Rossi Rifleman

My first time doing this, but slicked up my R92 following Steve's video, youtube, forum finds and things that just made sense to me.

After reassembly, everything works but when I open/pull the finger lever all the way down to cock, if you're holding the gun in your left hand and wiggle the lever with your right, everything feels looser, wiggly. I look down at the bolt and it wiggles from side to side in the receiver, seeming too loose, like I took off too much steel when I was deburring and smoothing edges. But I only hit the corners of the pieces in the bolt, not the sides so I don't see how that could have caused the looseness. Maybe it was like this before and I am just scrutinizing too much now. Any advice? I guess I need to go to a gun store and check out other Rossi's or Winchesters.

My 20" 44 Mag has a tiny bit of play with the lever full down. The bolt can be moved a little side to side MOSTLY at the rear of the receiver for a few thousandths.

My 24" 44 Mag has nearly zero play even with the lever full down. A lot tighter than I expected in all honesty.

A common tolerance in building airplanes is +/- 0.030" on many parts and fastener positions one parts that don't have to be close toleranced.
I have heard it said that +/- 0.030" from one end of a 707 to the other is +/- 1 ft on the total airplane length.

I have watched a number of youtube videos and have come to the conclusion there's a lot of people more willing to sand, file and grind the heck out of the insides of a gun that works very well from the get go than I am.

In particular I recall a series of videos where the person polished the heck out of the innards of a R92 and in many cases did not REALLY have a reason for doing so other than a desire to have glass smooth surfaces or to match the right and left locking lug contours cosmetically or because they perceived a rough spot on a part. It MAY be that symmetrical and identical locking lugs make the gun work smoother but the video that was doing that work didn't exactly prove the case to me AND a future video by the same author (he made several vids showing his work up until that point) mentioned down in the comments as a reply to someone that he went too far with his Rossi and impacted reliability and functionality of the gun. Polishing a rough spot that isn't on a working surface probably doesn't hurt anything but at the same time doesn't accomplish much if anything. Polishing all the machining marks out of a surface may knock that surface down by ~2 or more thousandths if the marks are 'rough' maybe a quarter of that if they are simply 'visible'. Do that on both sides of the part and you've got double that amount of induced play. Do that on inner and outer mating surfaces of both the receiver and the bolt and you wind up with 4 times that amount of play...

On my .357 RH if I push the bolt to the right I can slide a .020 feeler gauge in the gap at the top to within 3/16 of the end and if I push it to the left I can slide a .018 one to within 1" of the end. I call it the uniformity of nonconformity.

With the lever down and pushing the bolt to the right, I can slide a .018 feeler gauge in the gap on the left side of the bolt. Pushing the bolt to the left, I can slide a .009 feeler gauge in the gap on the right side of the bolt.

So, if your Ranch Hand is stock and not slicked up, then I guess mine is normal or not too terribly gappy. I just never paid attention to this gap stuff before, I suppose.

Thanks.

JMHO, but what matters is when it's all locked up in battery and ready to fire. Who cares how "loose" it is when you're cycling it?

My R92 is 33 years old and has 0.010-0.012" at all four corners with the lever down. I would never have cared to measure unless for this topic.

rondog wrote:JMHO, but what matters is when it's all locked up in battery and ready to fire. Who cares how "loose" it is when you're cycling it?

What he said.
The only work I've done on my bolt is to file a raised lip down from around the firing pin hole on the face of the bolt, polish the face and inside corners of the ejector, and file down one side at the rear of the bolt where the hammer was hitting and dragging. No need or desire to hone/polish the sides of the bolt or the rails in the receiver.

I suppose you could silver solder a couple of shims to the bolt rails.

rondog wrote:JMHO, but what matters is when it's all locked up in battery and ready to fire. Who cares how "loose" it is when you're cycling it?

Point of the post is to see if I "slicked" it too much and thus ruined it. That's why I cared.

JimN wrote:

rondog wrote:JMHO, but what matters is when it's all locked up in battery and ready to fire. Who cares how "loose" it is when you're cycling it?

What he said.
The only work I've done on my bolt is to file a raised lip down from around the firing pin hole on the face of the bolt, polish the face and inside corners of the ejector, and file down one side at the rear of the bolt where the hammer was hitting and dragging. No need or desire to hone/polish the sides of the bolt or the rails in the receiver.

Inside the receiver and sides of my bolt would shred your fingers if you stuck them in there to position the carrier and cartridge guides. They were razor-like in there.