun is smooth as butter and slick as goose grease. Since this gun was acquired long before there was COWBOY shooting the action work was performed by shooting, LOTS of shooting! Over the years I have developed two different standard loads for the rifle. The maximum load is a Hornady 158 grain JHP bullet over 14.5 grains of H110 powder in a 357 magnum case. This is a MAXIMUM load and although it is safe in my rifle I don’t recommend it for everyday use. The everyday load is a 158 grain plain base cast bullet over 3.2 grains of Bullseye powder in a 38 special case. This load is dead on at 50 yards and shoots into 1” at that range. This load has really killed most of the animals taken with this gun. The 158 bullet behind the ear has put many a cow out of it’s misery after a confrontation with highway traffic. Since it is so accurate and has so little recoil this is also the favorite plinking load. In fact if the truth be known this load has probably clipped the heads off of more than a few birds that ended up in the camp pot. I would guess that the little carbine has had more than 5000 rounds of this ammo alone, to date.

[John Boy]

Add me to the list favoring the '92 Rossi rifles. Have 2 brass receivers and one is my work horse for CAS. Better than 10,000 black powder rounds through the bore: not one hiccup or broken part and only been field stripped twice

[kooz]

Ive got one lust like it in .45 Colt, pre-safety Interarms with nice trigger and action smoothed from shooting thousands of rounds thru it, looks like it is 100 years old. It is a great gun and very accurate, it would be one of the last ones to go.

[WyrTwister]

I've got a Rossi .44 mag without the safety, and I love it except it has a really irritating tendency to eject the next loaded round from the mag tube along with the fired case when you cycle the action. I'm going to have a local gunsmith install a lighter spring kit and see if that fixes the problem. The other possibility I'm thinking is that the cartridge guide rails (dunno what their real name is) may be just a tiny bit too wide. One appears to be integral to the receiver, but the other one appears to be attached by screws to the inside of the receiver, which leads me to think about shimming it out just a tiny bit.

I talked to Steve Young, but he's so backed up now that I think I'd rather have my local guy do the work. I might order Steve's DVD though.

Mike

Check out

http://www.cascity.com/cgi-bin/news/print.pl?article=10

and

http://marauder.homestead.com/Rifles.html


God bless
Wyr