New guy with a few questions

[Augustus]

Got my eyes set on a Rossi 92 16" 45 Colt. Never owned a lever gun before and I'm wondering if the 16" barrel is a good idea or not. Also, I understand that they don't make a 16"octagon barrel for the Rossi. I guess my question is: Will I regret having a 16" barrel? And, what benefits does the octagon barrel offer?

I will basically be using this rifle for home defense / plinking / and pretending to be living back in the late 1800's.

[donhuff]

I have a 357 16 inch and at first I thought that I would not like it, but it has grown on me really well. It is so short and easy to handle. It may loose a little speed to the longer barrels but it hard to tell without a chronograph. Pus it has soon much more than the same bullet when fired in a pistol. I'm curious as to how much faster it would be in a 24" barrel. But really does not matter that much as I very seldom soot full power magnum loads. Matter of fact, about half of what I shoot are WEAK 38 specials.

Ya know they do make a 20 inch octagon barrel model.

As far as the oct barrel being a benefit, I don't really think it would be any "better" just different and heavier.

[dpe.ahoy]

The 16" is very quick to point and easy to maneuver in tight places, like hallways. They don't hang on target as well as longer barrels, but are still easy to shoot. Careful about over-penitration in home defense. DP

[Model 52]

I have 16",20" and 24" lever guns in .45 Colt as well as a chronograph.

It really depends on the specific load but on average you probably are not going to lose more than 50 fps with a 16" barrel over a 20" barrel, and a 24" barrel only adds another 30-40 fps.

Personally, I think the 20" barrel balances better, at least in .44 and .45 Colt.

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Rossi generally follows the Winchester convention, and won't do a "short rifle" shorter than 20", and stays with the Winchester edict that carbines always had round barrels.

For historical context:

In the 1892, the carbine normally had a 20" barrel, comprising about 33% of the total model 92 production, while the rifle had a 24" barrel and comprised about 66% of production. Barrel profiles followed the same pattern with carbines always having round barrels and rifles almost always having octagon barrels for a similar 33%-66% split.

There were about 800 Model 92 rifles made with 26" barrels, and also about 1200 Model 92 carbines with 14" to 19" barrels, and finally about 800 Model 92 short rifles with 21" to 23" barrels. Full magazines were the norm with 99% of the carbines and rifles having full length magazines.

In the Model 1886, carbines were normally 22" (about 6% of total production) with the rifles normally having barrels of 26" length (about 87.1% of production). There were fewer than 800 26" rifles made, and approximately 35 rifles with barrels 27" or greater. There were only a hand full of 20', 24', 28" and 32" barreled 1886s made and single digit or low double digit numbers in other odd lengths. 80% had full magazines and about 10% had half magazines. Round barrels were 32.5% of production and octagon barrels were 65.3% of production. 2.2% (3,131) had half octagon barrels.

In the Model 1894, standard barrel length was 20" for the carbine and 26" for the rifle, with the standard rifle barrel being reduced to 24" after about serial 950,000 for rifles in .30-30, .32 winchester special and .25-35 calibers.

In general, across Winchester lever gun models in the late 1800's early 1900s, a carbine had a 20" barrel and a rifle had a 24" or 26" barrel. A "short rifle" was a firearm with a rifle configuration (with a fore end cap and a hanger for the magazine tube support, and with no front or rear barrel band) but a barrel length of 20" to 23" in length.

Carbines ALWAYS had round barrels, while rifles and short rifles could have round, octagon or half octagon barrels.

So... the modern trend toward 16" barrel carbines by Winchester, Rossi, and to a lesser extent Armi Sport is not something you'd have seen very much at all back in the day. They would have been exclusively special order firearms and very rarely encountered. Half octagon barrels were also very rare and special order only.

It bothers me that SASS can be so picky about western dress, but then allows 16" carbines that would have been exceptionally rare back in the day. Apparently they see a need to get picky about the unimportant stuff, then blow it on the firearms portion of the *shooting* competition.

[Augustus]

Thank you, Gentlemen. Great info and much appreciated!