Thought others may like to know about these handy little rifles. Here is my review and report on my example, others may not have the same issues I had.
Well I just got one of those Rossi Ranch hand rifles recently and while a handy and nice looking rifle out of the box, it had lots of little issues which took a full pull down and good clean up to get it working well.
Before packing it back up and sending back to the dealer who I got it from, and after reading online horror stories about warranty service, I decided to see if the issues were fixable as I have quite a lot of experience with Winchester Model 92 lever actions which this rifle is a direct copy of.
First thing I noticed was a thin covering of light rust throughout the bore, luckily it was only very minor surface rust that cleaned up completely after passing a bronze brush through the bore multiple times. The first 3 patches after the brush were coming out completely rust red. Anyhow that problem is now fixed.
Then I noticed a few finish blemishes like bluing wear and minor scratches. These I can live with as it is going to be a rifle used in the bush and will undoubtedly get far worse from me in time. But still not really acceptable for a new in the box firearm.
Next was the action was very rough and hard to cycle and also was locking up and not allowing the lever to work. Only way to get it to cycle was to tap on the locking lugs with a plastic headed hammer a few times for the lever to unlock. Also the ejector was sticking and not working properly as well and was as I later found part of the problem with the action locking up. This made this rifle completely non-functional and PITA to try and use.
So I decided the next course of action was a complete pull down to examine and correct these issues. Now I would recommend that owners of this rifle who are not very familiar with this model to not try what I did if they are having similar issues with their rifle, but to take it to a gunsmith or return it for exchange (not a option for me as my dealer is sold out).
Anyhow I found many burrs and metal shavings inside the action, which I removed and a slightly bent ejector which I managed to straighten out. I also found many sharp edges and rough spots that I also removed. I then lubed it up properly and reassembled and tested. Well all I can say is wow, what a difference this made, the rifle now reliably cycles like it should, trigger release is excellent, lever is twice as smooth and easy to operate.
All in all, these are great little rifles and if they had just spent a little more time and attention on them when putting them together they would be excellent rifles out of the box.
Well I just got one of those Rossi Ranch hand rifles recently and while a handy and nice looking rifle out of the box, it had lots of little issues which took a full pull down and good clean up to get it working well.
Before packing it back up and sending back to the dealer who I got it from, and after reading online horror stories about warranty service, I decided to see if the issues were fixable as I have quite a lot of experience with Winchester Model 92 lever actions which this rifle is a direct copy of.
First thing I noticed was a thin covering of light rust throughout the bore, luckily it was only very minor surface rust that cleaned up completely after passing a bronze brush through the bore multiple times. The first 3 patches after the brush were coming out completely rust red. Anyhow that problem is now fixed.
Then I noticed a few finish blemishes like bluing wear and minor scratches. These I can live with as it is going to be a rifle used in the bush and will undoubtedly get far worse from me in time. But still not really acceptable for a new in the box firearm.
Next was the action was very rough and hard to cycle and also was locking up and not allowing the lever to work. Only way to get it to cycle was to tap on the locking lugs with a plastic headed hammer a few times for the lever to unlock. Also the ejector was sticking and not working properly as well and was as I later found part of the problem with the action locking up. This made this rifle completely non-functional and PITA to try and use.
So I decided the next course of action was a complete pull down to examine and correct these issues. Now I would recommend that owners of this rifle who are not very familiar with this model to not try what I did if they are having similar issues with their rifle, but to take it to a gunsmith or return it for exchange (not a option for me as my dealer is sold out).
Anyhow I found many burrs and metal shavings inside the action, which I removed and a slightly bent ejector which I managed to straighten out. I also found many sharp edges and rough spots that I also removed. I then lubed it up properly and reassembled and tested. Well all I can say is wow, what a difference this made, the rifle now reliably cycles like it should, trigger release is excellent, lever is twice as smooth and easy to operate.
All in all, these are great little rifles and if they had just spent a little more time and attention on them when putting them together they would be excellent rifles out of the box.
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