New Rossi M92 .357

M

Mycin

New member
Gotta brag a bit.

I picked up my new Rossi M92, 16" bbl, standard loop, in .357 Mag tonight -- a late birthday / early Christmas present from my better half.

I got it through Gallery of Guns on sale on Monday, shipped to my local FFL.

I've read lots of people complaining about how rough the actions are on the Rossi carbines, and how the triggers need work out of the box. Maybe I got lucky, or maybe I'm not as particular as some, but this little rifle's action seems fine to me.

The trigger is crisp, not too heavy. The action isn't like glass or anything, but it's not bad at all. Working it with the gun mounted on my shoulder is no problem. I'm sure it'll smooth up over time and be even better.

Fit and finish seems good. The wood looks decent. It's not a work of art, but I didn't expect it to be at this price point. It feels solid -- heavier than you'd think just looking at it (the wife commented on this as well), but not so heavy you wouldn't want to carry it through the woods.

Now to give it a good cleaning and find time to get to the range!

ETA: Problem with front sight. See post #7 below.
 
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Cool! Congrats! What finish? I just put a deposit on a stainless 16" 454. Getting some Steve's Gunz enhancements done to it.

His Rossi price list does not have 454 for 2016, it may have been an oversight or they may be discontinued. He has 2 blue 20" 454s left.
 
Mycin,
If I were to give a review of my 16" .44 mag it would mirror yours. It has become one of the funnest guns I own and one everyone I shoot with wants to get there hands on to throw rounds down range.
 
kcub, it's blued. I got it to go with my blued .357 Blackhawk, so it needed to match. Good luck with the .454. That should be a blast (in more ways than one).

Steve & jaysouth, thanks for the tips.
 
Well, crap.

The front sight just fell off. It just slides in and out of the dovetail with little effort.

How big of a deal is this? Do I need to send it back, or can it be easily fixed?
 
I'm getting a red fibre optic front and a rear peep that replaces the safety from Steve's Gunz.

He has other sight options.
 
I'm worried that it's not the sight being too small, but the dovetail cut in the barrel being too big.
 
I think I might have mentioned this before.

A friend used to "tighten up" 1911 rear sights by holding the rear sight upside down and tapping a little in the middle of both the knife edges on the sight. Not out on the ends or the sight wouldn't start in the dovetail.

That raised little curls that forced the sight down in the dovetail more. Might start slow and test often until you get the interference fit you want.
 
Be careful, Steve mentioned the front site was a little soft. Are you saying tap it from which direction, the side?
 
Hold the sight upside down in a vise or between two c-clamped blocks, etc.

Lightly tap the very center, not the ends, of the knife edge on the bottom of the sight straight down slightly on both sides with something like a round end punch. This curls the edge "up" slightly in a small spot on opposing sides when the sight is turned back right side up.

Try the sight in the dovetail. If you moved material you should encounter some resistance after the sight goes in maybe a third of the way. Repeat if necessary until you get enough resistance to do the job.

My buddy used this method instead of a center punch to raise divots on the bottom of the dovetail. The divots made the sight ride high in the dovetail and he could see daylight under the sight which he didn't want. Curling the spots up forced the sight down in the dovetail. I will add he had more than one spare sight if things went tango uniform.
 
I thought I'd post an update.

I tried mag1911's suggested trick, using a steel center punch to try to roll up the edges of the sight dove-tail to create more bind, but the steel didn't want to bend. I don't know what steel this sight is made from, but it's hard. I used as much force as I was comfortable with, but it wouldn't bend.

Looking more closely at both the sight and the barrel cutout, I'm pretty convinced the problem is in the sight itself rather than the barrel. It looks like the sight was ground down during fitting, and was ground a little too much.

I ended up with a temporary solution by shimming with a single layer of paper from a brown paper napkin. That gave just enough additional material to hold the sight securely.

Another of the perennial complaints I've read about the Rossi M92 is that some are very finicky when it comes to the bullet shapes / lengths they'll feed reliably. So I went out in the back yard and tested it feeding every type of .357 & .38 bullet I own. I was particularly worried about the .357 Mag 158gr SWC, which I have a fair quantity of and which seems to sometimes pose a problem for new Rossi owners.

The carbine fed everything from 38 SPL 110gr Winchester Silvertips to .357 Mag 180gr RNFP without a hitch. Working the action fast or slow didn't matter.

Since I like the feel of the action & trigger, it doesn't look like the sight problem is a problem with the barrel, and the gun seems to feed everything reliably, I'm just going to order a new front sight from Steve's Gunz rather than send this gun back and risk that a replacement might be worse. I'll probably go with the large "ivory" sight, then paint it with the orange sight paint I've used on my other guns.
 
Will it feed 38 spl 148 grain target wadcutters? My Henry big boy steel won't. But maybe that's asking too much of a 357/38 lever action.
 
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