Rossi - the Good, Bad, and the Ugly????

[Marlin Hunter]

Can any past or present owners of Rossi leverguns give me a review of what you think about the rifle. ANY of their leverguns, but mostly the older model 92 with wood protruding from the front barrel band (357, 44, 45LC etc). Whats the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?

Thanks

[Bullshop Junior]

We have that one in 454 in the shop that we have shot a little bit. I think it is a very nice gun, and I like the fact that this one has a tube load like a 22 LR, so we can shoot it with out wearing the bluing off of the loading gate

[Gee_Wizz01]

I have an 18 year old 44 Mag with 20" barrel and a very recent .45 Colt with a 16" barrel. The older rifle is not finished quite as nicely as the newer carbine, but both are great little rifles. The .44 Mag has a .432 barrel and did not shoot cast boolits well until I bought a RD 432-260 mold. With the Ranch Dog boolit I can shoot 1" 5shot groups at 50yds and these rounds chrono at1780 fps and weight approx 269 grs. The action on the .45 carbine is very slick and the rifle shoots well. I have not had a lot of time to develop loads for the .45 Colt, but it will put 8 rds into a 1" hole at 25 yards. I hope to work up loads this weekend. I am extremely happy with both guns. The actions are slick and they are accurate. I have a tang sight mounted on the .44 mag and that is a great improvement over the stock sights and I will be adding one to the .45 Colt in the near future. These rifles are a great value, especially compare to the new Chiappa made "Puma". I also like the Marlin '94 in the same calibers because you can easily mount a scope, but Rossi 92 and Puma are my favorite.

G

[jack19512]

I have a recently purchased New Puma .454 that I will do a accuracy and function review on as soon as the weather permits. I can only say at this point I have found nothing negative to say about the rifle. I did test it for function as far as loading and ejecting using fully loaded rounds and found nothing wrong. The rifle will eject and throw fully loaded rounds quite a distance so I'm not sure how far it will throw my empties.

[Freightman]

I have a Puma LSI import and there isn't any ugly it is a 45 Colt and it will hurt you if you want to load it that way.Accurate, well finished and great looking wood. it has a 24" hex barrel. I have over 1000 rounds through it and it has feed all I have from 170 SWC 200SWC, 255SWC, 265 rnfp, and 300rnfp. mild to wild!

[rhead]

I have on in .357. It will shoot anything I feed it and will feed anything bi 38 wadcutters. No bad, No ugly.

[gon2shoot]

I shoot several, and have given several as gifts.

The Rossi is not as purty as some, but I buy them to shoot, not dance with. The ones I've seen are just a tad rough, but most will shoot smooth.

I love the 92 action and have some that cost 2/3 times more than the Rossi, but they dont do any better at flinging lead.

[missionary5155]

Good evening
I have bought 2 Rossi´s in 45 Colt. One is with my son so I have not shot that one. But the one I have and shot does everything I expect a model 92 to do. I have 2 origonal Winny 1892´s that shoot no better. The Rossi wood is maybe not walnut but holds together and is fitted good enough. The Rossi sights one my rifle are nice square sided and give a good precise sighting. My Rossi 45 Colt shoots a 265 Lee FRN very nicely out to 100 yards and I think woould make a fine deer rifle if the state of ILL will ever let it happen.
So I reacon you can spend $300 more for a Winny that may not shoot any better... or just hang around Gunbroker and buy one for under $400 without all that modern safty gadjets.

[rbuck351]

I got an LSI Puma in 454 and like it a lot. Bluing was nice and fit, feed and function are very good. The only thing I didn't like was the safty thingy and the cheapo rear sight. I built a replacement saftey plug with an adjustable ( elevation only) large peep on it. Now the rifle is every thing it should be. Holds 10 rounds of 320gr cast at about 1950 fps. That's about as much fun as I can stand in this light rifle. 20" carbine I also have 2 of the original Win 92s and the puma is every bit as slick as those. Did I mention that I like it a lot?

[Marlin Hunter]

Thanks

[corvette8n]

I have a Puma in .45 Colt with a 16" bbl and a metal buttplate, with +p ammo it sure does kick. I consider mine a plinker and maybe a 50-75 yard hog and deer gun.

[jack19512]

Got a chance to shoot my Puma 454 briefly today. It was cold and windy. Only shot from 25 yards but I am pleased. Group was very good, 5 shots from 25 yards. I personally don't consider 25 yards much of a test for anything but it will have to do until the weather improves. We are suppose to have 5 to 10 inches of snow on it's way for tomorrow.

[Buckshot]

.............I now have 2 Rossi Pumas imported buy LSI. One is the rifle version 24" octagon, 45 Colt and the other is the 20" round barrel 38/357. My first experience with one was some years back when a friend who is a SASS shooter bought a stainless one in 38/357 for his wife. He complained about it being a bit rough and asked if I'd take a look at it.

Externally it looked really nice, except the wood was almost black and could have been mistaken for black plastic if it had had that plastic 'sheen'. Internally it was rough. It looked like their cutters had been dull or pushed too hard. All the internal corners and edges were sharp, and had tag ends and pigs ears plus several that had broken off and were floating around inside.

Had you run a flannel cloth around inside you'd have left half of it as lint stuck all over the place. A bit of carefull work with a Dremel and a Cratex bob cleaned things up quite a bit, and it was for sure smoother. He eventually had his "Cowboy" gunsmith give it a working over and after that it was as smooth as silk.

Both of my Rossi's of much more recent vintage were finsihed off MUCH better internally. However, the more they've been used the better they seem to be getting.



The wood is some closed grain hardwood. It's very well fit to the metal and smoothly finished. All the metal of the rifle is pretty well done. It's nicely polished with no rounded out screwhead inletting. However the octagon barrel isn't polished and is 'machine finished' meaning the flats appear to have been surface ground and then blued. I really have no problem with that and can understand why it hadn't been polished. They probably felt having the nice crisp corners rather then paying someone to polish them (which would have required some expertise) and possibly round the edges or possibly add some waviness, was more important. The 20" round barreled 38/357 HAS had it's round barrel polished.

If I needed another one I'd have no hesitation buying another Rossi.

............Buckshot

[rickster]

For those of you with newer Rossi 92 45LCs....Are the chambers still oversized? I have an older presafety version (SRC model, round barrel, blackish stock finish). Mild loads have quite a lot of case blowby, to the point of spitting. Higher power loads will seal up, but expand the cases quite a lot.

[Freightman]

For those of you with newer Rossi 92 45LCs....Are the chambers still oversized? I have an older presafety version (SRC model, round barresol, blackish stock finish). Mild loads have quite a lot of case blowby, to the point of spitting. Higher power loads will seal up, but expand the cases quite a lot.

No! I have a Taurus 450 45 Colt that I shoot at the same time I shoot the Rossi and I do not separate the brass and I can't tell the difference when I size. I do not shoot the heaver loads in the Taurus 2" carry gun but they are pretty stiff, the only hot loads I shoot in the Puma is hunting loads, I am not into pain when I go to have fun.

[helice]

I have the 45 LSI in Stainless. My experience is that of Buckshot's in that this one is very rough. I have a couple Brownings and a converted Winchester 92 that set the standard and this LSI Stainless is rough compared to them. I have been given a DVD that tells how to clean and polish the insides of this Puma by Steves Gunz. Can't wait for it to arrive. Also bought his "peep" sight that fits in the bolt safety. Helice

[Boomer Mikey]

All of the lever gun 45 Colt chambers seem to be oversized nowadays.

boomer

[Warhawk]

I have four of the little Rossi's.

2 Stainess trappers, a 357(Braztech) and a 44 (LSI).
1 Color Case receiver 357 Saddle Ring Carbine (EMF)
1 Color Case receiver 44 short rifle, 20" octagon bbl (LSI)

The 44 Trapper has been to see Steve Young www.stevesgunz.com for an action job, it is fantastic! The other three are waiting their turn to go.

I live these guns, the 357 is an especially handy little carbine. In a rifle barrel the 357 is a whole nuther animal than a 357 revolver. Most loads add 400-500 fps velocity when fired from a rifle.

Now for the bad, the little bolt safety is ridiculous, but Steve Young makes a dandy little plug for it, that disables it. Also, the plastic magazine follower should be replaced, again Steve makes a replacement.

They can be rough out of the box, this is mostly due to overly heavy springs. They will smooth up some with use, and Steve's action job makes them run like a hot knife thru butter.

I had a .45 Colt trapper, only sold it because I decided to consolidate calibers and sold my 45 Colts. I shot this one more than any of the others, and it was surprisingly accurate and gobbled up everything I fed it (a lot of leverguns have feeding difficulties with some cast bullets). Now that I think about it, I was stupid to sell that one!

[Hanzerik]

I have two LSI Pumas in .44 Mag, love them both. The only thing I have done is change out the sights on both to Marble Arms products.

[bob208]

i have one of the old rossi src. with the name on the barrel it is a dead ringer for a 92 winchester. it is in .357 mag. it shoots good feeds anything i put in it and saves alot of wear and tear on my winchesters.