Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General New Rossi R92, 44 Mag

I just got this rifle and it's my first Rossi. 44 Mag, blue/walnut, 20" round barrel.

Honestly, I am surprised and very happy with the overall rifle. This cycles pretty smooth by my barometer of smoothness. I was really surprised that it feeds/cycles fine with a 310gr WFN load.

After cleaning the bore, I put the first 20 rounds through it this afternoon. Load was a 240gr Speer JHP, over 10.0gr Unique. I didn't chrono it, but QuickLOAD predicts 1400 fps. Pleasant shooting load.

I had my file and drift-punch on hand to get the sights how I want them. I filed the front sight down just enough to delete the brass bead in favor of a square post. Got her one inch high at 25 yards, with the rear sight on the first notch up from the bottom on the rear sight elevator. This zero should hold about 1" high at 50 yards, zero at 75 yards, and about 3 inches low at 100 yards.

A few pics,





Final group on the far left, using a 6 o'clock hold. I pulled one high/right.


Anyhoo, just wanted to share a little bit of my new lever gun.

MM, I bought one of those back in ‘94 with money from my summer job. Absolutely loved it. Had to sell it when a poor grad student but always thought I would get another- you may well have just given me the push I needed!

Have the same model but in stainless. With Starline brass and a 240 gr XTP being pushed by a max load of H110, I get 1770 fps. The metal butt plate gets your attention after session of those. The 10 gr of Unique is a good load with a 240 gr. One thing that frustrates me with Rossi is their bore diameter. Cast bullets do not shoot well due to their larger bore.

For the money, they are decent rifles. I like the fact that they're slim and light unlike a Marlin.

I have been looking at these for a while. I have a Henry big boy is 44 but would like something a little cheaper for tromping around in the swamps of south GA. Might have to pick up a stainless Rossi to fill that job

Yeah I don't think I'll be going for full-house loads with this rifle. I can see where recoil would become unpleasant.

If you look at the historic cartridges the Winchester 1892 came in, it was 25-20, 32-20, 38-40, and 44-40. None of those were hard kickers.

I'm real pleased with a 240gr at 1400 fps, kind of a 44-40 +P load. I think the classic 44-40 is a 200gr at around 1250 fps or so.

They are fun little rifles, that's for sure. I like the classic style as well.

I was on the fence about blue or stainless. I opted the blue for the classic look, and in our climate moisture is not such an issue.

I saw a stainless 16" model at the gun store, it is a good looking setup too.

MM,
How does your brass look after fired? Rossis as of late are polishing chambers too much creating an unsupported section at the base of the cases. Therefore, cases are bulging at the base. It's more pronounced with full-house loads.

Fired brass looks normal. After firing the outside diameter in .460" from just above the web, all the way to the mouth.

The load I was firing is predicted to generate 26K psi.

I bought a stainless one several Months ago and just got around to shooting it.

I wanted to shoot 44 special in it for low recoil and low muzzle blast,
when I went tp a local Sportsmans warehouse I was wanting to buy a box of the HSM 44 Special 200 grain RNFP but all they had was a box of HSM 44 Special 240 Grain Semi-wadcutter.

I had heard that the Rossi 92 was very tempramental with the semi-wadcutter design but bought them anyway.

Mine feeds the HSM 240 Wadcutter ammo just fine as well as a 44 Magnum Dummy shell loaded with a 260 Grain LBT WFN from about 30 years ago.

The HSM is approximately 850fps when fired from a 5.5 inch barrel and loaded with Titegroup according to the company. I do not know what the velocity is from the 16 Inch barrel of my Carbine but is very mild to shoot,at least it was with the 5 rounds that I shot for function test and to have a few brass to reload a few to test.

I see the Rossi 92 44Special/44 Magnum Carbine Handloaded with Lead bullets as a relatively Inexpensive way to shoot Centerfire ammo for plinking,as a compact home defense option with softer lead bullets,or as a rather capable short range deer rifle.

And I can see it doing all that in 44 Special .
And of course in 44 Magnum if that is your pleasure.

love mine. 240 gr HCSWCS are great out of it

We have 2 Rossi 454 Casull rifles, no complaints.

I'm glad to hear from others that the R92 44 is not as finicky about ammo as I had imagined from just reading about it.

I'm thinking I'll get some Missouri Bullet Co coated 240gr RNFP in Brinell 12. I'm thinking that should be a good bullet in the revolvers and maybe soft enough to 'slug up' in the rifle at midrange load pressure.

I haven't slugged my barrel, but the internet sez, they run a bit large as in .431" or so???

I have the same gun,20 inch blued, in 45 colt. Great little rifle. Standard 45 colt loads are very pleasant. +P loads are pretty much 44 magnum equivalents.

I think a stainless one just like yours in 44 magnum would go nice with my blue 45.

I was on the fence between 44 and 45 myself. I have revolvers in each caliber, so it wasn't easy to decide. Both chamberings are so versatile.

MM,
I tried the .430 MBC 240 TCFP with 18 Brinell and the bore was too large. I couldn't get a group when pushing them with 10 gr of Unique. I've since opted to stay with cup and core for it. I went this route as they were cheap enough:

https://www.rozedist.com/mm5/mercha..._Code=R177-A&Category_Code=ZBJ-44MAG

Thanks for the link!

I slugged the bore of mine (using some unused Bore slugs I had left over from when I slugged a Ruger stainless Blackhawk, that I got from Veral Smith at LBT )and did it from the Muzzle.

From the muzzle it was almost .431 and felt the same to about 6 inches and then the slug started to push easier toward the chamber throat.

I have not slugged the throat yet but intend to do so to find out what it is.

I am wanting to use a Brinell hardness of less than 10 in hope's that I can achieve some expansion at a 1,000 FPS or so and so that the bullet will slug up and fill the bore well .

Does anyone know of a Lead bullet suppler that sells .432 Semi-Wadcutter or .432 RNFP Bullets at Lower Hardness levels ?

Does anybody know what the Rossi .357 R92 bore size is? I inherited a whole bunch of bullets sized .358 and was thinking about getting a lever action to plink them with.