I need opinions and advice on a Taurus M92 stainless .357

[piller]

I am considering a Taurus M92 stainless in .357 that I have found at a Pawn Shop near work. The barrel length is 16" and the price is $599. Does anyone know if the Taurus will reliably feed .38 Special, or is it sensitive to the OAL like the Rossi M92s are? I am not really serious about getting this particular rifle, but I am wanting to get a .357 leveraction for PillHer. She has a .357 GP100 stainless and I would like to get her a caliber match rifle that will also cycle the .38 Special reliably.

[Griff]

Yes, it will chamber and fire .38Spl... but like all leverguns, and Rossi specifically, they are individually OAL sensitive. By that I mean, you can find one that will feed .38wadcutters to 190grain .357Mags without a hiccup... right out of the box... then the very next one might not feed any .38Spl and can be selective with .357M ammo.

However, with a little work, you can correct this. I think Steve told me that he's only found one or two that just didn't respond to any of his therapy. If I was in the market for a .357M/.38Spl levergun, I wouldn't hesitate to buy the Rossi. If you have some dummy rounds in .38Spl, I'd take 'em into the pawn shop and ask if they'd let me try them thru the action... They can't say "yes" if you don't ask. Then you'll know for sure...

And if they do, good... and if they don't... excellent bargaining tool!

[tman]

knock about $200 and it's a deal!

[GoatGuy]

knock about $200 and it's a deal!

Couple of months back, I bought a new in box, 20" barrel, blue version for $477.00 + tax at one of our LGD's here. After cussing and complaining about the thing after I got it home, I'm now quite satisfied with the carbine. .38 Specials were no problem from the get go. Just had to learn what bullet profile and O.A.L. for .357's it would tolerate. Thanks to Steve, I was enlightened regarding that.

[Panzercat]

What Griff said. Also kind of a premium price for a second string lever gun brand, and a coin toss to boot.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

I am considering a Taurus M92 stainless in .357 that I have found at a Pawn Shop near work. The barrel length is 16" and the price is $599. Does anyone know if the Taurus will reliably feed .38 Special, or is it sensitive to the OAL like the Rossi M92s are? I am not really serious about getting this particular rifle, but I am wanting to get a .357 leveraction for PillHer. She has a .357 GP100 stainless and I would like to get her a caliber match rifle that will also cycle the .38 Special reliably.

piller,
That is a Rossi made gun. Taurus now owns Rossi. Here is some Rossi history. For years dating back to 1975 the made in Brazil Rossi 92 was imported by InterArms of Alexandria VA. Before InterArms, Firearms International of Washington DC imported Rossi in the 1960’s. From about 1968-74Garcia Corp. of Washington DC imported Rossi. InterArms was the first to market the Rossi made 92 as their Puma model. These earlier Rossi 92’s were really rough. The parts were poorly fitted and then terribly over sprung. Rossi’s philosophy was to make the parts slightly too big then rather than hand fit them, just use excessively heavy springs. This saved many man-hours that keeps the prices low. When you pickup one of these guns even before you loaded it you could tell it was very stiff right out of the box. Because of this, these earlier guns Rossi got a bad rep. But, that is also what got me started re-working these guns in the early 90’s. The CAS game was growing big time but the availability of guns for the game was limited.
About 1999 the owner of InterArms passed away. It is my understanding the heirs didn't care to continue with the operation of InterArms so the stock on hand was sold off at a reduced price. (I bought new Rossi 92's at that time for $190). About that same time period, Rossi sold off their gallery gun, the pump 62 and the revolvers to Taurus, so some folks thought there would be no more Rossi 92's available. I can't tell you how many people ask me what I was going to do now.
About this time, around 2000, Rossi completely re-tooled with all new CNC machine. This new machinery has allowed them to make some parts better fitted. There are still some that are over sprung but overall the current guns are much nicer than the pre-2000 92’s. About this same time Navy Arms had started importing the Rossi 92's. Then not long after, the ex-employee's of InterArms started up Legacy Sports International (LSI) and began importing the Rossi 92 as their Puma. These were the first to have the ugly bolt top safety. TLSI was even in the same building as the old InterArms company and were using the Puma name as the model name, too. Then and I don't remember exactly, LSI moved to Reno NV.

In 2009 Taurus acquired Rossi and the 92's and have taken over the distribution under the Braztech name. Both EMF and LSI lost their deal once the Taurus buyout took place. LSI now carries the Armi Sport/Chiappa 92 but it's still called the Puma Model. The Armi Sport/Chiappa 92 is a re-incarnation of the Armi San Marco guns. Chiappa is doing a much better job as far as fit and finish is concerned. But, they did bring forth some reverse engineered design flaws that plagued the ASM 92's.
The Rossi 92's are still made by Rossi but imported by Braztech a sub of Taurus USA of Florida.
Rossi/Braztech

The Winchester/Miruko 92's are finely fitted and finished but they have way too many liability safety parts that don't hold up well for the long haul and are hard to tune to make it a reliable gun. The don’t work as well as the rossi because Win/Miruko still uses the shell guide geometry of the original Win 92. But those guns were bottleneck style ammo like 44-40 and 32-20. The chambers are funnel shaped so the fed well. But, the new Winchester/Miruko 92's are mostly straightwall ammo like 357m or 44mag. The guns will feed some of it but with the old style shell guides they can be picky.

Think about this. All the folks that made the original 92's are long dead and gone. The folks with the most experience building 92's now are the Rossi folks. They have been doing it for almost 40 something years. They aren't finished as nice as the others but they don't cost twice as much either and Rossi knows more about making a 92 work with straight wall cartridge than the others. Many folks assume a finely finish gun always works better. To manufacture a gun upward of 40% of the cost can be attributed to the final finish. Just because it looks good doesn't mean it works good. The Rossi's don't cost as much but over all they work better.

What Griff said. Also kind of a premium price for a second string lever gun brand, and a coin toss to boot.

Get ready for some sticker shock. The new prices are out a bit early. Normally they don't go up until after the ShotShow. That stainless carbine now cost me $489.90. A 20% markup with S&H will put that gun over $600

[Ji in Hawaii]

Our local Sports Authority carries them for under 5 bills NIB.

[Old Ironsights]

Our local Sports Authority carries them for under 5 bills NIB.

NOS. Once they get their next shipment, look for prices to climb.

[1886]

I am considering a Taurus M92 stainless in .357 that I have found at a Pawn Shop near work. The barrel length is 16" and the price is $599. Does anyone know if the Taurus will reliably feed .38 Special, or is it sensitive to the OAL like the Rossi M92s are? I am not really serious about getting this particular rifle, but I am wanting to get a .357 leveraction for PillHer. She has a .357 GP100 stainless and I would like to get her a caliber match rifle that will also cycle the .38 Special reliably.

In my experience, the ONLY way to know is to load up some dummy rounds with the projectiles that interest you and cycle them thru the action of the rifle that interests you. 1886.

[AJMD429]

Yes, it will chamber and fire .38Spl... but like all leverguns, and Rossi specifically, they are individually OAL sensitive. By that I mean, you can find one that will feed .38wadcutters to 190grain .357Mags without a hiccup... right out of the box... then the very next one might not feed any .38Spl and can be selective with .357M ammo. However, with a little work, you can correct this.

Yep. Price not 'great', but unless/until you find one at a lower price, it's the one to beat...

[piller]

Thanks everyone. I am going to go to Sports Authority and look today. My other option is to sell off a couple of old guns that I never use anymore. Probably can't get much out of a Glenfield 60 that holds 18 rounds of .22lr, but I will check on it. I have a couple of other ones that might be trade worthy. I will check out Sports Authority first.

[Larkbill]

You might be shocked at what that Glenfield 60 might bring. Check Armslist in your area. The 18 round models especially.

My wife bought me one at Kmart in the mid 70's for $49.95, not realizing that wasn't what I had asked for. Since I already had a Remington 552 I bought new I eventually traded it for something I wanted more. It was a good shooter but pickier about ammo than the Remington.