Rossi 92 and 225gr Hornady FTX leverevolution bullets.

[oneyeopn]

Hello, I have a Rossi 92, brass receiver stainless action and octagonal rifle (24" barrel). It is in 45colt. I had been wanting to try the LeveRevolution ammo but it is so expensive and when I got a box of 100 of the bullets for reloading on my birthday I was ecstatic. First thing I found out is that they want you to trim your cases back and the second thing was that there isnt a lot of reloading info on them. When I went to Hornady's webpage they talked about pushing the bullets at a speed I wasnt comfortable with. In the vicinity of 1800fps and the stipulated that you have to trim the cases. My Rossi chambers and feeds anything I have put into it without a hitch and I was wanting to develop a hunting round for deer and wild pig. First I took an empty case and prepped it but did not trim it and seated a bullet in it with a nice smooth roll crimp and ran it through my action. Cycled and fed perfectly. So I took 5 cases and prepped and loaded them with 9.1 grains of Longshot which is one of the recommended powders for the bullet and one I had on hand, the only one I had on hand. I took them out to the range (out behind my house) and first fired some 255 grain Freedom Munition bullets (new not reloads) through to establish a sighting baseline. The Freedom are 255gr LRNFP and they shot about a 5" group at 65 yards with the original iron sights, OK but not good. The FTX's cycled great and shot 1 1/2 inch group of 5 at the same distance. Recoil was soft and the brass showed no signs of any problems. The Chrony showed them running about 1180fps with a +/- of 12fps. My questions are this.
1. Should I worry about trimming the brass back or can I leave it the proper length for any other bullet I may load?
2. Can I safely try to make the loads run a little faster, I would like to see them around 1400fps. I can work them up to that level and watch for any bad signs on my brass or rifle.
3. Would this make a decent brush gun round for deer and wild pig?
Thank You Very Much!!!

[Old Ironsights]

Howdy & welcome.

Can't answer #1 or #2, but #3 is a big Yep...

[Batman1939]

Howdy & welcome.

Can't answer #1 or #2, but #3 is a big Yep...

+1 on what he said. Good luck with them !

[oneyeopn]

I was reading another thread on here and the gentleman called his rifle a "Golden Boy". Mine is exactly like his. It looks like underneath the brass receiver there is a lot of Stainless Steel parts plus the stainless barrel so are there any strength issues with these rifles?

[JerryB]

Welcome, I have a Rossi Hartford .45 Colt carbine, they are capable of taking most any big game in the U.S. with the right loads on up into the 300 + grains bullets. A lot on here that load heavy loads, they'll give you some good load data.

[oneyeopn]

I have started upgrading the sights from Steve's Gunz, I really wish I could afford a tang sight but getting a nice rear sight that he recommended. Already replaced the front with one that has a brass bead on it and ordered the plug to get rid of the top mounted safety
His Stuff is so good!!!

[earlmck]

1. Should I worry about trimming the brass back or can I leave it the proper length for any other bullet I may load?
2. Can I safely try to make the loads run a little faster, I would like to see them around 1400fps. I can work them up to that level and watch for any bad signs on my brass or rifle.
3. Would this make a decent brush gun round for deer and wild pig?

1. No, don't worry about trimming. Hornady was figuring you'd need to shorten the brass to make it feed: if it feeds full length in your rifle you are just fine. (I'm guessing you end up with an overall length around 1.65"?)

2. Your rifle is a much stronger weapon than all the older guns that were chambered for 45 Colt and so easily handles more pressures than normal factory ammo is loaded to, although my understanding is that the brass-framed rifles don't have quite the strength level of the all-steel rifles. You won't see any symptoms of excess pressure in taking your "longshot" loads up to 1400 fps. (probably around 11 to 11.5 grains depending on your finished cartridge length). But if you want more velocity with similar pressures you'd be better off with a slower powder such as H110 with which you could hit 1600 to 1700 fps with moderate pressures. I'd also want you to do a visual double-check of your "longshot" loads after you charge the cases because those can hold a double charge and still seat a bullet (remember Murphy's second law: anything that can go wrong will go wrong). That would not be an issue with H110 (though I'd still do the visual double-check).

3. Sure, though I personally would take that light-for-caliber bullet on up to the higher velocities using H110 or similar powder for hunting purposes.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

yep,
earlmck pretty much covered it. No need to trim if it works through the gun. As for pushing them, just stay within the standard 45lc loadings for the brass frame gun.


OBTW, thanks for buying my stuff.

[oneyeopn]

Thank you gentlemen very much. I will look into getting some H110 next time I am in Wichita. I always do a visual check on every round I load, I know its time consuming but it makes me feel better. After reading earlmck's post. I am going to look into getting some of the heavier FTX bullets. I guess I didnt realize that 225 is light for caliber, other than my 54 cal Hawkins, this is the biggest bore rifle I own. I am more used to 55gr or 160gr bullets for my other rifles. Thank You very very much.

Oh Steve, I aint done, I just have to work within a budget! I figured getting it shooting accurate and plugging that hole were the important starting points, the rifle has only had a little over a box of shells run through it and most of them were CAS loads.

[oneyeopn]

Ok I ordered some H110, using the 225ftx bullet kinda where should I start with the powder. Information is pretty scarce and I really do want a little more velocity with that bullet. Thanks Again...Oh Steve I had to go out of town to my granddaughters 6th birthday party and I am still looking for a post office. Once I get to the big cities (Tulsa) I kinda get lost. LOL

[earlmck]

OK, now you've got the "good stuff", load some up using large pistol magnum primers (H110 needs a nice warm primer) and about 23 grains of the powder. See if this doesn't give you about 1700 fps or so and do what you want it to. You can adjust the powder charge up or down to achieve that nice polite 1700 fps.

Reason I'm suggesting 1700 fps. is that should result in a low 20K's pressure zone in deference to your brass frame weapon, which I understand might not like as much pressure as a full steel frame rifle. Also your pressures can vary considerably in this pistol cartridge by seating depth of the bullet, so if 23 grains gives you something like 1800 fps you may have more pressure than you want to run on a long-term basis and you can back the powder charge off a ways. If 23 grains gives you 1600 fps at your present seating depth, you could try a bit more powder if you want to get a bit more velocity.

Have fun there, oneyeopn!

[oneyeopn]

thank you so much..I will give it a go. I am still learning so much about reloading since the bulk of it has been pretty standard 8x57 and .223. There is a lot of information available for the calibers and having a chronograph has made loading for them pretty easy. Loading for the Colt has been more of a learning experience. Besides the facts that there are loads for both old and new guns a lot of manuals dont even talk about 45 colt in a rifle, although my lyman manual kinda briefly does as long as you are loading what they are talking about. Thanks again Sir.

[earlmck]

Besides the facts that there are loads for both old and new guns a lot of manuals dont even talk about 45 colt in a rifle

I know what you mean! There must be more variety of different power/pressure capability levels for 45 Colt than for any other cartridge by far. I have a 454 Casull/45 Colt rifle at the top end I load for and now I need to go load a few at the very bottom pressure level for granddad's ancient old "hawg-leg". Family reunion this week and we all went out and tried the old babe and shot up the box of factory ammo I had for it. I may have to come up with a fancy color-coding job to differentiate the wildly different loads: they'll look awful similar from the outside, but about 40Kpsi difference on the inside!

Anyway, that chronograph will be a real help for getting the loads you need.

[GregT]

All my Rossi 92's have color case hardened steel receivers. I don't have a "brass" receiver Model 92, but wonder if those aren't brass-PLATED and not subject to worry about "brass-framed" rifles? I never bought a brass receiver Model 92 Rossi as I was afraid the brass would eventually wear off. I could be wrong but I wonder about this.
GregT

[oneyeopn]

All my Rossi 92's have color case hardened steel receivers. I don't have a "brass" receiver Model 92, but wonder if those aren't brass-PLATED and not subject to worry about "brass-framed" rifles? I never bought a brass receiver Model 92 Rossi as I was afraid the brass would eventually wear off. I could be wrong but I wonder about this.
GregT

Greg it really seems to be brass and not brass coated, if it were brass plated I am sure some of the finish would have worn off by now.

Anyway took my 45 Rossi out to our range yesterday and sighted it in with Freedom Ammo 250gr RNFP before I started shooting my handloads. I had installed new sites from Steve's Gunz and they absolutely rock!! I set my rear sight in the middle and fired two shots, 6 to 8" right of center. I drifted the front sight just a little bit and fired two more. Bullseyes, so I covered my holes with orange stickers and backed out to 100yrds. I will let the pictures show the rest of the story, needless to say I am very happy with a rifle that I hadnt previously considered a hunting rifle.


I didnt set up my Chrony, the skies were looking a bit threatening, and we ended up have 2 rolling wall cloud microbursts and the town is pretty torn up. My uncle texted me that it was coming as I was leaving the farm and got home in time to button up the hatches, Our metal grainery chicken house is caved in and we have been cleaning up branches. I spent a few hours this morning getting our generator hooked up to the house expecting to be without electricity for a couple of days. Our little town is torn up but thank heaven no one was hurt. I cant hardly wait to go chronograph my rounds and shoot my accurate rifle some more.
I want to thank everyone for their help.