Rossi 357

[Wayne Smith]

A friend of mine has a Rossi 357 lever rifle. I think he has only shot 38's in it. Had it to the range and put one of my 357's in it and the case stuck - and he says it does sometimes with the 38's. I've expanded a 357 case so he can check for carbon build up.

Anything else I should tell him. This is the first one I've seen. (Win 92 copy?)

[MT Gianni]

One of mine will not chamber 357's though it is so marked. I will chamber a 50's era 358156 loaded to near 357 levels and so marked.

[Pigboat]

This used to be a common problem with people who shot a lot of .22 shorts and then tried to shoot .22 long rifle rounds. The shorts would shave off a little lead as they entered the barrel from the chamber. If you could get a long rifle to chamber it would sometimes get stuck in the chamber.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Rossi rifles are a mixed bag for smooth functioning. I have more than one (no .357) and they all required disassembly, de-burring, and some judicious polishing to work properly.

[jmort]

I have one Rossi 92 .357 mag tuned by Nate Kiowa aka Steve's Gunz
And a second one tuned by Jim Bowie of the Cowboys and Indians store.
They both run real good with most anything south of 180 grains

[Froogal]

My Rossi R92 will shoot either .38s or .357s. It doesn't care. It was maybe a bit glitchy at first, but it got better and better the more rounds I put through it. Don't be stingy with the oil.

[iomskp]

My Rossi was a great little gun I don't think I ever had a problem with it, the only reason I sold it I could not keep the brass up to it at the range so I changed to a 32/20, only ever lost one 32/20 case.

[Petrol & Powder]

Rossi rifles are a mixed bag for smooth functioning. I have more than one (no .357) and they all required disassembly, de-burring, and some judicious polishing to work properly.

I had a similar experience with a Rossi lever action chambered in 357. The internal parts appeared to have been machined with rocks. Once I cleaned up the machining marks and other flaws, it functioned perfectly.

[northmn]

My Rossi has only been taken apart to D&T a receiver sight. They do smooth up with use. For my uses tuning or paying for a tune up would be a waste of money and time. I now shoot only 357 cases in mine to avoid the issues stated.

DEP

[yeahbub]

I had the opportunity to mess with several Rossi '92's in .357 Mag. All 4 of them would cycle .38 Spl with ease but were catchy with .357's loaded to recommended OAL. This problem seemed to be somewhat lessened by using .38 Spl cases loaded to .357 OAL. This allowed the cartridge to move far enough forward for the rim to move up through the cartridge guides as the bullet nose moved into the chamber. It also helped to point the rifle at the ground when trying to lever the next one in. I attribute this to cartridge guide rim channels that are rough or a bit narrow. Happily, after a couple of years of regular use with .38 Spl, mine now feeds full-OAL .357 Mags without resistance, which seems to be evidence that my surmise about the cartridge guides to be correct. I think Petrol & Powder has a very good point about disassembly and judiciously removing burrs and tool marks. Be careful. It's not an exercise in hogging off stock with power tools as I've seen done on occasion. Just polishing, breaking edges and such with emery cloth and fine stones. Take it too far and your '92 will flip the incoming live round clean out of the action when the lever is brought up.

Another characteristic common to Rossi '92's is overly strong springs, particularly the ejector spring. This leads to accelerated wear on the locking keys and key mortises to no purpose at all, not to mention abusing brass at the case mouth on ejection, particularly the thin brass BP type rounds. With an empty rifle, when you bring the lever up and the bolt slides forward, the ejector will contact the breech face first and the bolt should close the rest of the way (that last 1/4" or so) with only a very light increase in resistance. Mine took a deliberate effort to fully close the action and would really launch ejected cases until I ground ~1 turn off the ejector spring on mine. Careful, not too much because you're also shortening the working length of the spring. This helped quite a bit, but a touch more would have been better. Nate Kiowa Jones talks about this on his DVD for slicking up '92's and sells proper springs to fix this problem. You can then keep the factory spring, should you ever need to replace a failing suspension strut spring in your vehicle. Same with hammer springs. It's instructive to work the action on an original '92 or one of Navy Arms' '92's built by Rossi which have the correct springs in them and you can get a feel for what they should be like. Somebody (Wolff, maybe?) sells spring kits for them, but I have no experience with them.

[moosemike]

I have the Rossi 92 and it much prefers 38's over 357's. And really 357's shoot way too high to use anyway.

[Lonegun1894]

I have the opposite experience with mine. It is absolutely excellent with .357s, but varies between rough to just flat out refusing to feed .38s. I mean, that works for me since I got it to use as a .357, but it would be frustrating if I had wanted a .38.

[marlin39a]

I’ve got the 24” Octagon Barrel, case colored. I put on a higher front sight, and a Marbles Tang Sight. I shoot the Lee 358-158 RFN over HP-38 in 357 cases. It’s my jackrabbit shooter.

[OBXPilgrim]

I'm not sure but I think this is the Ace hardware spring that many have used to reduce the Rossi 92 ejector. A quick measurement of the factory spring diameter might help to make sure this is the one.

https://www.acehardware.com/departments/hardware/specialty-hardware/springs/5214572

[Texas by God]

I have the Rossi 92 and it much prefers 38's over 357's. And really 357's shoot way too high to use anyway.Same way ours was. My wife chose the M1 carbine so the Rossi went away.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[moosemike]

Same way ours was. My wife chose the M1 carbine so the Rossi went away.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

I have the M1 Carbine too. My Rossi is going away as well.

[gbehrman]

I have a 4 4 Mag that only loves Specials so a good brushing after shooting keeps it running without extra gunsmithing

[Greg S]

Steve's Guns has a DVD on tuning the R92. The info is good and goes into detail on gringing/trimming leaf springs and extractor ect to set up the gun to cycle smoother and not fling brass into the next zip code. Steve also has reduced hammer and ejector springs along with one piece firing pins and bolt safety peep sight conversions.

[onelight]

My Rossi cycles and shoots both well.
Like several have mentioned if a lot of 38 ammo has been shot the chamber will need to have all the carbon scrubbed out for 357 to work smoothly and safely.