454 Casull lever action as a big game rifle

Gunluver243 said:
I read on a US forum that they were making the Rossi Puma M92 in .480 Ruger.
I was looking at one in .454 Casull on the Frontier Firearms website but somebody bought it before I could make up my mind.
Do any of you current owners have an overall opinion of the construction, workmanship and accuracy of the Rossi Puma M92 lever action?
If you had the choice again would you have still bought it?
Will the .454 Casull model feed .45 LC ammo well?
Apparently another company has bought Rossi and will continue to manufacture the Pumas which come in 16", 18", 20" and 24" barrel models.
Click to expand...

i would buy my rifle again in a heartbeat ...... it feeds winchester 45 colt cowboy action flawlessly , as well as hornady 300 grain 454 casull ammo .

the only thing i'd change is i'd get the stainless version , only because this rifle spends alot of time outside with me in all sorts of weather .

if they came out with one in 460 smith & wesson , i'll be buying another one .

taurus has purchased / merged with rossi , the older rossi rifles where imported by "puma " .

puma is now using a italian company that only chambers in 45 colt , not 454 .

something to think about when buying one of these rifles , if you can only get it in 45 colt , what are the chances the action has been tested as to it's ability to withstand 454 casull pressures ( somewhere around 65000 psi ) .
 
Gunluver243 said:
I read on a US forum that they were making the Rossi Puma M92 in .480 Ruger.
I was looking at one in .454 Casull on the Frontier Firearms website but somebody bought it before I could make up my mind.
Do any of you current owners have an overall opinion of the construction, workmanship and accuracy of the Rossi Puma M92 lever action?
If you had the choice again would you have still bought it?
Will the .454 Casull model feed .45 LC ammo well?
Apparently another company has bought Rossi and will continue to manufacture the Pumas which come in 16", 18", 20" and 24" barrel models.
Click to expand...

I bought one recently a 24" octagon barrel 45 colt and find it to be very good so far ,I have just used light 45 loads for cowboy action but itseems to work smoothly and holds well
 
burnt_servo said:
i would buy my rifle again in a heartbeat ...... it feeds winchester 45 colt cowboy action flawlessly , as well as hornady 300 grain 454 casull ammo .

the only thing i'd change is i'd get the stainless version , only because this rifle spends alot of time outside with me in all sorts of weather .

if they came out with one in 460 smith & wesson , i'll be buying another one .

taurus has purchased / merged with rossi , the older rossi rifles where imported by "puma " .

puma is now using a italian company that only chambers in 45 colt , not 454 .

something to think about when buying one of these rifles , if you can only get it in 45 colt , what are the chances the action has been tested as to it's ability to withstand 454 casull pressures ( somewhere around 65000 psi ) .
Click to expand...

I found a good write up and review of the Rossi Puma M92 lever action on Gunblast.com and I won't bother to regurgitate it here.

The review talks favorably about the "old" Rossi Pumas up to and including the .454 M92 and mentions the new company (?) that will be supplying the Puma M92 lever in .480 Ruger.

I'll buy the rifle in .454 Casull if I find one because of its double identity as a .45 LC (the .454's parent cartridge).

For my projected use which will involve some bouncing around in the back of pickups, on ATVs and on the wet, rough and dirty bottom of boats and canoes I'll go with a stainless model.

I maintain and fix my toys and tools (a gun is a combo of both) but I don't baby them.
 
terez said:
the 454 factory cartridge is total overkill for deer.
Overpenetration and destruction.
Click to expand...

Why do people think that a heavy, slow moving bullet causes destruction? It is the light bullet, high velocity rounds that seem to cause lots of blood shot meat and massive damage. The heavy, low velocity rounds do an excellent job of putting game on the ground quickly with very little meat loss.

Woodsman said:
Yup. Overkill just doesn't exist.
Click to expand...

Indeed.

Camp Cook said:
I first posted the following a couple years ago hopefully it will help you decide I call my 454 rifle my 45-70 lite...
Click to expand...

That is an excellent description. I shot a 16" carbine in .454 and the factory 300gr loads were pretty snappy in that light little gun. It would make a great bush rifle with enough oomph for pretty much anything within range limitations.

Mark
 
Woodsman said:
Yup. Overkill just doesn't exist.

I think he's just trying to say that you can use less powder, noise, and recoil to take care of a skinny little deer... but where's the fun in that?:D
Click to expand...

Spent some time in Alaska around the Ketchikan area about 5 years ago and a local outfitter/guide I got to know quite well told me that a wounded Grizzly or Brown Bear will be either dead or chewing on your head in microseconds.

Most people would prefer choice A. He used a Remington Model 700 in .416 Remington Magnum with a synthetic stock, iron sights, and the barrel chopped to 20" to back up his clients and had to stop charging bears from poorly placed customer shots several times so this guy isn't just talking out of his hat or from an article he read in Field and Stream magazine.

I'd have the Casull lever action loaded with the hottest load of powder behind 300 grain flatpoints that the rifle could safely withstand if I was still in Alaska.
 
Ive gone in after grizzly with both my 20" M92 454 Casull loaded with 405gr WLNGC's 1550fps - 1600fps and my 18.5" Marlin 1895GS 45-70 loaded with 525gr WLNGC's @ 1600fps & 550gr WLNGC's @ 1580fps.

If I had a choice I would leave the 454 and take the 45-70 every time...

I now carry a 21" barreled Rem 700 LSS in 375RUM with ghost rings sight loaded with 350gr TSX @ 2450fps...

In black bear country I load my 20" 454 M92 with 9 240gr or 300gr XTP-Mags...
 
Boomer said:
Again, can someone please define the term overkill to me, as it relates to big game and sporting arms and ammo. Frankly, I don't get it. A bullet hits a game animal, it creates a wound channel that compromises the supply of oxygen to the brain, and the animal quickly looses consciousness and dies. Ain't that the point? If the bullet exits, all the better, now two holes dump blood out on the ground and cold air enters the body cavity to hasten the onset of shock. Again, thats a good thing. The animal dies quickly and humanely. A deer hit well with a 100 gr .243 bullet dies quickly, a deer hit well with with a 500 gr .458 bullet dies quickly, so where does overkill enter the equation?

In Africa I shot a 100 pound impala with a 300 gr AGS solid from a .375. The impala died without taking a step, no meat was lost, and the exit hole was about the size of a looney. You couldn't ask for better performance, yet some might suggest that a .375 is overkill for deer sized animals. Anyone who has hunted with a .375 knows this isn't true, yet the term lives on.
Click to expand...

Overkill exists, here it is :p

[youtube]GlecTBevmzc&feature[/youtube]
 
ben hunchak said:
You would have to determine the oal. max. in the levergun to see if some of the LBT type styles would feed O.K., and if they did, the gun would be a good hunting gun for moose and elk at short to mid. range. If the heavy cast bullets won't work because of nose length, you could always use heavy loads in .45 Colt's cases.
Click to expand...

As Ben said above there are a few concerns you should be aware of. For example, my original 92 Winchester in 44-40, the rifle on which the Puma is based, will not feed cartridges that have semi wadcutter (or anything even close) shape bullets. It prefers the round nose profile for consistent feeding.
Unfortunately, the only way to find out if yours will feed a particular style, is to try it.
 
Camp Cook said:
Ive gone in after grizzly with both my 20" M92 454 Casull loaded with 405gr WLNGC's 1550fps - 1600fps and my 18.5" Marlin 1895GS 45-70 loaded with 525gr WLNGC's @ 1600fps & 550gr WLNGC's @ 1580fps.

If I had a choice I would leave the 454 and take the 45-70 every time...

I now carry a 21" barreled Rem 700 LSS in 375RUM with ghost rings sight loaded with 350gr TSX @ 2450fps...

In black bear country I load my 20" 454 M92 with 9 240gr or 300gr XTP-Mags...
Click to expand...

We talked about Grizzlies and the modified Remington M700 quite a bit and I think my Alaska friend was shooting the 350 grain Speer Mag-Tip from his .416 Remington. He preferred the 300 grain Barnes original bullet for the big bears but told me they were getting hard to get. The bears never took another step after being whalloped by the 300 grain Barnes bullet but the Speer Mag-Tips were almost as good and much cheaper and a lot easier to get.
 
PGM449 said:
My Rossi gives 150 yard gong a pretty nice slap with open sights


R:d:
Click to expand...

While we're on the topic of recoil and nice slaps:

I've read on other forums that the Rossi M92 in .454 Casull has had problems with stock fore-end splits, the tubular magazine coming loose, and the band that holds the barrel and tubular magazine together breaking.

Have any of you who have ownerd and shot the Rossi M92 in .454 Casull had any of the problems mentioned above or any other significant manufacturing related failures or mishaps?

If the wood is weak I'll strengthen it with a couple of coats of expoxy and thinner that soaks right into the wood before range testing it. A friend of my dads knows just the right formula and treated a walnut stock on an old 18.5" bbl. Remington M7 bolt action with it. It looks great and is almost as strong as a synthetic stock. He steam treats the wood to "open the pores" and dries it out beside the wood stove and then applies the epoxy-thinner formula that soaks into the treated wood and strenthens it like an oil finish on steroids and no sanding is needed.
 
Something to bare in mind if you both reload and plan on modifying the gun at all. Some of the modifications done to a CAS levergun may make it unsuitable for hunting.

Lightening up the hammer so it cycles more easily may work well with light primed CAS ammo, but in cold weather, may be unreliable in igniting hard-primed hunting ammo. Using light primers with hunting ammo may result in poor ignition in cold weather.

A hard or metal butt plate that looks period-appropriate and makes for quick off hand shots doing CAS with weak loads is going to kick your butt shooting maxed out hunting ammo - especially at the range.

Your sights will need to be adjusted completely different for hunting loads and BP loads. I find that changing between jacketted and cast loads typically requires some left-right adjustment which (unless you're using an adjustable peep) is a PITA. If you use cast for hunting than it's kind of a non-issue, but you will probably still need an adjustment.

Lightening up the lever lockup may result in your hand getting slapped by the lever when shooting full bore hunting ammo.

For these reasons, my CAS lever is just that - CAS only. Also, it gets its own ammo.

Other than that, no reason why a 454 isn't a good choice for both.
 
I use mine for both CAS and hunting/plinking/defense and shoot from 200gr CAS loads to top level 405gr WLNGC loads only adjustment I need to do with my sights is I raise or lower the rear sight for the bullet weight I am shooting.

I have done nothing to tune up my action other than to shoot it and the more I shoot it the smoother the action is becoming...
 
I'm presuming none of the reported problems with earlier model Rossi Puma lever actions.

Maybe Rossi rectified the earlier defects (weak stock, barrel band and magazine tube attachment that vibrated loose under recoil).

Good! :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom