Intro to my new 92

The Rossi Model R92, a lightweight carbine for Cowboy Action, hunting, or plinking! Includes Rossi manufactured Interarms, Navy Arms, and Puma trade names.
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Falconer
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Intro to my new 92

Post by Falconer »

Hey folks...
Had the itch to pick up a lever action for a long time. Been my favorite style of rifle since I was a kid. Was looking at Winchesters, but jeez, they're pricey for an old gun. LOL...
I went by a gun show a few weeks ago and saw a Rossi 92 blued. Piqued my interest. Asked a few questions, was kinda skeptical, as the price was "too good to be true". The guys at the show indicated it was a solid rifle but a little rough around the edges. I went home and started researching. Found this site, a couple of others, and a bunch of vids about this gun. Since I have a couple of .38s, the 38/357 looked like a good idea for me. Read a lot about the rough action, the fit/finish issues, and the feed problems. Looked into what it would take to smooth it out, and it didn't scare me off.

So I started looking around for one, and the stainless looked pretty nice compared to the blued one. (I know, it's the Ford/Chevy debate all over LOL) I was down in Phoenix last week and stopped into a store and they happened to have that carbine in the 20" barrel for a pretty reasonable price compared to online sales. So I "pulled the trigger" on it this weekend.
Agonized over ammo types (that's a serious rabbit hole for sure!) and figured since it's so hard to find, I'd just take my chances with whatever round nose styles I could find. Picked up some 406 in 38 and 357 158 gr RNFP, along with some Norma in 38 in 158 gr JHP.
Unboxed it yesterday evening and gave it a more thorough going over, cycled the action a bunch of times, and everything seemed pretty solid. Really nice wood (I was really surprised at how nice it looked compared to ones I've seen online), good fit/finish, and the action was pretty crisp and clean.
So I took it out to the range this morning. Didn't do anything to it before shooting as it seemed pretty solid. Started with the 406 38s. Fed the mag just fine, a little hard to push the gate but not bad. No cut fingers, but the edges of the loading port could use a little rounding.
Cycled the rounds just fine. No issues with failure to feed or fire at all. Trigger is crisp and smooth. Sighted it in, but forgot to bring tools so couldn't adjust windage. Sights are OK, not great but workable. Got some nice groups around 2-3 inches at 50 yards.
Moved to the hollow points, expecting more feed issues. Nothing. Smooth as could be. Extraction is reasonable, all the rounds landed within about 5 feet from me. Seems like they've cleaned up the overly strong ejector spring over the years. After my reading, I was expecting to chase brass around but it was all close by.
Got similar groupings with the Norma. Didn't take the .357 with me, just the .38 for today.
I am very impressed with this carbine. It looks good, fed well, shot well, and felt good against my shoulder even after running a hundred rounds through it.
Definitely exceeded my expectations. I'll be doing a full teardown, inspection, and cleaning tomorrow and see what it looks like.
I like this gun. It seems like most of the poorer reviews of it were from a few years ago or more. I think they've done a nice job with it and I'm glad I bought it. Looking forward to finding more ammo (hopefully bulk if I can find it) and shooting the heck out of it for a while.

Charlie
Kingman, AZ
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Re: Intro to my new 92

Post by T-Steve »

Welcome! I'm glad you found a rifle.

I was quite surprised how much the rifle smoothed out over the first few hundred rounds and dry fires. Good luck!
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sandog
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Re: Intro to my new 92

Post by sandog »

My .357 was made back in late 2016 but already had the improved features, smoother action, and a hammer and ejector spring that have a sane weight. Also earlier guns seemed to be given the same (long) length magazine spring no matter the barrel length, so if you had a 16" barreled R92 your mag spring was way too long.
Mine seems to be the correct length, sticking out of the tube 4-6 inches when relaxed.

Even though the action was smooth and no springs needed changing, I did a complete disassembly in order to look for burrs and to remove any preservative in the action, if any, and then relube key points.
The only burr I found is where the hole was punched through the bottom of the bolt for the lever pin.Image
I'd hate to have to rely on finding (and paying for) factory ammo these days. Glad i reload, I can go shooting more.
The Sportsman's Warehouse in Flagstaff and Prescott is keeping .38 Special in stock lately, and they also have Federal .357 JHP and JSP. I guess the closest Sportsman's to you would be Vegas or Flag.

A good bulk ammo is the Remington .38 Special +P with 158 gr. scalloped JHP. They come in 100 packs for $40.
I bought some at Sportsman's a while back, great accuracy and gets close to 1000 fps. in the handgun.

Sights on the Rossi could use improvement, I find the brass bead front to be too fat.
And if you upgrade the rear sight you might have to get a different height front anyway.
I like the 1/16" white bead sights that Marbles makes.

A peep makes hitting easier and faster. For the 92 you'll have to have the side of the receiver D&T'd for a Williams or Lyman.
Or you can get the Steve's Guns peep that replaces the top safety. They are not ideal, but an easy way to get a peep on your Rossi.
Once you get the sight tight with no wobble, they provide the same sight picture that a side mounted peep would give. Just not as much adjustment, and you only have elevation, if you need a windage correction you drift the front sight.
The bolt delete peep is $60, a bit much for what it is, but you don't have to take your gun to a smith to have it drilled and tapped. You don't have to take the gun apart to install the peep, just open the action enough to drift out the pin that holds the safety in. You'll probably have to do some fiddling per the instructions to get the peep snug.

There are also peeps that go into the rear sight slot such as the Marbles "Bullseye" and the Skinner.
I haven't used either but i don't think I'd like a peep so far from my eye.
I went a different route and used a ladder sight, mine being a take off from a Uberti 1873.
The Uberti sight is an exact copy of the carbine ladder sight that Winchester used on the 1866, 1873 and 1892.
If bought new the Uberti is $120. For that much I'd pay a bit more and get a better ladder sight from Skinner or Smith Enterprises.
Image

One thing I do to all the Rossis is change out the magazine follower. The factory one is plastic, and while it isn't commonplace for them to crack and swell, it has happened.
I like the anodized aluminum ones in red or blue.
You can also get them in stainless and brass, but to me, stainless looks too much like nickel plated brass, and brass looks like, well, brass cased ammo.
I don't want a follower that is the same color as the ammo I use.
I can look in my action after shooting and see that bright blue follower down in there, and know that no more rounds remain in the mag.
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Re: Intro to my new 92

Post by Archer »

I agree with a lot of the previous comments.
One clarification, the Marbles bullseye rear sight is a ghost ring rather than what I'd call a peep sight.
Falconer
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Re: Intro to my new 92

Post by Falconer »

I did a teardown and cleanup today. Pretty dirty in the action, nice to clean all that stuff out of there. found one burr on the inside back of the frame. Smoothed that down but didn't touch anything else. Clean and light lube in the right places. Hope to get out and shoot some more later this week.
Sportsman's in PHX didn't have any 38/357 when I was down there but they said they'd get some soon supposedly. My local shop had some Ammo Inc 125 gr TMC for $32 so I snagged 4 boxes of that for the next trip.
I'm with ya on the different colored follower... mine is green and I like that easy to see color. I'll look at some better replacements with a good bright color. Gonna stick with the sights for now and see if I can adapt to them. The less changes I need to make the better.

Charlie
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sandog
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Re: Intro to my new 92

Post by sandog »

I think you are talking about the store just off the 101 and I-17.
It is a much bigger store than the ones near me, but despite all the ammo on the shelves there, I never seem to find anything I need.

The Prescott and Flagstaff stores are better stocked as far as .38 and .357.
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cavelamb
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Re: Intro to my new 92

Post by cavelamb »

Falconer wrote:I did a teardown and cleanup today. Pretty dirty in the action, nice to clean all that stuff out of there. found one burr on the inside back of the frame. Smoothed that down but didn't touch anything else. Clean and light lube in the right places. Hope to get out and shoot some more later this week.
Sportsman's in PHX didn't have any 38/357 when I was down there but they said they'd get some soon supposedly. My local shop had some Ammo Inc 125 gr TMC for $32 so I snagged 4 boxes of that for the next trip.
I'm with ya on the different colored follower... mine is green and I like that easy to see color. I'll look at some better replacements with a good bright color. Gonna stick with the sights for now and see if I can adapt to them. The less changes I need to make the better.

Charlie
Just get the stainless mag spring cap from Steve's and paint or powder coat it.
Neon green would be great, but all I had was red.

That tall buckhorn style sight that Rossi used bothered me.
I trimmed off the "horns" and made it very much like a pistol sight.
It lines up real nice now.
Top of front fight flush with the top of rear at 50 yards.
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