Rossi 92, Finally!

[TXGunNut]

Was trolling the used gun rack yesterday and an 1895 Marlin caught my eye. Forgot all about it when I saw a Rossi 92 in 38/357 right next to it, lol. Been looking for one of these for at least three years, now have a Rossi to go with my Winchesters, Marlins and a Savage. Action is slicker than I was expecting even though it is a fairly new (but gently used) model. Fit & finish is good, will probably just leave it as is. Feeding a bit balky; bullet nose was catching at the top of the chamber (yep, all I could find was some old J-word factory duty rounds ) so will have to address that once I find a mould. I have some Delta Precision cast 158's around here somewhere, will see how they do.
Sights need a bit of work, suspect they are regulated for 38's.
That safety on the bolt will have to go, will have to see if I can find that the thread about the peep sight that looks so nice there.
Sweet little gun, I think we'll have a lot of fun together.

[claude]

I picked one up with the 24" barrel last year, they are a lot of fun and better than pretty fair shooters. I settles on the Accurate 36-165MG and have had good performance with it. Many have stated that they are finicky feeders and won't digest SWC's well, however I found mine will feed Lee's C358-158 SWC if I seat them long and crimp at the forward most lube groove. I still prefer the 36-165 though. I haven't had a chance to try 180gr boolits yet, but sooner or later I will try those as well.

http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_...36-165MG-D.png

[shoot-n-lead]

Good find and I think that you will really enjoy that little gun.

My family gave me one for my retirement, about a month ago...and I LOVE it. Actually, at the time, I had a hard time trying to find one, finally had to go to Gunbroker to get it. I was kind of scared as I have read all of the stuff about them. This one came out of the box working well...after 500rds, it is as smooth as a whistle and shoots everything VERY well. I really only shoot one bullet in .357...Lee 158gr RNFP, 90% of the time...and it works great with them. I have not tried any swc's as I don't shoot them anymore, but it will probably be like most levers...a little jerky, with them.

[Mauser48]

I really need to take the plunge and buy one! I have read all the horror stories about them and that steered me away. Lately I have seen A LOT of people that are extremely happy with them. If it feeds .38s good than I need one, especially if it works with swc's. If it doesn't work with swc bullets then that's not a deal breaker. Good find TX! Is it blued or stainless? How many inch barrel? I was looking at the 20 inch blued round barrel.

[TXGunNut]

It's a 20# blue carbine. I'm hoping I can get it to feed 38's as I have thousands of them that aren't quite worn out yet. I'm leaning towards a WFN boolit for this project.

[modified5]

Awesome find! Last I saw one they wanted $650 for a used one! Had to pass on that.
My .44 magnum Rossi was only $400 on sale.
One will make its way into my stables I'm sure.
I know what you mean about that unsightly lawyer safety. It's the only thing I despise about mine.

[DerekP Houston]

congrats! so far mine prefers RN designs but who knows about yours. slicks up pretty easy with sandpaper and a file, knock off that stupid safety and put in a peep site or a plug.

[TXGunNut]

Been a good night in the gun safe and on the keyboard! Found well over a thousand 158 SWC's and even a few hundred loaded 38's with that boolit. They've been ballast in my safe for over 15 yrs now. Just cycled several thru the new Rossi and once I remembered to work the finger lever "smartly" I found this little rifle feeds those SWC 38's just fine!
Paid a visit to Steve's Gunz and have a bolt mounted peep sight and his DVD headed my way.

[Mauser48]

Keep us posted! Nice to know it feeds 38's and swc's! Do you know what the seat depth is on them?

[KCcactus]

Both of my Rossi 92s have the Stevesgunz peep sight that replaces the safety. With my aging eyes, it was a big improvement. You will probably want to replace the extactor spring, too. The factory spring almost launched empties into orbit. I've used a variety of boolits in 38 and 357 cases with no issues, except for wadcutters in 38 brass. WC work just fine in 357 cases. My 44 likes WC, too. My most used loads in both are backwards HBWC in mag cases. Water filled milk jugs are lots of fun.

[Artful]

Just to put a bug in your ear so to speak.


Little alteration I found I really liked on my Rossi 92

[TXGunNut]

Keep us posted! Nice to know it feeds 38's and swc's! Do you know what the seat depth is on them?

Hard to say, I seat them with just a bit of the driving band above the case mouth. These are commercial cast so that isn't much help. Appears to be Precision Delta's version of the H&G 51 and OAL is 1.490". I loaded these back when I was a PPC competitor, we used this round in our "stock" guns.

[DerekP Houston]

oh man Art, I was just thinking about getting in to tax stamps. Never seen one on a lever gun....

[TXGunNut]

I'm not sure this load will be subsonic, not much on cans but it obviously works quite well.

[Mk42gunner]

I too finally succumbed to the Rossi 92. I found a blued 20" in .45 Colt yesterday, as new in box. No idea on its likes or dislikes yet.

I must say that it is considerably slicker than the Marlin 1894CB from about 2000.

Funny, I have had a variety of lever actions over the years, but never a Model 92. Judging from this one example, I have been missing a lot of fun.

Robert

[TXGunNut]

Must admit, Robert, the 1894CB is a bit higher on my wish list than the Rossi 92. Never had one but have wanted one since I first handled one. Congrats on your find, my 45 Colt lever gun happens to be a Winchester 94AE Trapper that has been a safe queen for 20+ years. Probably just as well, from what I hear.
Glad to hear your action is slick, was beginning to wonder about mine. I was a bit surprised to find mine was so slick after reading all the bad press. Looking forward to hearing reports on your new Rossi.

[northmn]

Already commented on your other thread. Mine feeds about everything but a very flat nosed 158 grain bullet which is almost like a wadcutter with a crimping groove place further back. As to SWC's it seems to feed them better.
Most of the "horror" stories I have heard about them are usually based on "purists" who do not like anything but a Marlin or Winchester and then there are those that think if you do not pay a mint for a rifle it is no good. There is a good chance that with modern metalurgy they are tougher than an original 92. Doesn't much matter to me as I really prefer to shoot more moderate loads in mine with hard cast bullets for smaller game. When I carried it out last fall during deer season I loaded it with some factory 158 grain fodder which it feeds just fine.
38's don't hurt them but I klind of prefer to shoot loaded down 357's to keep the chamber cleaner. Doubt if its necessary but its my little quirk.

DP

[w30wcf]

It's a 20# blue carbine. I'm hoping I can get it to feed 38's as I have thousands of them that aren't quite worn out yet. I'm leaning towards a WFN boolit for this project.

A WFN bullet may not be the best choice. I have owned a Rossi 20" .357 since the mid 1990's. One of the first loadings I tried was a 180 LBT bullet in .357 Magnum brass over 16/296 which clocked close to 1,700 f.p.s. They shot fine when I was single loading them and testing for accuracy. HOWEVER, when I stuffed several in the magazine...... the first round came up the lifter fine but I could not begin to close the action because a round slid in under the lifter, tying up the gun.Hmmm...how did that happen?

I had to remove the magazine tube to get the round out from under the lifter. In checking into the issue, I found that the wide nose of the bullet had engaged the cartridge stop when the lifter was on the way up, allowing the next cartridge to slid in under the lifter.

Switching to 38 special brass with that bullet resolved the issue.

w30wcf

[fecmech]

For an extremely accurate plinker in that gun the Lee 125 RF with 5-5.5/231 or 4.2-4.7/Bullseye in mag cases will give you 1200+ fps and sub 3" 10 shot 100 yd groups. The Lee 158 TLSWC and 5 grs of Unique in .38 spl cases feeds well and is subsonic (1050 fps). It shoots well to 100yds though not quite as good as the 125. These loads have been shot in 3 different Rossi 92's with excellent results.

[Rebel Dave]

The only bad thing about my Rossi' is that "Rossi WILL NOT SELL YOU SOME OF THE PARTS." If the parts you need are on their "restricted list", you are out of luck. They want you to send the rifle back, and that is a whole nuther story. I have 3 Rossi', and they araccurate, and fun to shoot, but thats where it ends. Rossi has terrible customer service.

Rebel Dave