rossi rifle question
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Own a couple of the older pre-Taurus/pre-Br#####h Amadeo Rossi M92 lever action rifles - a 20" bbl Rossi M92 carbine in 454 Casull - a 16" bbl Rossi M92 trapper in 357 Mag.
These rifles don't have the lawyer safety junk (bolt safety, hammer lock) the new Br#####h Rossi R92 rifles have.
They were a little rough NIB but after I removed the butt stock and rinsed all the crap (cosmoline, dirt, machining grindings) out of the action into a pail with dechlorinated brake parts cleaner and afterwards re-lubricated with fresh oil both guns are very smooth and slick.
My cousin lucked out on a 2013 adult moose tag and borrowed the Rossi M92 in 454 Casull and shot a big bull moose just south of Kirkland Lake, Ontario with it last fall from 80 yards.
He was using a load (Paco Kelly) featuring a hardcast 335 grain lead bullet and H110 powder which kicks em out at 2000+ fps for about the same ME as a 180 grain bullet from a 30-06 Sprng.
The bull was down with its hooves treading air before his finger was off the trigger.
I've had four of them pass through my hands. The original that I bought for cowboy action shooting and general plinking and three that I've slicked up for friends that wanted a nice handling pistol caliber plinker or cheap cowboy action rifle.
Out of the box they are somewhat heavy and a little rough on the trigger and lever. But as the round count goes up they smooth out somewhat. But the biggest bang for the buck is to install a cowboy action reduced power spring kit. This REALLY slicks them up.
One of them has run into a issue which likely involved a burr or too sharp an edge at the magazine tube opening. But even then it only shows up now and then.
Wood finish is poor on the new ones. Oh sure, they fit without any wobbles but the tinted poly finish they use looks like poo. On the last two I did just recently I tried to strip it but the stuff resisted the really good paint and varnish stripper. Instead I had to sand it off. The shape of the shoulder stock is also left quite blocky so I rasped and filed the section to something more oval with a more sloping sides up to a narrower comb line to make it easier to hold to the cheek bone. I then used a mix of boiled linseed and stain to re-finish the wood.
As far as accuracy goes the barrels are very good. All the Rossis I've seen shoot well. Those that don't respond to a change in ammo and fall into line easily enough.
Because of the roughness out of the box I would say that these are rifles which are best viewed as "partially finished" and one should accept the need for the final touches of some slicking up work and the spring kit. Or one needs to be somewhat tolerant if they want to use it through the long extended "break in" that is needed before they self burnish the parts inside. Even then it'll have a "field safe" trigger and lever due to the extra power springs in the stock gun.
So why do I feel that these rifles are STILL a good deal? Because even if one has to pay a smith to do a basic slicking up job and install the spring kit they still come out quite a few hundred less than the other lever rifle options.
Out of the box they are somewhat heavy and a little rough on the trigger and lever. But as the round count goes up they smooth out somewhat. But the biggest bang for the buck is to install a cowboy action reduced power spring kit. This REALLY slicks them up.
One of them has run into a issue which likely involved a burr or too sharp an edge at the magazine tube opening. But even then it only shows up now and then.
Wood finish is poor on the new ones. Oh sure, they fit without any wobbles but the tinted poly finish they use looks like poo. On the last two I did just recently I tried to strip it but the stuff resisted the really good paint and varnish stripper. Instead I had to sand it off. The shape of the shoulder stock is also left quite blocky so I rasped and filed the section to something more oval with a more sloping sides up to a narrower comb line to make it easier to hold to the cheek bone. I then used a mix of boiled linseed and stain to re-finish the wood.
As far as accuracy goes the barrels are very good. All the Rossis I've seen shoot well. Those that don't respond to a change in ammo and fall into line easily enough.
Because of the roughness out of the box I would say that these are rifles which are best viewed as "partially finished" and one should accept the need for the final touches of some slicking up work and the spring kit. Or one needs to be somewhat tolerant if they want to use it through the long extended "break in" that is needed before they self burnish the parts inside. Even then it'll have a "field safe" trigger and lever due to the extra power springs in the stock gun.
So why do I feel that these rifles are STILL a good deal? Because even if one has to pay a smith to do a basic slicking up job and install the spring kit they still come out quite a few hundred less than the other lever rifle options.
Mine is in 45 colt. It took a little while to find a load it liked, but now it shoots very well. I have yet to work out a heavy hunting load. It is a fun gun to handle and you can feel like a cowboy 
. I have much better & as fast handling hunting gun in more suitable calibers. This said I still look at them when they come up for sale. They can be bought for under 500 just keep looking & other places than EE.
. I have much better & as fast handling hunting gun in more suitable calibers. This said I still look at them when they come up for sale. They can be bought for under 500 just keep looking & other places than EE.Mine is in 45 colt. It took a little while to find a load it liked, but now it shoots very well. I have yet to work out a heavy hunting load. It is a fun gun to handle and you can feel like a cowboy
With the Rossi 92 in 454 Casull you get a 454 Casull and a 45 LC all rolled into one because the gun can fire both calibers since the 45 LC is the 454 Casulls "parent" cartridge.
My 454 Casull loads push a 335 grain hard cast lead bullet over 2000 fps for a ME around 3000 ft-lbs and will take any North American big game out to 150 yards which is good for most deer, bear and moose hunting applications.
The Lee "Gunslinger" spring kits are hard to find in Canada but installing one of those along with a little deburring and polishing make the rifle really slick.
I apply a couple of coats of Tru-oil right on over the resident factory "shoe polish" finish and work it into the wood very well.
After a 48 hour curing period and some buffing the resulting finish is as weather resistant and fine looking as the factory finish on any Winchester lever action rifle I've ever owned.
An outfit called Steves Gunz in the states will sell you a kit which consists of a spring kit, a metal magazine follower, and a instructional DVD for about $70CDN,
The DVD is a really good step-by-step tutorial on how to slick up a Rossi 92 and includes the complete stripping and reassembly operations in a monkey see monkey do format a 6 year old could understand.
I recently acquired a Rossi R92 in .357mag/.38spl with a 20 inch octagonal barrel and case hardened receiver from SFRC. Only had it out to the range a couple of times and was concentrating on looking for some of the "issues" I read about on various forums (stiff action, excessive ejector, fit/finish, loading issues with some ammo, etc.). I don't have any "slicked up Cowboy Action" rifle to compare it with, but after a bit of usage, here's what I found:
1. I find the action just fine, having done nothing but add a bit of lube to a few points in the action.
2. I have no issues with an excessive ejector (in fact I had the impression that a bit more ejector power would be nice as shooting standing up and working the action with the rifle still on my shoulder, I had ejected casings bouncing off my ball cap and even had one go down my Tshirt (not a sizzler but I knew where it went). Top eject isn't my preference.
3. The loading gate is still a bit stiff and edges need to be rounded a bit (I'll do that when I disassemble it and maybe change out the mag follower). I loaded 10+1 of a combination of Pachmyr A-ZOOM .357mag FP snap caps (OAL=1.545) and .38spl RN snap caps (OAL=1.405) and cycled the action fairly fast with no loading/ejecting issues. I did the same with 10+1 of Wolf .38spl 158g SWC (OAL=1.455) without issue. I have only shot S&B 158g JSP (OAL=1.583) and still no issues.
4. Fit was fine but as others have said the stain/finish looks weak. I've got some Truoil already and will apply that soon.
5. The only issue I have is that the front bead and rear semi-buckhorn sights don't work for my old eyes. Younger eyes may not have any problems. This rifle will be exclusively for Cowboy Action (whenever I get started), so sight changes will have to stay within SASS limits. I'm considering flattening the buckhorn and using a larger white front bead. The rifle seems to have a bias to the right of about 3" at 50 yards and I'd prefer to see some detent in the rear sight elevator plateaus to lock in the rear sight.
Overall, I'm quite satisfied.
1. I find the action just fine, having done nothing but add a bit of lube to a few points in the action.
2. I have no issues with an excessive ejector (in fact I had the impression that a bit more ejector power would be nice as shooting standing up and working the action with the rifle still on my shoulder, I had ejected casings bouncing off my ball cap and even had one go down my Tshirt (not a sizzler but I knew where it went). Top eject isn't my preference.
3. The loading gate is still a bit stiff and edges need to be rounded a bit (I'll do that when I disassemble it and maybe change out the mag follower). I loaded 10+1 of a combination of Pachmyr A-ZOOM .357mag FP snap caps (OAL=1.545) and .38spl RN snap caps (OAL=1.405) and cycled the action fairly fast with no loading/ejecting issues. I did the same with 10+1 of Wolf .38spl 158g SWC (OAL=1.455) without issue. I have only shot S&B 158g JSP (OAL=1.583) and still no issues.
4. Fit was fine but as others have said the stain/finish looks weak. I've got some Truoil already and will apply that soon.
5. The only issue I have is that the front bead and rear semi-buckhorn sights don't work for my old eyes. Younger eyes may not have any problems. This rifle will be exclusively for Cowboy Action (whenever I get started), so sight changes will have to stay within SASS limits. I'm considering flattening the buckhorn and using a larger white front bead. The rifle seems to have a bias to the right of about 3" at 50 yards and I'd prefer to see some detent in the rear sight elevator plateaus to lock in the rear sight.
Overall, I'm quite satisfied.
The stock factory sights worked well with my 335 grain hard cast load.
Of course my M92 in 454 Casull is one of the older Amadeo Rossi M92s and the sights might be different than the ones on the new Br#####h R92s.
I don't care for the lawyer safety crap (safety switch on top of the bolt, hammerlock) on the new Br#####h rifles.
Br#####h could have spent the money providing a better fit and finish and some quality control.
A friend brought me one of the new Br#####h R92s to fix up and it was pretty rough.
Quality seems to be variable out of the box and you could open the box and get a junker or a really nice rifle - a toss of the dice.
It's not a rifle I'd buy sight unseen unless the dealer agreed to take back defective guns.
I have a S/S 16" .44 mag, Br#####h version. As others have said, they are a little rough out of the box, but smooth up after time. I bought mine from the Calgary Shooting Center, not sure what they might have in stock these days though. I bought mine for a camp gun, it's actually more compact than my 10/22, but holds 8+1 rounds of .44 mag. It's a fun little gun to shoot, especially with the loads reduced to .44 Special levels.
canthitathing, you should have someone watch how high the brass goes with the stock ejector. Likely as not it peaks about 4 feet over your head before turning to rain on you. At one shoot I only got half my brass back from the pickers as the rest had lobbed up onto the roof of the ranch house façade in that cowboy action bay. The new spring in the kit in no way hinders the speed of loading. And it's still strong enough to pitch them up higher than my hat.
The softer ejector spring also reduces the pressure needed to close the lever. So that and the lighter trigger from the reduced power mainspring and trigger return spring are the two big issues.
All I can say is that if you like your rifle now with a spring kit you'd begin taking it to bed and gazing fondly at it for hours at a time.
No guarantee but Rossi seems to be taking the complaints of rough insides to heart. The two I got for fixing up just a couple of months back are new production and when I took out the parts that normally had needed some polishing they were already done along with a healthy chamfer on the bottom edge of the chamber mouth. The things I was going to do had been done at the factory. How long that'll last I don't know. But it reduced my "slicking up" work to mostly just putting in the spring kits and refinishing the wood work.
By the way, Rusty Wood Trading sells a similar spring kit to what Steve's does. And since it's located in Canada there's no long customs clearing wait. And if you can work from pictures and words then there's a few good write-ups on slicking up the Rossi.
The softer ejector spring also reduces the pressure needed to close the lever. So that and the lighter trigger from the reduced power mainspring and trigger return spring are the two big issues.
All I can say is that if you like your rifle now with a spring kit you'd begin taking it to bed and gazing fondly at it for hours at a time.
No guarantee but Rossi seems to be taking the complaints of rough insides to heart. The two I got for fixing up just a couple of months back are new production and when I took out the parts that normally had needed some polishing they were already done along with a healthy chamfer on the bottom edge of the chamber mouth. The things I was going to do had been done at the factory. How long that'll last I don't know. But it reduced my "slicking up" work to mostly just putting in the spring kits and refinishing the wood work.
By the way, Rusty Wood Trading sells a similar spring kit to what Steve's does. And since it's located in Canada there's no long customs clearing wait. And if you can work from pictures and words then there's a few good write-ups on slicking up the Rossi.
I have the trapper 16" bbl versions in 357 Mag and 44 Mag.
The 44 Mag version is a good short range brush gun for deer and even moose considering that grampa used to shoot bull moose he'd called in close with a real Winchester model 92 in 44-40 caliber which was significantly less powerful than the modern 44 Mag cartridge.
I used to charge $50 for the Steve's Gunz slick up with the owner supplying the kit.
The proper "race ready" slick up involves some CAREFUL trimming and polishing of springs and parts.
You have to be careful when you're deburring, stoning and trimming not to take too much metal as it doesn't grow back.
You also have to be careful to do your grinding beside a running water tap to cool the metal frequently or the springs will lose their temper and become brittle and break when flexed.
A lot of stuff to think about.
I'm more careful with other peoples guns than I am with my own so it takes me about 2 hrs to do a rifle from the first twist of the screw driver to the last.
The proper "race ready" slick up involves some CAREFUL trimming and polishing of springs and parts.
You have to be careful when you're deburring, stoning and trimming not to take too much metal as it doesn't grow back.
You also have to be careful to do your grinding beside a running water tap to cool the metal frequently or the springs will lose their temper and become brittle and break when flexed.
A lot of stuff to think about.
I'm more careful with other peoples guns than I am with my own so it takes me about 2 hrs to do a rifle from the first twist of the screw driver to the last.
