Lever action pistol cartridge carbine
- Thread starter M14
- Start date
I have the Rossi 92 16"barrel in .45 colt. I like it very well. I have had none of the problems I heard they had. I did buy mine off the shelf and examined it thoroughly. Light, handy and reliable. Accurate too.
I also have A Marlin 1894 cowboy in .45 colt 24" barrel. That one is pure SWEET. lot more money though.
I also have A Marlin 1894 cowboy in .45 colt 24" barrel. That one is pure SWEET. lot more money though.
I've got a 44-40. I never had any feeding problems but the action was pretty stiff when I got it. I filled the action with white lithium grease and worked it a couple of hours and its slicker than snot on a porcelain doorknob now. Cleanup with black powder is a breeze with the bottleneck cases. No blowby at all. I did change out the rear sight for a marbles full buckhorn.
I have a Rossi 92 in 38/357mag. and love It. It was a bit stiff when new but worked fine. Now It's very smooth the only thing I have to be careful of is the overall cartridge length with some bullet profiles in .357 mag. With my reloads I shoot about 3"-4" at 100yds. And that's with old eyes, I'm sure the rifle can do better. I did put marble sights on It and refinished the stock & forearm.
Magnum Wheel Man
New member
I have a couple odd duck Rossi's...
My 1st, a pre safety engraved saddle ring carbine, in 38 / 357, & that gun may have been someone's safe queen before I bought it, as I think it looked unfired, it was reasonably smooth, & got even better with use, & is plenty accurate...
My 2nd, I also bought used, a safety model, stainless & brass 45 Colt rifle... the gun had a defective firing pin from the factory, which I had my local retired smith buddy, make me a new firing pin, & remove the hammer block safety as well... that gun was reasonably smooth, & was likely unfired because of the defective firing pin, since I've been shooting it, it's slicked up a lot, & is accurate enough for me...
... my buddy has a newer 38 / 37, that needed repair, from the get go... looked like they put a 44 extractor in the gun instead of a 38 / 357...
my experience shows the pre-safety guns as very shootable, the 1st couple of years of guns they made with the safeties, seemed to have the most issues, & modern newest manufacture, seem to have gotten most of the bugs out again...
My 1st, a pre safety engraved saddle ring carbine, in 38 / 357, & that gun may have been someone's safe queen before I bought it, as I think it looked unfired, it was reasonably smooth, & got even better with use, & is plenty accurate...
My 2nd, I also bought used, a safety model, stainless & brass 45 Colt rifle... the gun had a defective firing pin from the factory, which I had my local retired smith buddy, make me a new firing pin, & remove the hammer block safety as well... that gun was reasonably smooth, & was likely unfired because of the defective firing pin, since I've been shooting it, it's slicked up a lot, & is accurate enough for me...
... my buddy has a newer 38 / 37, that needed repair, from the get go... looked like they put a 44 extractor in the gun instead of a 38 / 357...
my experience shows the pre-safety guns as very shootable, the 1st couple of years of guns they made with the safeties, seemed to have the most issues, & modern newest manufacture, seem to have gotten most of the bugs out again...
I have a Marlin 1894CL in .32-20 that I shoot Cowboy Lever Action Pistol Caliber Silhouette with. It shoots better than I can hold, has very mild recoil, and knocks the targets down (when I hit 'em). I use a 115 cast bullet (.313) over 5gr of Unique and a small pistol primer. It chronys out to an average of 1247 fps out of the Marlin's 22" barrel. I have seen loads with a similar, but gas checked, bullet using 2400 or H110 that reach 2000 fps in the Marlins. It is a neat little fun gun.
Drue
Drue
wnycollector
New member
+1 on this. My Rossi 357 will shoot ANY .38, but it's very picky with 357's. 357 125gr RNL and Fiocchi 142gr FMJ and JHP work 100% but S&B 158 JSP's and 157gr SWC's get hung up.
Eight or ten Rossi 92s over 30+ years, all but one a pre-safety Interarms (1980-1995 or so) and EMFs (mid 2000s). All light and slick (eventually) and handy. Not a problem on one. It's true some--not all as widely claimed--of the older ones were a little stiff out of the box new, usually lessened with a lot of dry levering and use. It is said that with the ca 2000 retooling, the action out of the box improved. A few of my pre safety EMFs would tend to corroborate that, though as said I haven't had problems with the older ones.
The earlier Interarms era (1978 ? - 1995/98 or so?) receivers wore sharper lines closer to or more reminiscent of the original Wins (later genericized/rounded off presumably to save costs). I like the wood on the older ones better as a general rule, and the cut rounded more especially on the forend tip more like the original Wins and not shortened and abruptly truncated like many later ones--presumably cost saving. There was an odd period in the late 1990s--the end of the Interarms run--where Rossi went cheap with an odd sort of "near black mystery stain." That period seemed to correspond also with the rise of CAS popularity when they were perhaps just trying to crank them out in high volume at low cost (to them).. Around then, the saddle rings (til then standard on a large percentage of carbines) went away on most carbine models, which I lamented missing as a neat old west feature (found on 95% original Win 92 carbines btw) but apparently another nod toward CAS shooters many of whom saw it as an annoyance in the way of their rapido competitive shooting. The ring came back on most 20" and 16" pre safety EMFs and Navy Arms Rossi carbines, and otherwise on some others' 16" trappers. I installed a later 94 ring on my one safetied 92 + to good effect. I figured it was already disfigured with the safety so didn't fret not having the "proper" staple type 92 ring mount.You have to look close to tell anyway.
Legacy Sports (LSI)--which took over from Interarms in the late '90s as the largest distributor--brought us the fukakata little ambiguous safety switch, still there, though EMF distributed guns held out til mid 2006, about when Navy Arms (also safety-less) quit the Rossi business.
(There is a "fix"/filler out there for the safety for those that find them an annoyance).
The Navy Arms guns are the only ones to claim "genuine walnut" furniture and are a rarity now, especially in carbine configuration.
They're ll good, just some (earlier ones IMO (that odd "black stain" five year period notwithstanding) nicer than others...but I've found the LSIs and then the Rossi/Braztech (Taurus owned) guns to be less charming in the wood/finish department. Rossis used to hve a "sheen" more akin to the originals and now are pretty flat - "final" finish-less. Recently EMF has seemed to resume distrubuting Rossis again after a five-year lay-off (I think Rossi induced as it took over as the sole impprter of its own guns for several years after LSI went Italian with its 92s, keeping its proprietary "Puma" name it acquired from Interarms), but I do not know if the newer EMFs are to slighlty "better" spec (wood and sights) like the older EMFs were.
The earlier Interarms era (1978 ? - 1995/98 or so?) receivers wore sharper lines closer to or more reminiscent of the original Wins (later genericized/rounded off presumably to save costs). I like the wood on the older ones better as a general rule, and the cut rounded more especially on the forend tip more like the original Wins and not shortened and abruptly truncated like many later ones--presumably cost saving. There was an odd period in the late 1990s--the end of the Interarms run--where Rossi went cheap with an odd sort of "near black mystery stain." That period seemed to correspond also with the rise of CAS popularity when they were perhaps just trying to crank them out in high volume at low cost (to them).. Around then, the saddle rings (til then standard on a large percentage of carbines) went away on most carbine models, which I lamented missing as a neat old west feature (found on 95% original Win 92 carbines btw) but apparently another nod toward CAS shooters many of whom saw it as an annoyance in the way of their rapido competitive shooting. The ring came back on most 20" and 16" pre safety EMFs and Navy Arms Rossi carbines, and otherwise on some others' 16" trappers. I installed a later 94 ring on my one safetied 92 + to good effect. I figured it was already disfigured with the safety so didn't fret not having the "proper" staple type 92 ring mount.You have to look close to tell anyway.
Legacy Sports (LSI)--which took over from Interarms in the late '90s as the largest distributor--brought us the fukakata little ambiguous safety switch, still there, though EMF distributed guns held out til mid 2006, about when Navy Arms (also safety-less) quit the Rossi business.
(There is a "fix"/filler out there for the safety for those that find them an annoyance).
The Navy Arms guns are the only ones to claim "genuine walnut" furniture and are a rarity now, especially in carbine configuration.
They're ll good, just some (earlier ones IMO (that odd "black stain" five year period notwithstanding) nicer than others...but I've found the LSIs and then the Rossi/Braztech (Taurus owned) guns to be less charming in the wood/finish department. Rossis used to hve a "sheen" more akin to the originals and now are pretty flat - "final" finish-less. Recently EMF has seemed to resume distrubuting Rossis again after a five-year lay-off (I think Rossi induced as it took over as the sole impprter of its own guns for several years after LSI went Italian with its 92s, keeping its proprietary "Puma" name it acquired from Interarms), but I do not know if the newer EMFs are to slighlty "better" spec (wood and sights) like the older EMFs were.
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Watch out for the Rossi lever guns. They've had a problem in cold weather when you go to cycle the action. My dad has a 45-70 version. When it got in the 20s the gun wouldn't work. Took it back to the store, another one off the shelf had the exact problem. They sent my dad's to Rossi, came back with the same issue. They said it functioned fine. Sent it again and they actually discovered the problem. Gun works fine now. I am by no means saying dont buy from Rossi, they make some impressive stuff for a much competitive price than other manufactures. I don't know how widespread the issue is but just giving you guys a heads up if your gun's action gets stuck in the cold.
I can't remember which part exactly, but the clearances were so tight that in cold weather the action would get stuck halfway.
Almost forgot, I highly suggest the rifles with the larger loops or whatever you wish to call them. Rossi makes some of their rifles meant for larger hands I suppose. They don't look cartoonish like some do, the size is still reasonable. Seems much easier to cycle fast compared to a regular sized one.
Almost forgot, I highly suggest the rifles with the larger loops or whatever you wish to call them. Rossi makes some of their rifles meant for larger hands I suppose. They don't look cartoonish like some do, the size is still reasonable. Seems much easier to cycle fast compared to a regular sized one.
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