Rossi Rifleman

I have a 92 I bought used. I think it was fired a few times and put away. I've had issues with it jamming up ever since I bought it. It'll release two rounds sometimes while cycling a round up to the chamber.

I've disassembled the rifle and filed some off the angled Hinge portion of the retainer finger that comes out from the left side of the receiver ,it for sure moved the finger over but that didnt help. The gun occasionally spits out a few rounds as you are cycling it and causes the gun to jam up and the loading gate to actually pop a little bit over flush with the receiver. It literally sticks out a bit when it jams up... I have to tap the loading gate back into the receiver with a dowel and hammer. I'm wonder if my factory loading gate just isnt too short period.

Any ideas? Thanks for the help.

Sounds a bit like your weapon was filed upon a bit too much with regard to the loading gate.

Have you checked the spring behind the 'finger' to make certain it is installed in the correct orientation?
If it is installed incorrectly you can get problems.

Use the Similar Topics suggestions at the bottom of this page and also the search function and see what you can find here on the forum. Most feeding problems probably have happened before and there are some very good walk through posts explaining the problem and fix.

If you find the fix in question you might post a link to it on this thread.

Removing stock from the cartridge stop might not have been the best idea for a gun that's double feeding. Major sources of problems with the 357s seems to be cartridge OAL and gummy shipping grease holding things up.

Make smoke,

The cartridge finger spring is correctly installed and the internals are clean as a whistle.. The over all length of the cartridge doesnt really matter with it. It will spit a few out here and there no matter the oal.
I didnt remove any stock from the cartridge stop itself. Just the joint so the finger could move over to cover more of the case head. It seems to be over now just as far as a coworkers 92 .357 rossi. His loading gate sits below the face of the receiver. Mine will obviously push through the opening when it jams.

There's very little tolerance for removing any metal from the loading gate or the port in the receiver itself. There's just enough interference to keep the gate in where it belongs.

Any filing or stoning of the gate or port to get rid of finger-pinching sharp edges must be done VERY carefully, or you'll end up with a gate that pops out.

You may get lucky, and just be able to replace the gate. But if Bubba hosed up the port in the side of the receiver, that's another story.

rondog wrote:There's very little tolerance for removing any metal from the loading gate or the port in the receiver itself. There's just enough interference to keep the gate in where it belongs.

Any filing or stoning of the gate or port to get rid of finger-pinching sharp edges must be done VERY carefully, or you'll end up with a gate that pops out.

You may get lucky, and just be able to replace the gate. But if Bubba hosed up the port in the side of the receiver, that's another story.

This was in part my point, that it may be that before you got the gun someone else may have been inside it and may have screwed up the gate.

Replacing the gate may be the easiest option. Depending on your skill set, available materials and tools it MIGHT be possible to add material to the edges and reshape it.

As for the double feeds and the comments above about OAL, it can be as simple as the difference in length or bullet shape between a 125 grain projectile and a 158 grain one with the same case. My rifle seems happy with both .38 SP and .357 Mags. I was initially concerned as I had a couple feed issues with .38 snap caps but the dummy rounds were slightly thinner than real ammunition and those issues have not shown themselves with live ammo.

A friend has one that will feed 140 grain .357 with a hitch to each feed stroke but eats 158s smooth as silk all day long. The 140s he had were more of a cone where as the 158s were more of a round nose and as they entered the chamber the 140s reach a steeper angle before contacting the top of the chamber and nosing in line with the bore.

It is not uncommon that the .357 guns from the factory don't seem to care for .38 SP.
The 1892/1886 designs can be sensitive to OAL and bullet shape when it comes to the magazine stop and feeding into the chamber.