Rossi lever gun ?

R

rebs

New member
Who owns and can give me some first hand information about a Rossi 38/357 mag lever action rifle ? Are they accurate, reliable and do they function well with both 38 and 357 ammo ?
 
Can't think of his name off the top of my head, but there is a guy I think maybe from Texas that specializes in making Rossi's work right. Once he is done with them, they do pretty good...not so much without it as a rule. You could probably google him up.
 
I have a '92 in .45 Colt

Awesome gun that is accurate, lightweight and fun to shoot. The only issue is the trajectory. Not the gun's fault.

Rossi's are a little rough out of the box. There is a guy named Steve Jones who slicks them up and provides kits for those who want to optimize their own.

It's really common for the .357 variety to have issues with .38 special length cartridges.
 
I had one in 45lc, and worked on some in 38/357. Not a bad rifle, a little rough out of the box as mentioned. I slicked up mine for Cas and the others for the same. While the rifles are accurate, they are limited to the accuracy by the cartridges capabilities. There can be issues with cartridge length and feeding on the 38/357 guns, depending the cartridges used. And, typical with a carrier gun, they will only take being run so hard. By that I mean that if you get to a certain speed of operation, there will be problems. This is typical of the winchester carrier lever system with open top receiver. The cartridges will start to flip upwards and cause jams. The 92 action does not particularly like blackpowder, as being an early smokeless action, but will run it on if you keep up with it good enough.
But, for a general use fun gun, or hunting the right game, it's fine.
 
Dude, if you have theoption, get it. I have the 20" stainless in 357. Yes they work reliably with either out of the box. It won't do full wadcutters of course, but can feed anything else that you can shove in a 38 case. Some people get the action "slicked" up, but totally optional. They are extremely accurate, powerful, reliable, uber quiet when shooting ,38 target loads(think 22 but w/o the crack. They are so lightweight you won't even know you have it. Obviously, I am really happy with mine. I wish I had gone with a 16" barrel instead of 20. Extremely high quality firles
 
i have a 45 colt, a 38/357 and a 45-70 Rio Grande. The only issue I've had is with the sights. All the step ladders are cut flat so they work out under recoil. Doesn't matter on the Rio Grande as I have a scope on it. The other two are going to get receiver sights.

One issue I did have was with the Rio Grande. It rained the first day and the finish washed off, the the wood swelled some. All three will be refinished before next season. That 38/357, very accurate.
 
I have one of the older puma models and it works great for my wife and I. I'm not sure how many rounds were put through it before we got it but it will work with 38's just fine. We are very happy with ours.:)
 
I purchased one a few years ago and unfortunately got a lemon. It is a 38/357 stainless R92-56011. Its a beautiful gun but it would jam with 357s and 38s almost constantly. It would jam the top of the bullet against the top edge of the chamber.

I sent it to Rossi and a few months later they sent it back saying it was not machined right but was fixed now. They used a dremel to grind out the feed ramp. They took allot of metal away and left it as is with the grind marks still on the ramp. This did nothing to fix the problem and it still jammed the exact same way.

Since they failed to fix it I decided to try myself and found that cartridge guides were not machined right from the factory. I used a hand file and carefully re-profiled the cartridge guides. It had very rough machine work on all of the internals so I stoned and smoothed out everything inside when it was apart.

It runs 100% now but the amount of material Rossi removed from the chamber causes it to slightly bulge cases where they are not fully supported. Its one of my favorite guns to shoot and I take it out quite often but only run light loaded 38s in it.

Its been said before and I will repeat it again. Only buy a Rossi that you can handle and preferably cycle or shoot before hand to check for any problems.
 
I recently(two days ago) bought the 16” blued version in 357. Haven’t had a chance to shoot it yet but the action is pretty smooth out of the box. Once some of the grease was removed and the action worked a few times it smoothed out even more. I’ve fed several types of ammo through it just to test feeding. Fed 357 and 38 snap caps 100%. Fed 357 reloads(sans primer and powder) 100%. Same with 38 reloads. Fed EMPTY 357 brass without issue. No joke. Empty 38 brass was too short so it started having issues but I expected that. Accuracy will be tested this Thursday.:D

As an aside, if you reload you’re going to be chasing brass all over the place. This rifle ejected the 357 reloads so forcefully that the round hit my ceiling and left a large dent. I was more carefully with my face placement thereafter :o
 
I own both the Rossi 38/357 in SST round barrel and the 45 LC version. Both are excellent perfromers. I have had none of the problems some seem to complain about and are always dissing the gun(s).

Each has had several thousand round thru them. Even from the 1st load, I had no complaints.

That 38 SST rifle is a dream to shoot and really gets nice comments at the range. Very accurate even with just the iron sights. My buddy is looking for one in SST also. It took me 3 months to find this one!

I love lever guns and revolvers in 38SPL and 45LC.

banger
 
I have had one for many years. I seldom shoot anything other than .38s in it. My early impression was that semi-wadcutters gave poor accuracy in it and ever since I have stuck to RNL bullets. I occasionally shoot jacketed .357s through it but seldom need this extra noise and velocity.

The front sight is a brass blade pinned in, although others I have seen are solid with the band. I filed it down somewhat.

After a short time one of the set screws on the locking blocks (or bars, if you prefer) snapped. (They hold the pin in place which connects the blocks). This was silver-soldered back together and gave no more trouble. I have broken an ejector over the years - replacing this was one of the few times I have disassembled it. The procedure is much the same as for the Winchester, except the flat spring has been changed for a coil-spring-and-guide-rod arrangement.

The spring-loaded stud which retains the magazine tube tends to unscrew itself under fire. I screw this up tight and leave it like that and do not bother with this loading/unloading arrangement.

The ones we get here do not have a safety catch, which must be a U.S. import thing.

Ejected empties, if ejected forcefully, usually have a 'lip' on them which must be smoothed (rolled) out before resizing.
 
Last edited:
I had the exact same lemon as AssaultTortise. Everything jammed. Bullet would attack the breach at 45 degrees. Rossi got it back from me 3 times before they got it right. I believe they replaced the barrel as this gun never had a feed ramp that I can remember when it came out of the box new.
My serial # is K3147XX and came from Bud's Gun Shop. Hey Tortoise! What is your serial #/??????
 
I've got one, it feeds both 38 & 357. Point of impact varies a lot between the two calibers. I guess that should be expected.
 
38/357 Rossi

MOST Rossi lever guns could and I stress the word "COULD" here because they shoot fine right out of the box and are accurate to a tee. They do throw brass due to a strong ejector spring, there are remit-ties for this on line see "you tube". I like to tinker some with all my rifles like sorta, I favor about 3 to 3.5 pounds for a trigger pull and it is a simple matter to shim the trigger spring on this rile. the rifle does not need to be disassembled to clean but I would suggest ABOUT "ONCE A YEAR OR LESS DEPENDING ON USE" to remove the section just forward of the stock and get out all the old powder fouling also a "lube job goes well. These are made in Brazil by Taurus. they are some what rough inside, but quite serviceable just as they come. I like mine and like in the near future to get another in 44/40 Winchester, along with a quality clone Colt in the same caliber.
 
I bought one of the blued models with the 24" barrel in 38/357 sometime in 2010 and I'm loving it. Haven't had a single misfeed since I've had it and firing 38 through it is like shooting a .22. I just bought a batch of old yellow boxed Winchester lubaloy .357 SWC the other day that I plan to run through it. I did cycle a few rounds without any issues.
 
With a great deal of experience fixing, stoning and repairing a couple of my own Rossi's and many of my friends I can relate the older rifles were poorly manufactured and finished. Steve's Guns is not months backed up for no reason. I now have a Braztec/Rossi with a 16" barrel and large lever, I immediately disassembled and stoned the interior and since have had no feed or extract problems. While apart I replaced the cheap plastic follower with a 92 winchester one and removed the stupid safety on top of the bolt and replaced it with a plug. The rifle is plinker accurate and fun to shoot, it may have run ok out of the box but with my prior experiences it was better to clean things up.
 
rossi's are like a box of chocolates--you never know what you're going to get. LOL Some people get great shooters right out of the box--but lots of people find that they require work to get them to shoot well reliably. I don't have the caliber you're looking at--I opted for the 44 mag in a 16" SS carbine. I almost tossed the thing out of frustration--but eventually fixed it up so that it is a great shooter--it does especially well with full-power loads at 100 yds.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top