Reliability of the Rossi 92 .357 Man and 45 Colt lever action rifle

[huntersdog]

Doing some reading on the net, it seems like there is mixed reviews on the reliability of the Rossi 92 in .357 Mag and 45 Colt.
So, I figured I would ask here, as many have them and shoot them. What bullets seem to work the best as far as feeding, and what are the heaviest bullets you have shot in the .357 Mag and 45 Colt?

[shoot-n-lead]

My experience has been great...YMMV

[Bzcraig]

I have a Rossi in 45LC and really like it. When I first got the rifle (used and I think the previous owner did some bubba'in on it) rounds were hanging up in the mag tube, required multiple trigger pulls to set off a round and wasn't feeding some 250gr TC reloads I got from an online source (wanted the Starline brass and didn't have dies etc yet). After a good cleaning (firing pin was completely gummed up thus the multiple hammer strikes) and slicking things up some it runs like a champ. So far the only cast I have shot through it has been Lee 452-255RF that works very well. I put a set of peep sights from Stevesgunz on it and am really enjoying the rifle!

[John Boy]

Rossi M92, 45LC, vintage 2001 with over 15,000 black powder rounds down the bore:
* Been field stripped 2X for cleaning
* No broken parts or hiccups due to the rifle
* Accuracy to 200yds using Ideal 454190, 250gr bullets and a vernier rear sight

[pirkfan]

I have both, and have found that they accept any boolit I feed them. Heaviest I shoot in 357 is a 165 gr semiwadcutter, and in 45 colt a 255 gr semiwadcutter. Reliability has been very good, no broken parts to date, and the Rossi 45 colt is more forgiving of excessive COAL than my Henry Big Boy steel 45 colt. This is a factor if you like the Lyman version of the Keith boolit (452424), because it seats around 1.625 in the crimp groove. I have to make sure the case is crimped right on the leading edge of the crimp groove or the Henry will lock up on this boolit

[northmn]

About the only issue with my Rossi 357 is with one bullet, the Lee 158 gr RNFP which is a very blunt bullet. Feeds sometimes out of 357 cases. Otherwise it feeds about everything I have tried. It is not really fussy, just that one bullet. Now if mine were a horse the Humane Society would have it taken away from me as it sees a lot of carry on a tractor and 4 wheeler including exposure to dust from field work on food plots. Of the rifles I have this one seems to see a lot of carry as I kind of like it. Shouldn't as the stock is slightly short, but it is a rifle I am kind of attached to and have shot more than many of the others. I do prefer to keep my lighter loads in a 357 case for chamber reasons, but it will feed 38's very well. I do not cowboy shoot so cannot say how it would stand up for that, but for "normal" use it is an excellent rifle. Never saw a need to "smooth" mine up, I just shoot it and load and unload it. They smooth up from that after a bit.

DP

[Tackleberry41]

Out of the box, unknown on reliability. Mine was pretty rough when I got mine in 45 colt. It had to be taken apart, edges taken off, smooth out the ejector. Works great now.

[huntrick64]

My 45 has been very reliable and was easy to slick up to where it functions very smoothly. My only gripe is that many of Rossi's 45 colt chambers are a little oversized and leave a bulge in your brass near the base where you shouldn't anneal. I just keep my Rossi brass separate from my other 45 colts and just leave the bulge in there. I just size down to the base of the bullet and not below. I have renamed that cartridge in my Rossi the 45WTH. "What the heck" (my church response) is what you will say once you inspect your brass. Some chambers are spot on and I think I have only heard of the problem in their 45 Colt.

[KCSO]

First Rossi in 1972? Carried as a patrol rifle while I carried a 357 revolver and then used for hunting for the next 20 years. Shot everything I put in it and never a problem.

[Speedo66]

I tried every factory bullet shape I had in both .38Spl. and .357 when I first got mine about two years ago. It fed them all, including SWC, without a hiccup.

Working the action many times while empty smoothed it out to the point where it can be operated with one finger. The loading gate area was sharp, I went over all the edges and burnished them with the smooth part of a drill bit and it took the sharp edges off. The only part replaced was the ejector spring, it worked fine but was overly powerful.

Great accurate carbine, I'm sure you'll enjoy one.

[runfiverun]

it seems those problems come and go since Taurus took them over.
you'll get either a nice one or a rough one it just depends on who built it and on what day of the week.
remember you are the QC department look the rifle in the box over if the fit and finish looks good the internals are usually up to the same standards.
don't be afraid to put 2-3 back and look at another until you find a good one.

[Mk42gunner]

I bought a used .45 that was as new in box at an auction, and I don't think it had ever had a round in it. It works well so far with some Cowboy level loads that I put together about fifteen years ago using a commercial 255 RNFP.

No direct experience with the .357 models.

Robert

[BCRider]

At this point I've slicked up five Rossi rifles for folks to plink with or for use in cowboy action shooting. Mine was the first. It needed a fair amount of deburring of the action parts but was a solidly made machine other than needing this detail attention. The only part on mine that was "crusty" was the rear sight which looked like the first day apprentice turned it out. Otherwise all the rest was very nice.

The next three all took VERY LITTLE work on the action to slick up. Much of the detail deburring and polishing I'd had to do on mine was already done by the factory. So fitting the spring kits and checking them over was all that was needed. Two of the three had some very odd varnish on the wood though. It had a decidedly PINK color. That led me to sanding it off (paint and varnish remover wouldn't even touch the stuff) and refining the shape to give it a smoother and more rounded look with some extra shaping around the drop at the front of the comb. And then a decent color stain and oil finish. The latest one worked out fine other than for the loading gate and spring. This one part is very crudely shaped and I may need to find another so it fits correctly. In the meantime I'm going to dress the existing one up to work for now. But it's got gaps all around the edge where it meets the loading port.

So out of the 5 guns I've had one badly made rear sight, two that had aesthetic issues with the finish and one with a bad loading gate and spring. The wood finish doesn't affect operation of course so perhaps that's neither here nor there. The rear sight being twisted was fairly easily fixed and I just lived with the lopsided buckhorn shaping. The only real deal breaker is the one with the loading gate issue.

All of this was a lot easier to accept when Rossi rifles were cheap to buy. One could buy one with the expectation that a little extra was going to be needed. But at what they are charging now such things are less and less acceptable. At least around these parts if I could buy a nice Miroku made gun even for the extra $600 they cost I might be tempted given Miroku's use of much nicer wood and reputation for out of the box reliability and smoothness. I'm talking Canadian prices in all this. Rossi prices are way up at the moment due to our dollar taking a beating.

In terms of gun handling I'm a huge fan of the 1892 design. I've shot both the Marlin 1894's and the 1892's. For whatever reason I prefer the JMB design over the Marlin. Something about it just feels more "right".

[Ed in North Texas]

Bought one in .45 Colt last year. 24" Octagon bbl. Only have one complaint so far, the butt plate is not kind to the old shoulder with hotter loads. No problems with feeding, etc. Replaced the rear sight with the Steve's Gunz aperture bolt lock replacement, and front sight also. Finally replaced the butt stock with one from Boyd's. Will need to work over the stock to get it to properly fit the action (too much wood, much, much better than too little) though. And it still is shootable until I find my round tuit.

Only real wish - wish it was as easy to disassemble as my Marlins to clean from the chamber. But the action difference alllows for a .454 version, which the Marlin '94 does not and cleaning the barrel is no worse than my 99s, so I really am not complaining - just wishing.

[Gaterskiner]

My Rossi in .45 Colt is A good gun as it came. My .357 Mag Stainless was A ***. Had to fight Rossi to get it to work . never worked well. Sold it cheap good riddance.No more Rossi for me.

[Harter66]

The 2 I had in Colts didn't like Remington brass . All of the others fed fine the Remington brass would drag in the guide slots requiring several bumps to get them up to the bbl. They both shot great out to 75 yd then the bullets tumbled due to their own issues .
I was very happy with them . I could load to 1.667 in both and both would feed even empty cases and designs from 45-200 SWC to 458-340 RNFP . They mostly ate 454424 and 452-255 RNFP . I was told that the 2013 was slick as glass compared to an 88-89 . I can tell you that the earlier one was more petite and had better metal finish and much nicer wood than the later one . The early rifle probably about 1978 had likely been reworked at some point . Both had long fat chambers , nearly .490 at the widest point but just .481-2 the last tenth or so and the chambers were cut deep at 1.315 for the 1.285 case while it would keep a 454 out it was really long for Colts . A friend has 1 in a stainless 357 I don't know if he got it figured out or not . It would feed 38s as fast as you could run them but 357 brass would hang up . It seemed like there was a perfect line or burr that at first would hang the case mouth but after a little polish it seemed to be the whole case jamming up . I worked on it a little bit and "double bumping" would get it fed but it is sort of annoying .

[Artful]

Mines an older 357 and works fine
Here's a thread on new on someone just got
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?315605-Rossi-92-Came-Today

[Groo]

Groo here
The closer to "Square " you get, [length to width] the easier things seems to feed.
The 357 , being long and narrow , has to hit the chamber more centered than a 44 or 45 colt.
The thing with the 45 colt is that it was never intended to use in a lever gun so the rim is close to non-existant.
The 44mag has a stronger thicker ,and larger rim.
Making it more lever gun friendly.
The 45 colt has gotten a larger rim in more recent times and so is almost as large as the 44.

[Harter66]

Grooves, I believe that it is actually a deeper wider groove added above the rim rather an increase in rim diameter .

As a side note to that the R92s I worked with fed Schofield and even rimless cases without issue ,but would pop the rimless back in the chamber when it slipped of the extractor.... Oh well.

[TXGunNut]

My R92 in 38/357 is a hoot to shoot! I have thousands of 158 SWC commercial cast boolits and thousands of 38 brass. My R92 likes them quite well.

[FergusonTO35]

don't be afraid to put 2-3 back and look at another until you find a good one.

One of the gun writers (John Barsness, maybe) once said this was his favorite method of accurizing a production rifle. Buy three of the same identical model, shoot them, then keep the most accurate one and sell the others. Alot easier and cheaper than buying one and going through a long list of accuracy tricks to get it right. Maybe the same approach would be useful with Rossi!

As an aside, the Rossi 461 .357 revolver I just bought is SWEET. I seriously have no complaints about it other than the weird factory grips I replaced with Pachmayr.

[hylander]

Doing some reading on the net, it seems like there is mixed reviews on the reliability of the Rossi 92 in .357 Mag and 45 Colt.
So, I figured I would ask here, as many have them and shoot them. What bullets seem to work the best as far as feeding, and what are the heaviest bullets you have shot in the .357 Mag and 45 Colt?

I just got a Rossi 92 20" .357 a couple weeks ago.
Only had it out twice so far and love it.
So far it has fed 38spl. and 357 flawless.
357 Mag: 125jsp, 158swc, 158 Extreme plated HP.
38 spl.: 158rn, 125/158 Extreme plated HP, Speer 158rn factory ammo.

So far the best load is:
357 Mag case
158gr. Extreme plated HP
7.5gr. Power Pistol
WSP primer
OCL of 1.580
Avg. groups are .73 @ 25yds.

[rond]

I picked up an R92 in .45 Saturday. Went down to my range and after 31 rounds the action locked up tight. Took it apart and couldn't see any problem with the empty case or gun. Put it back together and shot another 119 rounds just fine. The action was rough but getting better. The rear sight won't stay adjusted, moves back to its lowest setting when firing. If you get a Rossi expect having to do some work on it to make it function. The more I tinker with this gun the more I like it.

[jmort]

I paid to have both of my .357s tuned as I have mentioned, and they flat out run. I suppose I could have spent an extra $500.00 and got the Winchester 92s from Miroku, but I saved some money and have two killer 92s. Next lever I get will be a fully tuned 73 clone from Italy for $1,500.00.

[iomskp]

I had a Rossi 92 in 357 for cowboy matches great gun the only reason I changed to a 32/20 I went through a lot of lost brass with the 357, funny thing the 32/20 is easier to miss in the grass and I only lost one in 3 years.

Regards Trevor

[BigEyeBob]

Trevor check your messages been trying to contact you regarding sprinter barrel.
Kev.

[TCLouis]

My Rossi 92 357 Mag is 100% reliable.
It does have a very critical OAL length that varies depending on the boolit you are feeding it
Hate the 1:30 rifling twist
Hate the buckhorn sight
Hate the spring on the ejector (brass goes into to low orbit), but there is a fix for this out there on the interweb

Like the gun just fine otherwise

[GLEE]

have a 92 with a "Kiowa Jones" action job,slick as glass,be sure oal of shell is 1.5",runs great

[rhill]

I have a 16" stainless in .45 Colt. Gun is fun and reliable. I put a Williams reciever sight on it. I shoot the Lee 255rf. Was using 9 grains Unique and shot pretty mediocre. Tried Green Dot just for fun, and man does it shoot like a laser beam. I am sticking with that load, no more messing around with loads for this one.