Rossi Rifleman

I recently traded into a new blued Rossie 92 in .44 Mag. I have Lyman sizers and can size from .427 to .432 assuming the actual bullet will handle such a range. I know, slug the barrel, but I have been stuck in a retiree "shelter in place" area for 90 days, and would like to hear what any of you have found as the bore diameter of a current production .44 Mag. With luck I might be able to shoot the same loads in my S&W 629 Classic. Thanks in advance, Gray Fox.

I'll have to look in my notebook to be sure, but I think that mine has a bore right on .429

So I always size .430 to .431 and it works fine.


I powder coat my bullets and have recently tried sizing at bore diameter to .0005," over and that works just as well as sizing them bigger. Since the main reason for sizing larger is to keep them from leading so bad, and the powder coat stops leading completely, there's no need to size big.

Cast bullets that you use for your S&W 629 will be fine for your Rossi .44.

I don't cast, so purchase commercial cast bullets. Most vendors advertise they size to .430, but when I micrometer them, more often they measure .4305 to .4310 and they work wonderfully in S&W's and ,44 levers. In recent years I have been using more powder coated bullets with good success. The powder coated bullets even make an old Marlin micro-groove barrel behave.

Contemporary S&W 629's seem to be manufactured with slightly smaller cylinder throats, but the ,430 sized cast bullets are still accurate.

Thanks for the info, guys. I have about 1,000 240 Keith style SWC with gas checks sized to .431 and I'll load up a batch with 2400 or 296 and see how they shoot. I have a 2x scout scope on it and I should be able to give it a good eval. Gray Fox

Start with 2 or three dummies to check for feeding.
There have been some reports of Keith bullets having problems feeding in some guns.

2 weeks ago I purchased a brand new R92C .44 Mag stainless steel with a 16" barrel. The barrel slugs at .4325. To me this is way out of spec. I'm waiting to hear back from Rossi to see if they will replace the barrel. With that bore, .429-.430 bullets will be very inaccurate. This rifle had way too many problems to be sold. Cartridges would not feed through the loading gate (burr inside the left side of the receiver digging into the bullet nose), double feeding cartridges (cartridge stop binding in the left cartridge guide), cartridges won't feed from the carrier into the chamber (they get hung up in the chamber mouth). I hate sending anything back to the manufacturer especially with Rossi's reputation, but that out of spec barrel really bugs me. Again, I'm waiting to hear back from Rossi.

roys29 wrote:2 weeks ago I purchased a brand new R92C .44 Mag stainless steel with a 16" barrel. The barrel slugs at .4325. To me this is way out of spec. I'm waiting to hear back from Rossi to see if they will replace the barrel. With that bore, .429-.430 bullets will be very inaccurate. This rifle had way too many problems to be sold. Cartridges would not feed through the loading gate (burr inside the left side of the receiver digging into the bullet nose), double feeding cartridges (cartridge stop binding in the left cartridge guide), cartridges won't feed from the carrier into the chamber (they get hung up in the chamber mouth). I hate sending anything back to the manufacturer especially with Rossi's reputation, but that out of spec barrel really bugs me. Again, I'm waiting to hear back from Rossi.

Welcome to the forum. I hate to be negative, but I sure would not expect much fro Rossi. I'd give it a zero chance of the barrel being replaced. That seems to be the norm of their barrel stock as of late. As diameters go, that is same as the "JM" Marlin's, what many consider to be one of the best cast bullet rifles. Both Accurate and NOE offer molds that would fit.

I have early Braztech rifles of all the cartridge offerings save the 44-40 Win. All of mine were at the SAAMI spec diameters. In that I was a Marlin guy, I had to go mold shopping for the Rossi's as my Marlin's all needed fat bullets. Not sure what happened with Rossi. I think that when Taurus became involved, the barrel dimensions increased. I owned a bunch of Taurus pistols and revolvers, and their barrels are "fat". I think they use it as a method of venting chamber pressures.

roys29 wrote:. . . The barrel slugs at .4325. To me this is way out of spec . . .

This can be frustrating. I have a Browning B-92 that slugs at .431". Its accuaracy with .430" cast bullets is miserable -- often keyholing. My salvation was .432" 240 gr TCBB bullets from Penn Bullets. These are very accurate.

Read the copy regarding all of Penn's .44 cast bullets, then read the individual bullet decriptions. This is good info and Robert Polermo is a great guy to deal with. Describe your problem to him. He'll deal with you as an individual.

https://www.pennbullets.com/44/44-caliber.html

Thanks dlidster. I'm actually looking at a .434 gas check NOE bullet mold.

I had same idea but what die would you use to install the gas check? The ones that I've seen are for standard bullet sizes, i.e., .429. Gets kinda pricey for a $80 mould, $35 handles and a sizing die to add gas checks. I'm hoping powder coating helps. My barrel groove dia. Measures .433".