I’ve spoken of it before… You guys know I have this little .44 Mag Carbine, an M92 Rossi. It’s a simple Winchester 92 Clone. Short 16″ barrel, lever action, really light and fast handling. Super smooth thanks to multiple Slipstream applications. It’s like melted butter on butter.
Shooting it, it is dead nuts on using 240 grain loads, specifically cowboy action loads, at 100 yards. With 180 grain full house magnum loads, it hits like 4 feet high at 100. Which actually puts it on for longer range shooting. 300 yards is very doable with this gun. Shooting the cowboy loads, it’s a pussycat. Real mild and pleasant. It’s fun. You break the shot, feel and hear the bang, and then… and then… you see and hear the impact of that 240 grains of lead smacking the target. Hard.
It’s a blast. So much fun, I could have gone through several boxes of shells in it… but I was being sparing with my ammo. I am not yet ready to start reloading here.
I have to say that right now, at this moment, the M92 Carbine is my favorite rifle.
“It’s a simple Winchester 92 COPY.” There ya go, fixed it for you. 😉
I was looking at their .454 Casull offering, but is Rossi a quality manufacturer?
They are a hell of a lot better than Marlin right now.
Depends on when it was made.
I’ve got two.
One, a 16″ .454 that I bought new and had customized maybe 7 years ago. Love it, love the smack of a 250 grain lead slug hitting a welding fuel tank from “over yonder” distance, seemingly SECONDS after pulling the trigger, and love the big boom of a Buffalo Bore +P round leaving the muzzle.
The other, a very old 20″ .357 with the worst (heavy, gritty) action I’ve ever seen on a rifle of any kind, and a ~1mm casting void in the receiver cross-bridge forward of where the hammer falls. I think it was a 1970’s-80’s era import. I paid very little for it, and plan to do some work on it. Par for the Rossis of that era.
Shorter: I wouldn’t be afraid to buy one of the newer ones again.
In the last seven years of selling guns, we’ve only had 2 issues with the Rossi Lever Actions. Both were about 5 or 6 years ago, and both were involving the wood in the stocks cracking. We’ve not seen or had any problems since.
Hellovagun for the money.
Yep, my smith actually warned me of the cracking issue, which was most common on the .454’s. I had him bed the buttstock to help prevent that.
I’d buy another if I could handle it ahead of time. I’ve never seen on in Salt Lake-area shops.
I really want a Marlin – but barring that option I guess I’ll go with the clone – although with new Marlin 1894c QC problems maybe that’s not a bad thing.
The Marlins might have QC issues… but you get one and where is that Marlin going to be in 10 years and where is the Rossi?
This, I don’t know. I love my little .44 Rossi, and my new Marlin is on the way back to the factory. But it will get fixed and returned to me…
We shall see.
I meant to write the “1892” clone – I know the Marlin is a different design.
I like what 44mag does out of a 16in barrel.
I imagine Slipstream Grease would be the pick for the moving parts in a Rossi levergun.
The results… well, I am very pleased with it. Very.
I’ve been pleased with the stuff myself. Sadly, I haven’t used it on a levergun of my own. Despite my admiration for leverguns I managed to prevent myself from getting one through calibre indecision;
.357? .30-30? .44 mag?
.30-30 or a pistol caliber? That’s worth a new post.
If your just looking for joy to shoot, I have both the 357 and the 44 and I can tell you the 357 is an absolute joy. Low recoil, fast handling. The 44 with its metal butt plate takes a toll on your shoulder, not sure who the curve is supposed to fit, definitely not my shoulder. 357 is my wife’s favorite rifle to shoot and she’s not a rifle fan. I’d go with the 357 hands down again
Nice Rifle!
I never heard of Rossi till two years ago when I picked up a .22 Colt Frontier Scout, .22 Ruger Standard, .22 Heritage Rough Rider and a Rossi .22 pump action rifle all for $300 total from a dude handling an estate sale for a widow selling her husbands guns.
Love the way the Rossi breaks down in two pieces to fit in a small case that fits in my back pack.
Love a rifle in .44. I have a Ruger Carbine .44 mag and recoil is hardly noticable. Looks just like the Ruger 10-22. Great brush gun for northern MN.
Call her Vera.
I have to agree – I love my old Win 16″ Trapper. There is nothing quite as satisfying as that little beast doing its thing. Being in Ohio where 200 yards is considered long range, I have to wonder if it could be my only gun. I guess I’d need a .22, but other than that I think all my problems could get solved with the Trapper.
I bought a new EMF Hartford (Rossi) ’92 with 20″ stainless steel octagon barrel in 357 Mag about three years ago. It is by far my favorite rifle to shoot. I use it mostly for cowboy action shooting and for plinkin’ it’s just a blast. I mostly shoot light 357 rounds that I reload that you can shoot it all day long (also can be used for a small game load). With 357 factory loaded 125 grain and 158 JHP or JSP bullets they could be used for self-defense. I’ve bought all of the needed reloading components for a hot 357 load (from a 357 rifle-only loading manual) but I haven’t tried it yet. It’s an 1800+ FPS 160 or 180 grain Hornady XTP bullets with Lil’ Gun powder for deer hunting. I agree with Scott with this one gun I could do most of what I would need to do, at least at close range. I’d just have to add a 22 for small game.
I shot my ’92 for over six months ‘stock’ from the factory while I was on the waiting list for Steve Young to work on it to ‘slick it up’ and customize it. What a difference when my rifle came back; it took all of the hesitation and sticking out of working the action. I was shooting about the middle of the pack of my small group of cowboy shooters now I shoot mostly to the front of the group. I can put ten cowboy rounds on steel plates at 20 yards in around 10 seconds when I do my part. Anyway, here’s a couple of links you might find useful:
http://stevesgunz.com/index.htm
http://www.gunblast.com/SteveYoung.htm
“The .357 Magnum out of a carbine barrel is a whole different animal than the same cartridge fired from a four or six inch revolver. The combination of a sealed breech and long barrel really brings the efficient little cartridge to life, and it can be safely loaded up to .30-30 Winchester power levels, and with a fatter bullet.”
I shoot a pair of Ruger Vaqueros revolvers in 357 stainless along with the Rossi ’92. The old cowboys were on to something with this; having a handgun in the same caliber as your rifle not only makes sense but it adds to your shooting fun.
Bob,
I’m not a cowboy shooter, rather a hunter, so I had Steve do a little-less intensive action work on mine than he’d have done for a competitor. Amazingly slick. I had to order the gun from him though, so I don’t have a baseline to compare that gun to, other than my old POS .357.
Gino,
You should send that 357 POS out to have it slicked up like your 454. It might turn that gun you hate to shoot into one of your favorites. Plus 357 ammo is way cheaper to shoot than 454. All of this talk about ’92’s is making me want to get another ’92 in a larger hunting caliber like 44/454. I bet it would make a great brush gun for hunting feral hogs here in TX.
Sending off the .357 might be on the agenda actually, but first I’m going to try working on it a bit myself. It’s got more issues than I mentioned above, including a poorly-fitted hammer (drags on the SIDE of the receiver interior as it falls), and a front sight filed down so far by the previous owner that it hits 9″ high at 50 yards. It’s presently in pieces in a tackle box tray. I went back and forth with Steve Young about what to do about it, before I just decided to get the .454 from him instead. I might run it by Joe at Crusader too. Shorter waiting list, there.
I actually bought that .454 as a deer/pig brush gun, back when I lived in Maryland…then moved West before i got a chance to use it on game. I keep debating whether to take it out for elk, but I know the day I do I’ll have a bull standing broadside in a meadow 300 yards on the other side of a canyon. Shootable with my scoped .270 or 30-06. Open-sighted .454, not so much. I could probably make the hit on an inanimate target of known range, but the velocity and trajectory at that range isn’t acceptable on game. But dang, that thing would be a joy to carry up a mountain versus the ’06…and the ’06 is a Win Featherweight.
can a 44 special fit in a 44 magnum 16 inch Rossi M 92?
Yes. That’s not a problem. Mine ran and cycled just fine. It really liked .44 Special.
I have a Winchester 94 trapper in .44 mag and she shoots a very nice 3-4 inch group at 100 yards using Hornady 240 grain hollowpoints. I had the trigger worked on so the trigger releases at about 3 pounds and I had a recoil pad added to the stock. I love my little trapper.