Rossi 92 overall cartridge lengths?

[Bill in Oregon]

Seems I have heard they can be picky feeders with straight wall cases. I'll pick up my .357 tomorrow, and was hoping to load some 187-grain cast bullets I got from our very own and very generous EarlM. Thought we had a thread on this recently. I need to seat to get an OAL of 1.590 or shorter, correct?

[Griff]

Generally speaking, yes, that 1.590" is a good starting limit. There are 2 limiting factors on the 1892, one is the distance from the back of the carrier to the top of the relief for the mag tube, absolute max oal, and the other is the fore/aft positioning of the slots in the cartridge guides. They can affect the oal, but, usually have a greater interference when loaded to shorter lengths. I.e., feeding the "Specials".

[Lefty Dude]

Just remember, no two Rossi 92's are created equal .

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks guys. I just got my copy of Nate Kiowa Jones' Rossi 92 DVD, and can't wait to start slicking up my new shooter. Just wanted to have some rounds on hand that would feed and shoot.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

Seems I have heard they can be picky feeders with straight wall cases. I'll pick up my .357 tomorrow, and was hoping to load some 187-grain cast bullets I got from our very own and very generous EarlM. Thought we had a thread on this recently. I need to seat to get an OAL of 1.590 or shorter, correct?

Hi Bill,
First, thanks for buying my stuff. i get this question all the time. This is my stock answer.
The first thing to keep in mind, all leveractions, pump action and semi-auto rifles or handguns are ammo length and bullet shape sensitive. Some more than other. For instance, you don't think about it much if you are dealing with a rifle cal. like 30-06, 308 or 223 and even 30-30. Those are bottleneck calibers. Bottlenecks always feed better than straightwall ammo, whether it is a rifle cal or a pistol cal. That's because you have a small diameter bullet going into a really big hole by comparison, the bottleneck chamber being much like a funnel. The original Winchester 92's were designed to work with bottleneck ammo in the 1.5" to 1.6" OAL with round nose flat point bullets. Ammo like 44-40, 38-40, 32-20 and 25-20.
What that means is they may not work well with really long 357’s. (They tend to hit the top inside of the chamber before they make the turn into the chamber)
or really short 38’s. The most common problem with the shorter 38's is the gun will throw out live rounds with the empty's. Or, stovepipe them. This is because the shorter 38 coming on to the carrier from the tube can bounce forward enough that the rim is too close to the rim slots in the guides and when you lever it fast the carrier just catapults them up or out with the empty.
they may not work well with bullet shapes other than the round nosed flat point lead they were designed for. The TC style bullets can end up too long because the side is straight then angle in farther out on the bullet. Many semi-jacketed hollow points have the same profile as RNFP lead. So, they tend to feed well, too.

Bottom line is these pistol cal lever rifles that use these straight wall pistol ammos are much like semi-auto pistols. There just some ammo they aren't going to work well with.

Hope this helps.

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks Steve. What you say makes perfect sense.
I'm not going to load any more rounds until I can run a few dummies of varying lengths through the new Rossi to see what it wants to eat.

[Malamute]

One of the guys here modified his carrier a but, making a groove in the front center of it somewhat similar to how 94 carriers are grooved. It allowed fatter nosed bullets to feed into the chamber.

As was mentioned, the cartridge stop on the carrier can be modified for longer cartridges. I've taken my Browning apart to see if it will allow tuning for the Lyman 429421 Keith bullet. I've read that they can be adjusted for that load. It looks like the cartridge stop on the carrier will be really short of cut back enough though. It may not be a problem for other loads to adjust them, I'm just not sure if I want to cut it back that much. Being triangular, the farther back it goes, the shorter it gets height wise.

The pistol caliber carbines make a certain amount of sense, but they aren't always as simple as they first appear to have two guns that use one load, when the load you want to use doesn't work in one of them. I usually find myself just using a rifle caliber after going in circles with the same load thing. The rifle calibers work with no effort or messing around.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

One of the guys here modified his carrier a but, making a groove in the front center of it somewhat similar to how 94 carriers are grooved. It allowed fatter nosed bullets to feed into the chamber.

As was mentioned, the cartridge stop on the carrier can be modified for longer cartridges. I've taken my Browning apart to see if it will allow tuning for the Lyman 429421 Keith bullet. I've read that they can be adjusted for that load. It looks like the cartridge stop on the carrier will be really short of cut back enough though. It may not be a problem for other loads to adjust them, I'm just not sure if I want to cut it back that much. Being triangular, the farther back it goes, the shorter it gets height wise.

The pistol caliber carbines make a certain amount of sense, but they aren't always as simple as they first appear to have two guns that use one load, when the load you want to use doesn't work in one of them. I usually find myself just using a rifle caliber after going in circles with the same load thing. The rifle calibers work with no effort or messing around.

Just setting it back, it can end up too short. But, if you add some weld metal to it then slightly notch the lever where it has to clear it that will allow you to set it back. That is basically how Rossi does the 454's.
One other issue you may encounter is the Browning cart guides. They are much like the original 92's in that the rim slot angle is a little too slow for the straight wall ammo. (works fine with the original bottlenecked cals) This is why the B92 and the Win miroku 92 tend to be more ammo sensitive.
This is one area where Rossi guides work better. Many years ago Rossi figured out that if the angle was a little faster it will raise the rear of the cart sooner allowing it to make the turn on into the chamber better.

[Bill in Oregon]

Dang, just picked up my little 92 and the thing works slick right out of the box. Not only that, but it seems to be wearing a black walnut stock. Will wonders never cease! Will strip, clean and lube and supply photos ASAP.

[jnyork]

Dang, just picked up my little 92 and the thing works slick right out of the box. Not only that, but it seems to be wearing a black walnut stock. Will wonders never cease! Will strip, clean and lube and supply photos ASAP.

See there, all that worry for nothing.

[Malamute]

Thanks Steve!

Great information.

[JerryB]

I just checked some 180 grain bullets that Tycer sent me a few years ago. The loaded rounds are 1.6", my Rossi 92 will run my .38spl 158 grain swc loads up to the Tycer loads. Just depends on the rifle.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

I just checked some 180 grain bullets that Tycer sent me a few years ago. The loaded rounds are 1.6", my Rossi 92 will run my .38spl 158 grain swc loads up to the Tycer loads. Just depends on the rifle.

Yep, it's all about the stack up of the various parts. Rossi has a plus or minus accepted size range. Once those parts go in and depending on that run out, each gun will be different in what all it will feed.
i've seen consecutively numbered guns that were totally different in what they feed best.

[Bill in Oregon]

Here's the little toot: