Rossi 92 Range Report

[Weetabix]

I picked this up right before Christmas and just got to the range with it this weekend. Indoor range limited to 25 yards.

First impressions: It's light and handles well. The action seemed pretty smooth to me, though my experience with lever guns is limited to my son's Henry .22. I've heard of people getting Rossis that were crunchy, but I seem to have lucked out.

I bought the Steve's Gunz DVD, ejector spring, and mag follower pack. The video is very helpful for disassembly and reassembly. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have done it without the video. I disassembled and detail cleaned it. No mods yet except for polishing a few pieces where working the action had made it a bit shiny. Some of the mods he recommends don't appear to need to be done - the detent catch on the lever doesn't seem to have the point he describes. I polished that a bit anyway. The left side cartridge guide doesn't seem sharp. I polished that a bit, too. Polished a few shiny areas on the bolt.

I'll exchange the ejector spring after I thin down the ejector. The video doesn't address bolts with safeties, so I'm not sure how different that will be.

The trigger feels fine. I don't have anything to measure the pull, but it didn't seem particularly heavy. It feels smooth and breaks cleanly. I doubt I'll do Steve's trigger spring mod to lighten the pull. I found a video on Youtube that shows shimming the spring to lighten the pull. I might try that later for grins since it's reversible.

Took it to the range with some .38 and .357. It liked the PPU LRN .38 quite a bit. Better than the S&B Wild West .38. As expected, recoil was light. Obviously lighter with .38 than with .357. I'll have to look at my targets again to see which .357 it liked better. I was irked that the Blazer I received was aluminum cased. I'm sure I ordered brass.

I was hitting low and left. Adjusted the sights and it pulled up. Unfortunately, the sights kept slipping back down under recoil. I think I'll need to rough something up on the top to prevent that. I'll need to drift the front sight a bit as well, but I didn't have anything to do that with while I was there.

It does launch brasss quite a bit. A lot of it was going forward of the line, but I could get most of it with the squeegee. It doesn't seem to chew the brass that I can see. There's a small shiny spot on the case mouth, probably from the ejector. Once I get that lightened up, it should probably be better.

As I got used to it, I was getting better groups, but not really anything to write home about - 2" or so. I think watching where my brass went messed with my groups a bit. I was thinking too much about recovering it all.

A guy was at the range teaching newbies to shoot, so I let them shoot mine as well. The smiles were pretty big.

I think this is my new favorite rifle, and the lever bug may have bitten me.

[Cobar]

Sounds great. Glad that it is working out for you. Makes me want a lever gun now.

[Weetabix]

You should get one right now!

[AndytheAxe]

Awesome! I got one a couple years ago and it remains one of my favorites. I'm glad you're liking yours. I found putting on better sights really helped.

[Darrell]

Congrats, Weetabix. I really like mine, it's a frickin' laser too.

ETA: I don't see the little safety on top. Did you remove it, or did it not come with one?

[First Shirt]

Glad it's working for you! Those things are about the most fun you can have, and still keep your clothes on.

Of course, you're missing out on half the fun unless you have a companion handgun to keep it company.

Someone makes a ghost-ring rear sight that replaces the safety on the bolt. Not sure who it is, or how much, but if the safety bugs you, Steve also offers a plug for the hole that's left when you remove the safety.

[Weetabix]

Congrats, Weetabix. I really like mine, it's a frickin' laser too.

ETA: I don't see the little safety on top. Did you remove it, or did it not come with one?

The gun's just rolled on the carpet. It has the safety on it. It doesn't bother me, but I don't love it either.

[Weetabix]

Of course, you're missing out on half the fun unless you have a companion handgun to keep it company.

You're just working to cost me money, aren't you?

Someone makes a ghost-ring rear sight that replaces the safety on the bolt. Not sure who it is, or how much, but if the safety bugs you, Steve also offers a plug for the hole that's left when you remove the safety.

Steve's Guns has these. Given how the ramp sight was sliding under recoil, I'm thinking about one.

I've heard of ghost rings, but I'm not familiar with them. How do they differ from peeps?

[Denis]

I've heard of ghost rings, but I'm not familiar with them. How do they differ from peeps?

A peep site is a largish plate with a small hole in it, whereas a ghost ring is a fairly large aperture, with a narrow ring around it. In use, the eye picks up the front sight while looking through the ring, then the ring seems to vanish out of one's vision, whereupon one concentrates exclusively on the front sight. Acquiring the sight picture is quicker than with a peep, though there is maybe some little tradeoff as against the precision of a small-hole peep.

Here's what Jeff Cooper had to say:

Hard as it may be to believe, there are still people around who do not know about the "ghost-ring" sight. This sighting system was described in the early decades of the twentieth century by both Townsend Whelen and Karamojo Bell. It is so far superior to any form of open sight, for either snap shooting or precision work, that there is simply nothing to discuss. Yet, the manufacturers of the world have not heard about this, and they keep putting sighting systems on their rifles as issued over the counter that are little better than useless. As far as I know, there is no rifle in the world which comes from the factory to the shooter with a ghost-ring sight installed. Back in the `20s and `30s, before the public gave up on iron sights completely and went to the telescope, there were some good sights on commercial rifles. The last that I know of was the retractable aperture on the ZKK actions from Brno in Czechoslovakia. Those have not been available now for at least fifteen years

I can add that I really like the ghost-ring sights on my ZKKs!

[First Shirt]

Then, there's this:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =537671793

Would go really well with a blued Rossi M-92. And will handle the heaviest handloads you could come up with.

Gotta have another .357, to keep them company, doncha know?