Rossi 92 44

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brybenn

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Anyone own a newer Rossi 92 in 44mag? I'm considering a 44mag to play with and haven't decided between a single shot or a lever action yet. I haven't played with a new Rossi 44 and was curious as to build quality and reliability.
I like the Henry all weather but the price increases have kinda put it out of the own it just for fun range at over $1600 before tax
 
I have a Rossi 16” non safety version and have had no problems with it. Upgrades the rear sight as I do not like buckhorns. It always goes bang and is reasonably accurate for my eyes.
 
Have experience only with recent production, stainless models. The build quality is very good. Not as nice as Miroku and may vary a bit from sample to sample. Sharp edges around the loading port. Reliable but no really long-term experience.
 
I have a pre safety rossi 92, 44. Awesome fun, two foot fireballs at dusk. Load 180 xtp with 4227.

The disadvantage is common with all brands of m92. Buckhorn sights suck, pretty much impossible to mount optics, and aftermarket gun parts impossible to find.

If I go to bc lml, it's almost impossible to return in the same day. Getting stranded by bc ferries on lower sunshine coast has to be assumed. Nice little boondocker gun for cats and bears.
 
I have one with the 24” octagonal barrel in .44mag.

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It is very accurate. But there are some things I don’t like about it. First off the ejector has got a lot of tension. Thus it throws spent brass like an SKS. I think the longest way vertically it has thrown a piece of brass is about 12 feet. Also, the loading gate has some sharp edges. (After some use these sharp edges do round out.) Using it when the rifle was new meant cuts on my right thumb. Painful. And the magazine spring is quite stout and requires a lot of effort to load rounds. These two things make the Rossi unpleasant to load. (But since it is a model 1892, single feeding is an option with a torn up thumb).

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I really like the look of the capped fore end and that octagonal barrel. The buckhorn sights are adequate and mine seem to be spot on.

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That butt stock end might look painful, but in reality it isn’t.

I load the classic weight, 240gr bullet. But I use the Campro FCP/TC (no lead for me). It is a great plinking load with 9.0gr of TiteGroup. Not too hard on me or the rifle. I do have a magnum hunting load with H110 and XTP’s, but I have yet to try it out on a coyote hunt. It also cycles .44spl rounds without a fuss. I’ve never had any mis-feeds.

Great rifle for the price point. There are things you can do to mitigate the minuses I mentioned above. And over time, the sharp edges will begin to round out making loading a more pleasant experience. You can also change out the ejector to something lighter. The fit and finish on mine is great. The wood looks wonderful too. It does have a silly safety.

Andy 6MT
 
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I have a Rossi ranch hand in .44 and a 16" stainless rifle that I bought in 2011 and 2014. The 16" is the last rifle I'd ever sell and the one I would keep is I could just keep one. I've put a cut down stock with a shorter LOP of about 12" and hollowed out the inside, the rifle is just over 5 pounds. It's very compact, easy to handle, easy to carry, and very fun to shoot. Both guns always feed and always go bang, they're often in the tent when we go camping. My only regret is that I can't get a synthetic stock for them.

Both guns have shot hundreds of full power loads and I've had no problems with either.
 
I have a 357 mag lever with the 16 inch barrel that I bought new this summer and it is built very nice. It shoots and cycles 38 special too
Been playing around with different load data and bullet types/weights to get it as accurate as i can but I have been struggling to find a combination that it really likes
These new Rossis aren't exactly cheap either this one was over 1200 bucks
 
I've got a stainless 454 that I installed a Marbles tang sight on, I'm more than happy with it.
Shooting 325 gr hard cast.
 
Thanks for the responses. I'll have to check one out in person. I'm not a fan of curved but plates while wearing heavier hunting jackets but it's considerably cheaper than a new Henry all weather.
 
I've had two of the 16" barrel .44 magnums, one pre-safety blued and one post safety stainless. A buddy now owns the blued model, and he's very happy with it, no problems. He has younger, better eyes than me. My stainless model has had the silly original buckhorn sight replaced with a much superior peep sight ( Skinners? ) that screws into the hole left when the safety was removed. Wonderful conversion. The only real problem I've had with mine is the loading gate. Sharp like others have mentioned. AND it blows out and protrudes from the action when firing full power loads. I assume the slight amount of gas blow - by before the case seals in the chamber causes the poorly fitted loading gate to bounce out of place and protrude a bit. It doesn't affect loading or function, but looks like crap and I want to get it fixed. Assume I'll need a new loading gate with spring attached.
 
I am not familiar with the Rossi 92's at all. When they added that safety, did they remove the half #### notch on the hammer, or does it still have that "half ####"? I presume when at rest, that the hammer down is NOT resting on the firing pin - maybe a transfer bar?
 
Potashminer said:
I am not familiar with the Rossi 92's at all. When they added that safety, did they remove the half #### notch on the hammer, or does it still have that "half ####"? I presume when at rest, that the hammer down is NOT resting on the firing pin - maybe a transfer bar?
Click to expand...

Half #### still in place. The safety thing was to satisfy the US import requirements.
 
A few weeks ago, I handled a Rossi in 44 mag.
The action was very smooth, the built quality seemed OK, no idea what kind of wood it had.

I decided to buy a Henry instead, better quality overall, excellent warranty, and most importantly, it is easy to install optics on a Henry.
It will be difficult to install anything on a Rossi.
 
partial said:
A few weeks ago, I handled a Rossi in 44 mag.
The action was very smooth, the built quality seemed OK, no idea what kind of wood it had.

I decided to buy a Henry instead, better quality overall, excellent warranty, and most importantly, it is easy to install optics on a Henry.
It will be difficult to install anything on a Rossi.
Click to expand...

Skinner sells pic rails for Rossi and Winchesters, not to mention the peep sights.
 
I've had a stainless 20 inch M92 in 44 mag for close to ten years now and I have very little bad to say about it. The bolt safety is easy to get rid of and that would be first and foremost on my list of things to do, second is the buckhorn sight, it sucks to say the least IMO but someone must love it! After that it's all good as far as my experience goes, I also have a stainless 24 inch M92 Rossi in 357 and it's as good or better than my 44 mag for fit and function.
240 grain hardcast loads at 1100 fps with Trailboss for subsonic plinking loads and 300 grain XTP's with H110 at full power for carry, great guns in my humble opinion.
 
vp6111 said:
Skinner sells pic rails for Rossi and Winchesters, not to mention the peep sights.
Click to expand...

Just checked the Skinner site.

The peep sight will replace the rear sight, which makes for a short sight radius, not ideal.
Same with the rail, it installs on the barrel,

https://youtu.be/VhUVVkpN-1c?si=pwmpOM_HeZwGUG7Y

As I said, difficult.

If you do not plan to install optics in the future, the Rossi might be a good choice.
 
I did me former Rossi 44 Trapper up using a Boyd's buttstock, Marbles sights & reshaped lever from my 357 RH along with A Steve's Guns ejector spring & stainless mag follower. Great little rifle that shot well with my cast loads.

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AlbertaJohn said:
Did you ever hunt with the 454 casull?

I've been thinking about getting one in 454
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I took it out some this year, alternated days with it and the 1895 winchester in 405. I never got a shot with the 454 but am confident it would work fine as its really no different than a factory loaded 45-70 in a much smaller package. I shot a doe with the 405.

I put a Marbles tang sight on the rossi, and it really is not very useful in the fading light, accuracy is great in the daytime though. The 1895 wears a williams FP peep that is much better as the sun goes down, but that is no surprise as the peep has a larger hole. I never tried removing the apeture in the marbles tang sight on the 454. I bet that would have made a big difference.
 
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