Rossi 92 45 colt... Pretty Great!!

Made it out to the range today. Now I'm even more happy. bunch of diff loads. 50y. stock sights. Liked the American eagle 225 jsp factory that is started with 1150 fps good groups 1.5-2". Loved the campro 250 plated both hp-38 and autocomp. Sooty at the low end with the autocomp but cleaned op at the closer to max side for standard colt loads. Toped out about 970 fps with autocomp and one ragged hole accuracy. :) Moved on to some speed with the w296 both campro 250g and xtp 250gr shot well. Consistent 2in groups. I'm thinking it prob does better than that as it was a bit of a muzzle flipper they hold i was using. Just being careful. Brass looked good with zero pressure signs. 1700fps was most accurate. But i only tried a few loads and didn't go to max.
Shot some .452 250g lead rnfp low pressure loads and if was the least accurate and least consistence velocities. 3-4" groups. I figure a .454 might be a better fit with the lead. WIP. All in all very happy with the little Rossi. The hot loads sure wake you up. Like other have said its a 45-70 light. Cheers
 
SHELL SHUCKER said:
The Win 94 was the one I referred to.
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It still causes arguments in levergun forums, but I understand that the Win M92 is stronger than the Win M94. It's pretty much an apples to oranges comparison though, as the M92 was designed for short pistol cartridges, and the M94 for longer rifle cartridges. It was only fairly recently that the M94 was altered to allow the shooting of pistol cartridges, but the M92 cannot be altered to shoot rifle cartidges like the 30-30.

The M94 has long receiver walls to accomodate rifle-length cartridges, and angled rear locking bolts, unlike the M92 which has a shorter mechanism, and shares a very similar, very strong locking lug arrangement with the M1886. The M94 was then weakened a bit when it was made to be Angle Eject. This is not to say that the M94 is not more than strong enough to shoot the cartridges for which it was designed, but the M92 has more margin of error strength when shooting the 44 Mag (for example), than the M94.
 
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True enough, but the strongest Win 94 actions are the Big Bore versions from the late 70's with the beefed up receiver walls and no added safety button.
Those handle pressures to 50,000 psi easily in 375 Win BB & 356 Win BB.

Getting back to Rossi land, I be very happy with my '92 in 45 Colt as I don't have to load 'er hot to take big critters inside 80 yds with hardcast 300+ gr boolits.

The sight combo of XS rear & Williams front be great fer me old peepers.
Rossi RH 45 Colt.jpg
 

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I just picked up a Rossi in 45 colt and I was surprised at just how slick it is out of the box. I was expecting to have to change the ejector spring, and do so smoothing/polishing but it doesn’t need it. It’s slick as snot.
 
I got mine in 44 Mag because the 45s were sold out. I put 200 grain bullets down with cowboy loans and it functions fine. Like mine may pick up a 45 in the future
 
It looks like Rosi picked up their game in appearance at least. Had a 92 in .357 a while back (like at least a decade ago) & it was decent enough but pretty basic. There was lots of room for improvement on the one I owned. Albeit I didn't own it long enough to work up any load for it. Gristle11 yours looks a heck of lot nicer than the one I owned!
 
gristle111 said:
Made it out to the range today. Now I'm even more happy. bunch of diff loads. 50y. stock sights. Liked the American eagle 225 jsp factory that is started with 1150 fps good groups 1.5-2". Loved the campro 250 plated both hp-38 and autocomp. Sooty at the low end with the autocomp but cleaned op at the closer to max side for standard colt loads. Toped out about 970 fps with autocomp and one ragged hole accuracy. :) Moved on to some speed with the w296 both campro 250g and xtp 250gr shot well. Consistent 2in groups. I'm thinking it prob does better than that as it was a bit of a muzzle flipper they hold i was using. Just being careful. Brass looked good with zero pressure signs. 1700fps was most accurate. But i only tried a few loads and didn't go to max.
Shot some .452 250g lead rnfp low pressure loads and if was the least accurate and least consistence velocities. 3-4" groups. I figure a .454 might be a better fit with the lead. WIP. All in all very happy with the little Rossi. The hot loads sure wake you up. Like other have said its a 45-70 light. Cheers
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Not sure the .452" size is the problem, although it could be... The poor results are more likely due to it being a low pressure load. The .45 colt with its large case capacity often has accuracy issues in low pressure loads, especially with powders that don't fill the case. Mike Venturino found this out back in the '90's when he wrote his book on shooting old west style lever guns.

BTW, and I only mention the following to be technically correct and no other reason...The Winchester M1892 was originally developed for RIFLE cartridges. The entire line of cartridges; 44-40, 38-40, 32-20 and the 25-20 were originally developed as Rifle cartridges, which were then later adapted to handguns. The 44-40 or 44 WCF as it was originally called by Winchester, was developed specifically for the Model 1873 Rifle.
 
Nice gun.
The 45 colt is a ton of fun. I have a Henry.
Found the same thing with the 250g Campro not staying together.
I need to revisit then. But I wonder if it’s the 1:16” twist. That’s fast as far 45colt goes.

I am loading Lil gun and 250g XTPs with great accuracy. 1500-1600 fps 2-3” @100.
But that’s a little fast for that bullet for hunting.
Going to slow them down or try the 240/300g XTP mags.

Got up a hair over 1800fps but stopped their.

Going to be playing with some 260 and 280g cast stuff soon too.
 
jakester said:
Not sure the .452" size is the problem, although it could be... The poor results are more likely due to it being a low pressure load. The .45 colt with its large case capacity often has accuracy issues in low pressure loads, especially with powders that don't fill the case. Mike Venturino found this out back in the '90's when he wrote his book on shooting old west style lever guns.

BTW, and I only mention the following to be technically correct and no other reason...The Winchester M1892 was originally developed for RIFLE cartridges. The entire line of cartridges; 44-40, 38-40, 32-20 and the 25-20 were originally developed as Rifle cartridges, which were then later adapted to handguns. The 44-40 or 44 WCF as it was originally called by Winchester, was developed specifically for the Model 1873 Rifle.
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Splitting hairs Jake. Respectfully, I'd rather a 45 LC as compared to 44-40, IMO they didn't put it in rifles because it had that minusle rim...not because it didn't have the power. We are putting forth examples of cartridges when CF rounds were relatively new... one might argue that a cartridge which works well in revolvers is a handgun cartridge.
BFR be damned, that sorta thing is for folks who are compensating for something IMO
Hence is a 44 RF a rifle or revolver cartridge? Calling it a rifle cartridge seems a stretch, despite the OEM loadings.
An yeah, I'm debating...,but politely. Lately I've been at home too much and lean towards trolling...much to my chagrin. But at least I can own up to it, LOL.
So I would counter with a 92 is designed for handgun cartridges; perhaps at conception a 44-40 was a rifle cartridge...but it is a weak version of a rifle cartridge in my world.
Respectfully of course.
 
Andy said:
Some old 45 Colt cartridges might not be designed to handle those pressures but the Starline I use certainly is.
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Don't you maybe mean brass not cartridges? I'm pushing Starline "brass" into the 35K+ psi range no problem. 255 gr hard cast @ 1880 fps out of my 12" Ranch Hand
 
There would be a definite range of .45 Colt brass from the early balloon-head ones through to ones coming off a line that also makes .454 Casull brass and wants to minimize retooling. Many different factories / headstamps have contributed to the history of this cartridge, and would not all have the same pressure limits.
 
elimsprint said:
Don't you maybe mean brass not cartridges? I'm pushing Starline "brass" into the 35K+ psi range no problem. 255 gr hard cast @ 1880 fps out of my 12" Ranch Hand
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If we're going to go to terminology school, it's "Cartridge Case". If it happens to be made of brass (and not steel or aluminum as is fairly common), then it's often shortened to "brass".
 
I generally like any calibres that start with 4 , 45/70 being a favourite and recently 45 colt getting more attention due to the cost of feeding them , the nice thing you will find with 45 colt through your own experience and that of others is that the 45 colt does not need to be loaded to higher velocities to perform extremely well . 900 - 1000fps being quite capable of extreme penetration and full length pass through , as others have noted there are a lot of heavy grain bullets out there for this calibre should that be more to your need or liking.
 
These Rossi 92's are great, imo. I have my 16" 45 Colt pushing the 325gr Jet Bullet hard casts around 1600-1650fps with I think 23.5-24gr of H110.

I may try out the Campro's for some more mild loads that I can also shoot through my Pietta 1873 Single Action as well. The loads mentioned above are never going anywhere near that pistol.
 
FYI. I have 3 Rossi .45 colts...2 are made by Taurus and 1 by CBC. My Taurus ones have a bore of .452...the CBC one is .454. A friend of mine just bought a CBC made one and it also slugged out at .454. These are all stainless versions.
 
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