Slugging the barrel of a Rossi 92

[Mauser Rat]

I have slugged bolt action rifle bores and revolver and semi auto pistols but I don't have a clue how to get a chamber/throat slug of a levergun. I have never done a chamber casting and I guess I could try doing that but I just wondered if I was missing the boat somehow?

So, I tried doing a search with no luck looking for old threads about this. I was wondering if any of you know of an old thread or something at l.a.s.c. on slugging the chamber/throat and bore of a levergun?

[NickSS]

To slug the thought you have to pull the bolt of the rifle and on a 92 that is a bit of work. You could use cerosafe from Brownells to get a chamber cast and probably get the measurements off of that without pulling the bolt.

[Char-Gar]

Why do you want to slug the chamber throat? Do you have a problem of some kind?

I have been doing this cast bullet thingie for many years and have yet to slug a throat. There are other ways of determining what diameter of bullet your rifles needs. A Rossi 92 is not a precision rifle. Just size you bullets .002 over groove diameter and have at it.

Unless of course you are having some kind of problem and are trying to hunt down it's origin.

[Mauser Rat]

NickSS,

Yes, It looks like a huge amount of work to me. Thanks for the information.

Chargar,

I wanted to see what would chamber in the rifle. I have done this, as I said, on a bolt action rifle of mine that there was a question as to whether a particular boolit would chamber in and I just thought that while I was getting to know the Rossi that I would gather that information as well if it was easily had. It appears that the "easy" part is not to be. And regardless of whether this is a "precision" rifle, it is a tool that I respect and I like to find out as much about that kind of thing that I can regardless of whether the knowledge is something that another person might want. Thank you for the response.

[Char-Gar]

Mauser Rat.. The way to use to determine what will fit in a rifle is to try some dummy rounds with different sized bullets.

In a 30 cal rifle, I size a few bullets. 309, .310, and .311. I load these in cases without primers or powder and try them in the rifle started with the smallest. It is easy to see when you start to get the bullet body rubbing on the chamber throat. That is where I stop. If, I want to do a check I will try a few .312 and .313. YOu will start to see some real abuse on the body diameter driving band when you get too large.

I suppose all of this could be done with a throat slug, but the above works for me. I prefer real bullet, in real cases in the real rifle. It may take a little more effort but there is no mistake about what is needed.

[Greg B.]

To get an approximation of the chamber size near the throat measure the inside diameter of a fired case. Of course the fired brass does spring back a little so this is not totally accurate but is easier than a chamber cast. However, keep in mind that you do not want the loaded cartridges to be too fat for the chamber. Taken in conjunction with the results from slugging the barrel it should give you a better idea of what bullet sizer die to use.

If you are after accuracy there is another thread on bullets to use in the Rossie 92. I slugged the barrel on mine and will look at a light Lee bullet to get accurate low velocity loads out of the 1 and 30 something barrel twist.

Greg B.

[fecmech]

I've slugged both my Rossi 92's in .357 using some pure lead 30 cal wire. The3 trick was to cut a piece long enough to get the throat and short enough to get out of the action without disassembling it!. The one marked 92 is the carbine (20" bbl) and the other marked 92-2 is the 24" octagon rifle. I think these are just a basic ball seat throat. At least you can see what a Rossi throat looks like.

[Mauser Rat]

Greg B.,

Thanks. That was the first thing I did when I decided that I wanted to understand more about the Rossi. I got fire formed brass that measured from .4330 to .4350 inches. With the wall thickness on the Win. brass that gave me .4550 to .4570 inches.

And that rifling thing. Why does Rossi appear to want to keep the twist rate a secret? This is the first firearm that I have owned that I could not simply open the Owner's Manual to get the twist rate. Bullet size and accuracy are exactly what I was attempting to determine when I posted the question here. Something about if you want to know about leverguns then go to where the levergun folks hang out? Thanks a lot for the info.

fecmech,

This is my first levergun. I've never had much to do with them before and I'm the kind of guy that likes to understand how an engine works before I turn the key. I find that knowing enough to get out of trouble keeps me from getting in trouble so much in the first place.

A resounding "Yes" to that "get out of the action without disassembling it!" When I went to empty loaded rounds to clean the gun up a little before firing I saw that it can be a little tight in there and easy to get something in but maybe harder to get it out? For my 8mm, I made a small mold out of some 6061 Aluminum bar stock to cast 5/16" diameter lead rods in to use for the "plugged case" type slug. I think that with all of the .44 cal weapons that I own it is time to make the same kind of mold in 7/16ths inch or so to insert into an empty case and do exactly what you used that 30 cal wire for. I like your lead wire solution though. It's a lot less work than making up one of the caliber molds but I don't think I know where to get that lead wire!

I probably won't find anything earth shattering but I think it is part of getting to know a weapon for me now. A lot of folks maybe consider this a waste of my time but a lot of folks say the same thing about my shooting as well. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and as long as they don't try to make me do things their way it's OK with me. (P.S. - That is a great quote you use for your signature. It is something that I wish the majority of people understood!)

Thanks again to both of you,

Kevin

[runfiverun]

get a rnfp boolit go with 358 for the 357, 430 for the 44 and 452 for the 45 colt.
get that boolit with a good sized square lube groove. use a lube similar to b.a.c. or carnuba red, use ww alloy. and maybe some tin.
something like the 452664 or 429667 molds. will do fine.
get some primers.
get some powder like clays, unique. 2400 or even h-110 or sr 4756.
now go shoot them and worry about the sights.