Brand new stainless .44 mag w/20" barrel

[williamc]

Gents,

I took delivery of my new 92 last week! Thanks so much for all your contributions to this forum, as the information was critical in making me feel better about inspecting my gun.

I spend the first few days giving myself a nice bruise on the middle finger of my cocking hand. Seriously, I probably have 500+ cycles through the action without a single live fire. Like everyone said, the works smoothed up very nicely with breaking in. I disassembled the gun and took down a few burrs, which helped even more.





A couple of observations:
1. The barrel is drilled and tapped for the Rossi scope mount
2. The barrel has been relieved for front band and forearm band screws. Both go in and out with no resistance.
3. I don't have any .44mag ammo on hand (stupid panic buying...), but the gun cycles my standard 240gr SWC .44 special round pretty well. I'm sure with RNFP bullets this rifle will chew through ammo!
4. The ejector spring appears to be of reduced power, as empties make a light hop out of the action when cycling
5. The specs on the Rossi web page are wrong for this gun. It is 5 lbs., 14 oz. Rossi's web site says it is 5 lbs. even. I wonder if the stainless guns weigh more?
6. The quality of the wood appears pretty good. I think it'll look awesome when refinished. Both the forearm and buttstock have very prominent grain that will need to be filled when the stock is refinished. It is pretty soft, though, as my dry firing has put a bunch of dents on the stock from dummy rounds hitting on ejection. I'll have to fill the dents and sand when time comes to clean it up.



7. This is one of the dirtiest new guns I've ever purchased. I used a whole can of brake cleaner to de-goo it.

Build quality issues (other than a few burrs and rough spots in the action in need of attention):
1. The upper tang to wood fit is poor. It wasn't enough for me to send the rifle back, but I'll be looking to fix that when I refinish the stock.



2. Speaking of which, there was discoloration on the barrel where the wood was touching it. I may move up my plans to refinish it, stain it and seal.
3. The trigger sometimes gets jammed into the safety notch in the hammer. The first time it happened, the gun locked up tight and I had to dissasemble it partially to free it. I think there's a burr somewhere in the mechanism that I missed. I can free it now by bulling back hard on the hammer.
4. The hammer seems to be plated, not stainless. The plating is flaking off where the bolt hits the hammer. If this proves to be an issue, I may send all the non-stainless parts for hard chrome plating in the future.



After a week of dry-firing and running around my house cowboy-style, I'm pretty pleased with my purchase! This is going to be a fun gun!



For some reason, this photo makes me pretty happy!

William

[Ranch Dog]

A great looking rifle and glad to hear there is really only one issue, the trigger issue, with the rifle. You could tell if it handles 44 Mag cartridges by just seating one of your 44 Spl cartridges to an overall length of 1.61".

[williamc]

Updated with detailed photos.

Here are a couple of shots of my dummy rounds after being cycled through the action 50+ times each. The scraping on the case, I believe, is from the loading gate. The savage dents on the case head are from the ejector. If I break the edges of the ejector will that affect performance?

[pricedo]

That gun is really mangling brass.
If they do that during my initial pre-buy in-gunshop test they stay on the rack.

[williamc]

The 50+ figure is very conservative, and these rounds were cycled during the initial break-in period. They're also LSWC bullets, so the load isn't ideal. The action cycles a lot smoother now, and feeds much cleaner. The dents on the case head are from hang-ups in feeding where the ejector dug into the brass. I'm sure with a little more deburring and use the wear will be more than acceptable.

In my search for a stainless .44mag 92 I went to (or called) every gun shop in the Atlanta area and 3 gun shows. I only saw 4 92s - a blued 20" 45, a blued 16" 44, a blued 24" .357 and a 16" stainless 45. Two of those were at a gun show, where there is no way we'd be able to cycle ammo through them. As much as I'd love to visit all these gun shops that have racks and racks of 92s to pick from, the reality in my area is that to get one I'd have to order it sight unseen.

I think part of purchasing one is setting expectations in the right place. In my case, my rifle cost less than my Single Six in the picture above. I knew when I got it that there would be minor issues that need correcting. I don't think there is anything in my rifle that is terminal, so overall I'm pleased with my purchase.

[Arktikos]

That is a nice looking gun!

[pricedo]

That is a nice looking gun!

Indeed it is.
I'm not impressed with the cheap Rossi nickle plating that sheds like a snakes skin.
What did Rossi expect would happen around an impact area like the face of a trigger hammer ...........I guess they just didn't give a damn as usual.
I prefer the "blue" models cause they stay blue......we hope.

[williamc]

Thanks, everyone! For everyone's reference I paid $454 +$5 shipping insurance + $25 FFL fees, or $484 total. This was significantly lower than the prices I saw on the 4 92s I saw in person.

Yeah, the plating job is pretty cheap. Fortunately, hard chrome plating is attractive, durable and inexpensive. If I decide to get it done, I'll plate the hammer, locking lugs, carrier, cartridge guides and loading gate.

Also, after having it for a few weeks now, I've come to like the firing pin safety. It isn't super-attractive, but it is unobtrusive in normal use and adds another layer of safety when I'm bumming around the woods. I can flick it on/off with my thumb without looking at it. I was looking at getting a plug, but I'm going to keep it.

Again, thanks to RD and everyone else here. The information I gleamed pre-purchase made me feel a lot better about what I was getting into. Now the REAL fun begins.

[Ranch Dog]

Again, thanks to RD and everyone else here. The information I gleamed pre-purchase made me feel a lot better about what I was getting into. Now the REAL fun begins.

You're welcome. As you say, "now the Real fun begins" but it really is fun!

[Rooster59]

Are you sure you would want to chrome the locking lugs? They look to be stainless on my trapper. If they are stainless wouldn't plating make them tighter in their slots?

I'm not familiar with chrome plating and how much thickness the plating would add. It seems like the plating could change the headspace too. Just curious.


Jeff