Brand New Rossi 92 .357 Magnum - Can't Chamber a round...

[RayMich]

For years I have wanted to get a lever action rifle chambered in .357 Magnum as a companion for my S&W .357 Magnum revolver. I had hoped to get a Marlin 1894C or CSS, but could never find one and now, after the Freedom Group bought out Marlin, fired everyone at the 140 year old Connecticut factory and moved all the tooling to the Remington factory in New York state, their quality and reliability went from best in class to the absolute worst. So now Marlin is out of the question for me.

I've been reading about the Rossi M92 rifles for quite while and have been told that they finally got their act together and are now building good lever guns, so I ordered a new Rossi 92 Stainless Steel Carbine with a 16" barrel in .357 Magnum (Model R92-56018). - Last week I took delivery of my new rifle. However, it looks like I got a Lemon.

While hand cycling the action, there are quite a few times that the action jams and will not close. I have to re-cycle the action before it will close. It appears as if the Locking Bolts are hitting the Breech Bolt as they move up when the action is being closed. Someone told me that perhaps it just needs break-in, but I've never had a gun jam while cycling the action, especially a brand new gun. Even when it doesn't jam, it definitely is not as smooth at my Henry .22 and .44 Magnum lever guns.

Feeding the rifle through the feeding gate is tricky at best. The spring cover is very stiff and the cartridge hangs-up part-way while being fed and I have to wiggle it in order get it to go into the mag tube. This is very hard on the fingers and thumb.

The worst part of the deal is that this gun absolutely WILL NOT CHAMBER any of my .357 Magnum hunting ammo. - I only use factory ammo. I have tried Federal 158gr JSP, Winchester 158gr JSP, PMC 158gr JSP and they all get stuck with the nose just barely into the chamber and will not budge. The soft nose of the bullet ends up with a small gouge as if there is a big burr inside the chamber. I have no problem chambering .38 special 130gr FMJ Flat Nose ammo, but the full size 158gr .357 ammo will not chamber at all. - Thinking that perhaps the problem was the lead soft nose in those bullets, I then tried a Speer Gold Dot 158gr cartridge since the bullet does not have any exposed lead. - Well, that one got stuck so badly that I thought I was going to have to field strip the gun in order to get the stuck round out of the receiver.

Needless to say, I have not been able to shoot this "Brand New" rifle.

The 158gr JSP .357 Magnum ammo is a typical hunting round that I use and obviously I have no problem shooting that ammo through my S&W .357 Magnum revolver. But it is definitely a "NO GO" in this new Rossi 92 rifle.

Did I end up with a lemon? - Is there something I can do to easily correct these problems or do I need to send this rifle back to Rossi?

Thanks in advance for your assistance and comments.

- Ray -

[pricedo]

I've been reading about the Rossi M92 rifles for quite while and have been told that they finally got their act together

- Ray -

Different name .........same ole act...........line, verse & chorus........like a badly tuned violin.

[Model 52]

It's hard to say without looking at it, but obviously it should not have left the factory running that way.

The stiff loading gate is pretty normal, and grinding away about 1/3to 1/2 of the width of the spring will resolve that. With the rest it's possible that it may just be something loose or mis-aligned inside, or it could be a major error in milling, faulty cartridge guides, etc. You'd need someone familiar with Rossi 92s to look at it, but it probably needs to go back to the factory.

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I do think Rossi can make a quality rifle or carbine, but I treat them like I treat the angry beavers that make or assemble things at Century International Arms - another company well known for very spotty quality control. Like CIA, I would not buy a Rossi that I was not able to carefully inspect before purchase and ideally I like to have 4 or 5 to inspect and select to enable me to get a really good one. In that regard, the key words in your post are "ordered" and "took delivery". I'm not sure of your specific circumstances, but ordering a rifle from a dealer and taking delivery from that same dealer you're paying on delivery is probably acceptable as if it does not pass your inspection, you just don't accept it for reasons that will be obvious to you and the dealer. In fact, with a really good local gun shop, the dealer will be inspecting everything that arrives before it goes on the rack and any lemons will have long since been returned. In most cases after you send a few back, they stop sending you the crappy seconds.

In any case, the dealer, being a dealer is in a much better position to return it to his wholesaler or the factory for an exchange, or alternatively to get a steep discount on the rifle in exchange for keeping it and fixing it locally if it's a known and resolvable issue. You'd be amazed how deep a now factory second rifle can be discounted just to keep it from coming back to the factory. The other side of that however is what happens when those rifles or carbines are returned as unfortunately, they don't always get fully repaired, and along with other factory seconds may get shipped to dealers with little interest in inspecting that arrives. Large volume on-line dealers are prime targets here as they don't tend to inspect them and they are not face to face with the unhappy buyer so they refer them to the factory.

Consequently, if you order from and pay an on-line dealer and have it sent to a local FFL for pickup, then it's your problem to manage and you'll have to deal long distance with the on-line retailer, who may not really care much about your problem as your complaint won't drive him out of business. Realistically that means you are probably dealing with Rossi and sending your rifle to Brazil, which is still figuratively speaking weeks away by banana boat. In that case your local dealer is only invested to the depth of the $25 or so you paid for the transfer fee, so he won't be much help other than maybe looking at you funny for being surprised that you tried to save a buck buying on line rather from him and got screwed. Local guns shops charge more but they do so in large part as they deal with the issues like this so you don't have to and bear the expense of stocking items so you can handle it, feel it and inspect it before you buy and return it and exchange it if it doesn't run.

In my experience, with guns like Rossi or anything CIA has assembled, you don't save any money over the long term buying them on-line.

[Ranch Dog]

Welcome to the forum Ray, return it to the dealer. When the replacement arrives follow the Braztech Rossi 92 pre-purchase inspection checklist

[pricedo]

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Like CIA, I would not buy a Rossi that I was not able to carefully inspect before purchase and ideally I like to have 4 or 5 to inspect and select to enable me to get a really good one.

GEE ..............where have we heard that before ...........another seasoned Rossi buyer.

[Model 52]

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Like CIA, I would not buy a Rossi that I was not able to carefully inspect before purchase and ideally I like to have 4 or 5 to inspect and select to enable me to get a really good one.

GEE ..............where have we heard that before ...........another seasoned Rossi buyer.

That's pretty funny. But true...

[RayMich]

Thank you all for your replies.

This is my first ever Rossi/Taurus firearm and I must admit that my previous decisions to avoid Taurus firearms is being reinforced by this rifle's less than stellar performance.

When I went to pick up this rifle, I inspected it as much as I could short of putting live ammo through it. The fit and finish looked good. And cycling the action at the dealer's counter felt OK at the time. -- Snap Caps chamber fine, but then they are not shaped like the typical 158gr .357 hunting ammo.

I was told by someone who 'claims' to be a Rossi M92 expert that these guns are not designed to chamber full size .357 ammo, especially 158gr hunting ammo and that I should only use the Hornady LEVERevolution ammo with the tapered bullet and polymer tip. I have a hard time believing that these rifles aren't designed to chamber 158gr Jacketed Soft Point hunting ammo, particularly since I've read threads in this forum about people using 158gr ammo in their Rossi 92s without any problems.

I ordered the rifle from Davidson's specifically because of their lifetime/free-replacement warranty and took delivery through one of their local dealers. Looks like I am about to test their warranty.

I've already talked to the dealer and he said to bring it back, so it looks like this rifle will be going back on Monday.

Best regards.

- Ray -

[pricedo]

There are a lot of "lemons" that look identical to the good ones.
THOROUGHLY check em & function test em with snap-cap ammo before you buy em & if they (at the shop) won't let you check em & test em don't buy em..........simple eh !
If a gun dealer/shop has a 10 - 30 day return policy that's the place to buy your guns to avoid getting stuck with the junk, "I shoulda been a reject" Rossi rifles some of our members have.

[ironhead7544]

Thank you all for your replies.

This is my first ever Rossi/Taurus firearm and I must admit that my previous decisions to avoid Taurus firearms is being reinforced by this rifle's less than stellar performance.

When I went to pick up this rifle, I inspected it as much as I could short of putting live ammo through it. The fit and finish looked good. And cycling the action at the dealer's counter felt OK at the time. -- Snap Caps chamber fine, but then they are not shaped like the typical 158gr .357 hunting ammo.

I was told by someone who 'claims' to be a Rossi M92 expert that these guns are not designed to chamber full size .357 ammo, especially 158gr hunting ammo and that I should only use the Hornady LEVERevolution ammo with the tapered bullet and polymer tip. I have a hard time believing that these rifles aren't designed to chamber 158gr Jacketed Soft Point hunting ammo, particularly since I've read threads in this forum about people using 158gr ammo in their Rossi 92s without any problems.

I ordered the rifle from Davidson's specifically because of their lifetime/free-replacement warranty and took delivery through one of their local dealers. Looks like I am about to test their warranty.

I've already talked to the dealer and he said to bring it back, so it looks like this rifle will be going back on Monday.

Best regards.

- Ray -

I have used all manner of bullet types in the 357 Rossi rifle with no problem. It makes no sense to sell a 357 Magnum that only uses 1 brand of ammo with a specific bullet.

Also, I dont think the LEVERevolution ammo was around in 1892 when the rifle came out.

[Model 52]

Thank you all for your replies.

This is my first ever Rossi/Taurus firearm and I must admit that my previous decisions to avoid Taurus firearms is being reinforced by this rifle's less than stellar performance.

When I went to pick up this rifle, I inspected it as much as I could short of putting live ammo through it. The fit and finish looked good. And cycling the action at the dealer's counter felt OK at the time. -- Snap Caps chamber fine, but then they are not shaped like the typical 158gr .357 hunting ammo.

I was told by someone who 'claims' to be a Rossi M92 expert that these guns are not designed to chamber full size .357 ammo, especially 158gr hunting ammo and that I should only use the Hornady LEVERevolution ammo with the tapered bullet and polymer tip. I have a hard time believing that these rifles aren't designed to chamber 158gr Jacketed Soft Point hunting ammo, particularly since I've read threads in this forum about people using 158gr ammo in their Rossi 92s without any problems.

I ordered the rifle from Davidson's specifically because of their lifetime/free-replacement warranty and took delivery through one of their local dealers. Looks like I am about to test their warranty.

I've already talked to the dealer and he said to bring it back, so it looks like this rifle will be going back on Monday.

Best regards.

- Ray -

I have used all manner of bullet types in the 357 Rossi rifle with no problem. It makes no sense to sell a 357 Magnum that only uses 1 brand of ammo with a specific bullet.

Also, I dont think the LEVERevolution ammo was around in 1892 when the rifle came out.

Well there is that inconvenient little detail.

The amazing thing in my opinion is that the Win and Rossi 92s handle straight wall cartridges so smoothly given that the design was never intended for use with them. Given the pressure and fouling realities of black powder lever guns of the time used tapered cases that were either very long in rifle calibers, etc), or slightly bottle necked. The tapered case eased extraction in BP fouled chambers as the entire case would be out of contact with the chamber wall as soon as any degree of rearward movement occurred. The long case or bottle neck helped ensure the case would seal quickly at the comparatively low black powder pressures, and thus reduce the amount of gas and soot that came back into the action.

People wax poetic about the small rim on the .45 Colt and how that prevented it from every being used in an original BP era Model 92, while missing the larger point. The .45 Colt was the .44 Mag of it's day by using the longest practical case in an un tapered design. The rim was only required for head spacing and the extraction issues of a straight walled case in a BP cartridge were not a concern as the pistol it was intended to be used in had a rod ejector. In contrast the .44-40, .38-40 and .32-20 were all tapered cases with a slight bottle neck for the two reasons noted above.

What made a straight wall cartridge work in the model 92 was smokeless powder, but the impressive part is that the un tapered full diameter cartridges like the .45 Colt, .44 spl / .44 Mag and .38 spl/.357 mag feed as well as they do.

So despite the failure of the above referenced "Rossi expert" to grasp the obvious regarding Hornady FTX bullets, there was a grain of truth in what he said (in that the 92 was never designed for straight walled cartridges) even if he was also wrong about it not working.