Rossi M92 .454 Casull

The Baron

The Baron

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Is anyone else out there enjoying a Rossi 92 in .454 Casull? I recently picked one up, originally thinking I might just satisfy a long-time curiosity about this cartridge and an ever present interest in lever guns (although I haven't taken one afield since I last carried a Savage 99 in .300 Savage back in about 1985 - go figure). Mine is a 20" blued version. I grabbed some factory ammo, hit the range and found this little rifle with the big attitude quite endearing. I've now got a rear sight dovetail mounted skinner peep on the way and just laid in a modest supply of Hornady 240gr. XTP ammo, which the gun shot into about 1.5" at 50 yards despite the vague semi-buckhorn sight and my hyperopic hatred of same.:rolleyes:

This little gun will come with me when checking bear baits this fall and I hope to have the skinner peep setup for deer season, to see if I can't thump some venison with my new sidekick. Has anyone used theirs with success in the field? What game, what bullet/load and how did it work out?
 
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I just got a 20 inch a few months ago; it seems to like both 250s and 300s

The 300s recoil is pretty hefty though, I much prefer shooting the 250s. Strangely I have a 338 that is the same weight but the recoil is much more manageable; I think it is a combo of the recoil pad and straight grip. Both have basically the same poi at 75 yards so 250s can be used for practice.

Does not look like I will be hunting this year sadly; but I have it all set up to hunt deer and elk. I had to replace the rear sight with the one from my henry .22 because the recoil was making it slip and change poi between shots.
 
I've had mine for close to 8 years now . a 20 inch blued rifle .

frontier bullets make a 390 grain plated bullet that works really well for me .

i've also been resizing some 400 grain .458 bullets to .454 and they have been grouping very nicely .

i've also bee playing with a lee "real " bullet mold with a recut nose , it comes out at 265 grains and seems to work very well .

for rabbits / grouse i've been using Winchester 250 grain " cowboy" loads in 45 colt . ( aim for the head ) .

i've shot a deer with a 300 grain hornady hollow point , basicly one shot " bang flop " through the lungs .

the 300 grain hornady hollow point bullet is my go to rounds for bear protection .

the height adjustment for the rear sight keeps going to the lowest setting each time I fire it .... it used to bother me , now I am used to it .

I clipped a couple coils out of the hammer spring and honed all the bearing surfaces with a 10,000 grit stone .

I find it rusts easier than other blued rifles , so I keep it well oiled ( stock included ) with coconut oil .... why ? because I like how it smells and it works just as well as anything else out there .

once I had honed and deburred the action on my rifle it made a huge difference on how it ran but this isn't for the faint of heart ..... it is fairly complicated and you need high quality screw drivers to prevent making a mess of the screw heads ( even then I reground the tip of the one I was using to get a better grip on the screws ) .

even with hotly loaded 454 rounds recoil is like a 6.5x55 . I can shoot it all day and it doesn't beat me up .

45 colt rounds are like shooting a 22 on steroids .
 
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even with hotly loaded 454 rounds recoil is like a 6.5x55 . I can shoot it all day and it doesn't beat me up .
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There is a disconnect here. Most of my shooting of it was done from a bench testing the accuracy of different loads and sighting it in with the two sights.

I will say you are a braver man than I; though I would like to try the 390s.
 
I have a stainless 20" in .44 mag. Probably my favourite toy. I'm thinking that it recoils about the same as my 30-06 bolt gun. I couldn't imagine a 300gr 454!
 
The 250 grainers honestly remind me of shooting a 30/30. Winchester factory ammo.

The 300 grain hornady factory ammo is on a whole nother level; reminds me of a marlin guide gun with moderate handloads.
 
all I can say is , you guys need to shoot more and bigger rifles , and learn to shoot them properly ...... there is nothing to be scared of ..............

and if you think your recoil sensitive , wear ear plugs and ear muffs over the top .... all of a sudden the recoil seems to be less . lots of people are very sensitive to sound , but in their minds it gets confused with recoil .
 
Thanks guys. Interesting that I never thought of the rear sight moving under recoil, but I just checked and it is at its lowest setting. Which worked find at 50m for me, but the first shot with the Hornady 240's was high (friend fired it) and the next few (fired by me) were bang on. We just assumed it was different eyes but maybe the sight did jump down the ladder under recoil on that first shot.

I only tried two different factory loadings - Federal Fusion 260gr. and Hornady 240gr. The Hornady definitely gave more felt recoil, which makes sense as they run 650 fps faster than the Federals (according to the box, anyway). I've now bought some of the Hornady 300gr. to try as well. My opinion on the recoil is that it's not unbearable, but I do have plans to put a much better recoil pad on (Kick-eez or something like that).:rolleyes:

Q for you, Mr. burnt_servo as you seem to have a lot of experience with the same rifle... is shooting .45 Colt ammo as good as loading down some 454 brass with a lead plinker load? I've read about leading of the chamber when shooting the shorter Colt brass, but not sure if that is really a serious concern if the Colt stuff is very mild like that cowboy stuff.
 
all I can say is , you guys need to shoot more and bigger rifles , and learn to shoot them properly ...... there is nothing to be scared of ..............
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I own plenty of bigger rifles I can shoot capably; when did this become a tough guy contest? If you want to pretend the gun recoils as much as a 6.5x55 go ahead but physics don't lie...
 
I had a 20" many years ago. I used 300 grain xtp bullets loaded to max with H110, can't remember exactly off the top of my head. It definitely got your attention!
 
Yeah, haven't tried 300's yet myself but expect them to be about all I care to feel. I'll be the first to admit I don't enjoy recoil - and I'm 6'4" and 240#. LOL

Recoil is very much subjective. I had a .30/06 mountain rifle that was (I thought) very unpleasant with max loaded 180gr partitions, but a friend had a .416 Rigby that was more enjoyable to shoot (heavy gun). I owned a .45/70 Marlin that was a pussy-cat with factory 405's, so I bought a Marlin .44 mag (just a plastic butt plate) as a fun gun. Took it to range and fired about 5 shots and was like "what the heck!" - little bugger was way worse that the 45/70, I thought. So, a .454 with a good recoil pad might "feel" better that a lightened up surplus 6.5x55 with a steel but plate.
 
Yeah, physics is a #####, and she doesn't lie. A gun shooting X grains of bullet at Y velocity and weighing Z pounds is going to produce a specific amount of recoil, and you can't do anything to change that. But there is a huge difference in perceived recoil vs actual recoil. All those little variables like gun fit, type/size/shape of recoil pad, grip shape, amount of muzzle blast and a host of others all add up to some guns seeming to be much lighter or heavier in recoil than others, even though the numbers say otherwise.
 
I call mine my 45-70 light I shoot from 200gr cowboy action low velocity 45 Colt loads up to 405gr WFNGC cast 454 Casull loads.

It feeds everything and is very accurate for a lever gun.
 
Recoil itself doesn't bother me but when my finger in the trigger guard gets chewed up or smacked around that is when I decide I have reached my limit. Obviously how the gun fits a person would have a lot to do with it.
 
Carr1ck said:
Mine won't cycle anything very well and came with the wrong front site.
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Send it too Peter Riedel at Rusty Wood Trading Company in Mission, BC he will slick your action up so it runs cowboy action competition smooth for you.

Yes he is a CGN sponsor.
 
jjohnwm said:
Yeah, physics is a #####, and she doesn't lie. A gun shooting X grains of bullet at Y velocity and weighing Z pounds is going to produce a specific amount of recoil, and you can't do anything to change that. But there is a huge difference in perceived recoil vs actual recoil. All those little variables like gun fit, type/size/shape of recoil pad, grip shape, amount of muzzle blast and a host of others all add up to some guns seeming to be much lighter or heavier in recoil than others, even though the numbers say otherwise.
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This in spades.^^^
 
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