Home Forums Lever Action Central Cowboy Levers Rossi 92 and Steve's Gunz

Been looking and the Rossi as delivered by Steve may be the best option for me in a pistol caliber carbine.

But I have questions.

How close a clone is the Rossi to the original 92? Are there any lawyered extras or safeties on the Rossi?

Would I be better off with a shotgun style butt plate?

What kind of accuracy should I hope for?

Is one or another particular load preferred or warned about?

Will the Rossi, as delivered by SG hold up to enthusiastic shooting? (not necessarily high pressure loads)

Anything else I need to know?

The Rossi '92 are strong......yes...newer ones have a lawyer built in safety......Steve will remove & plug.....

I sent SG a new Rossi '92 45 Colt several years ago......close to $300 upgrade project........

Money not well spent.......what caliber are you looking for ?

Marlin's are much easier to tear down...clean...maintain....polish up your self.....

Along with being mfg'd in the USA.......yes..referring to pre RemLins...pre 2009 ish

I've had a few Rossi '92's......but no more.....pre safety Marlins (pre 1982 ish)

Even the X/bolt safety models are great rifle/carbines....just some prefer clean line pre safety

Buying directly from Steve, fixed up by him to your specs, is probably the most economical way to go. His prices are good; you save shipping and time. Give him a call. Great guy to work with.

DF

Looking to get a feel for how things are with the Rossi as done by SG.

One guy says his money was wasted

Looking for specifics on what to expect

Am I better off shelling out for an older Marlin?

Depends on what you want. The ‘92 is stronger than the Marlin, no 454 Marlins.

You can scope a Marlin.

First I’ve heard of someone not pleased with Steve’s work.

DF

I want a general use carbine. Accurate enough for small game. Powerful enough to be a reliable deer taker.
Will not wear a scope. Preferably a .357 I think...

A vintage Marlin will serve that need as well as a slicked up ‘92.

To me that would depend on the individual deal.

DF

I just got a Rossi 92 357 today. So far I'm really impressed.

New, used, slicked up or out of the box?

DF

The former owner had it slicked up and the safety deleted.

That does make a difference.

DF

Love to hear about it whenever you get around to shooting it...

I was shooting it yesterday but only with 38 specials in it. It did well.

How far were you shooting and how well did it hit what you were shooting at?

you can slick up a rossi and delete the safety very easily if you have a modest amount of mechanical aptitude. All you need are a couple of punches a small hammer, some fine sand/emery cloth or stone, and some screw drivers. You will want to buy a spring kit which is about $30 dollars. You can make your own plug for the former safety or buy one from Steve. There are several you tube videos that show how to take down and reassemble.

You do roll dice when you buy a rossi, but if you get a good one they are really nice, can easily fit a peep or tang sight on them and/or buy a scope mount for a scout scope from NOE.

If you wonder about rossi's go to the Rossi Rifleman Page they discuss them in great detail and those guys will help you with any problems you might have.

Just buy a CT USA made Marlin ............

At 50 yards I was hitting claybirds with ease.

I'm trying...

In a different thread I mentioned my diffugalties in getting registered with gunbroker. Then about 4 days ago I tried to sign on and it worked. Until today... Now my account is under manual review. again.

It'd be simpler If you'd just sell me one...

If you lack time to shoot, I could wring it out for you a bit.

I'd buy a bag of the little california cutie oranges and see if I couldn't pretty regular hit them at 50

No lack here. I'm heading out to shoot it again here in a few minutes.

And I finally got it done. Not gunbroker, but the marlin 1894. It's a 1979 manufacture .357, and it came via a good guy from the Campfire who responded to my classified plea.

Just picked it up today as I'd been out of state visiting family in Kansas. Took it out back a while ago and it put 5 into a piece of cardboard with a 3" magic marker circle on it. 4 of 5 in the circle offhand at 50 feet mad me happy.

Gonna spend some serious time with this one.

Congrats !

1979 was a good year for Marlin......same as my 357....

Cool. Good choice!

I like the Marlins, have a few, 44 mag, 30-30, 35 Rem, 45-70. All JM earlier guns. But.............
Love the Winchester and the clones. Nothing carries like a 92, 94, 86 or 71, nothing, love them. But I'm going to scope the Marlin 30-30 with a 2 x 7 Leupold and the 35 Rem with a 1 x 4. peep of some kind on the 44 and 45-70.
Have a Rossi 44 with a 16" barrel and a 357 Stainless 20" barrel. Both nice out of the box, will be doing the Steve's Gunz upgrades this winter.
What I need is a 94 in 38-55 or one I can send to JES for a re-bore.

The best deal, often the case; get your gun directly from Steve. He packages the price of the new gun with his work and you save time and postage back and forth.

Just a thought.

DF

Try reading this by Jim Taylor. I supplied some of the bullets for the test.
https://www.leverguns.com/articles/taylor/rossi.htm

I bought a Rossi 92 in 45 Colt several years ago, slicked it up from youtube videos, deleted the safety and put a rear peep sight on it in place of the safety. My up close eyes got bad and I couldn't really shoot it very well. I did the sacreligious and put a red dot on it, it is now one of my favorite rifles. They are very strong, I run some pretty hot loads through it.

Thing I noticed about the Rossi is that the blued ones are much slicker than the stainless.

Altgough I really like the 1894c, think if I was to buy another levergun it'd be a 92 in 357. They're just so light and handy. I like the look, feel, and packability of the 16", but the 20" points easier. I'd just roll with the factory sights.

I sure would like to find one in 454 that was looking for a new home,all slicked up and ready to go. Cheers NC

Are folks like Steve reaming 45 Colts to 454?

I would seriously doubt it.

Liability would be thru the roof, IMO.

Rossi certifying them to be safe is another matter. Joke's on them if something blows.

Call him and ask.

DF

I wouldn't have to acquire the 454. The LC with WFN heavy cast bullet is hard to stop and most bodies would have two holes in them. One in and one out. You won't recover many bullets. Heavy bullets at moderate velocity was one of the things Elmer Keith taught me. Handgun calibers also can gain a bit of velocity in a carbine barrel. Be Well, Rustyzipper.

Agree.

A .45 LC full house load is about all you gonna want. It'll do what you need it to do.

DF

What's a Rossi from Steve's cost?

How close a clone is the Rossi to the original 92? --Pretty close except it doesn't have the disconnect that requires you to close the lever as a '92 does.

Are there any lawyered extras or safeties on the Rossi? There is a safety on the top of the bolt. I had it removed and replaced with a peep sight.

Would I be better off with a shotgun style butt plate? Up to you. I generally prefer a carbine buttplate on a rifle for quick use.

What kind of accuracy should I hope for? My son and I manage 3 shot 1.5" groups at 50 yards with irons. This is for two different rifles with my general purpose handload of 15.0 gr 296 and a 158 gr xtp bullet. I get about the same size groups, maybe a bit better when I have the scout scope on mine at 100 yds. . I probably shoot more Lasercast 158 grain semi wadcutters but I haven't shot enough groups with them to say what they do. Not much worse though.

Is one or another particular load preferred or warned about? Mine shoots most everything well. The point of impact moves quite a bit, especially if you change bullet weights.

Will the Rossi, as delivered by SG hold up to enthusiastic shooting? (not necessarily high pressure loads) Tough to define. Me and my kids like to bounce tin cans, pretty enthusiastically at times.

Anything else I need to know?[/quote] Get a stainless one if you want a truck gun in a rainy place.

I don't have a Rossi but I do have a Legacy Puma SS 454 Casull with a 20 inch tube. Nothing quite like a 330 gr. bullet at 1750 fps. to end things in a hurry. I use it as my truck or atv gun.

Cheaper than buying one, then sending it to him to get slicked up.

He gives the buyer a break on initial cost and you save shipping back and forth.

Getting one directly from Steve, all set up like you want, is the best way to go, IMO.

DF

I have a 357 full octagon 24 inch. Just put the bolt mounted peep on it. Like it very much. Now that I have sights that I can see with it will be shot much.

I've owned two of the Rossi made model 92 clones. Both of mine featured 24 octagon barrels. The first was a stainless steel version that was stamped Navy Arms. That one other than being stainless steel and chambered in .45 Colt was pretty much an exact copy of the Winchester model 92 rifle. My second Rossi 92 featured a color case hardened receiver and hardware. It was also a 24 inch octagon barreled rifle and was marketed by Legacy Sports International. This rifle did have a "lawyer safety' atop the bolt. As for Steve's mods on the Rossi 92, I've handled a couple of his model 92's and he does a superb job of slicking them up. He can also remove and disguise those lawyer safeties.

I have a Steve's Gunz Rossi 92 that's received his action job, trigger job, and a new marbles tang peep sight. Chambered in 45 Colt it's now delightful to shoot. Can't believe I haven't found this discussion until now.

I bought all the parts for my 92 in 357 and did all the work myself and saved quite a few $$. (except for the cerakote) Removed all the guts and replaced all the springs. Bought a wet stone and slicked up the bolt and all the sharp edges on everything. It's smooth as glass when working the action. Trigger is so much better and loading the shells is no longer a pain in the ass. Some of you might not like it this way and that's ok. I had this gun for about 7 years and never really shot it, but now that I made it tacticool, I can't put it down. Soooo much fun to shoot!!!

i plan on buying a Rossi 92 this summer for just a shooter ,my question will the 357 Mag. still have decent power to maybe finish a bear off with a good bullet if needed within 40-50 yards ? i would rather own a Rossi in a 357 mag. over a 44 mag. for my truck and and 4- wheeler,bang around rifle and fun gun to shoot. thank you ,Pete53

I personally would want something bigger than a 357 if I have a bear charging me from 40yds. But if the bear just plans on laying there with no desire to get up and run at you to rip your face off, you’ll be fine with a 357.