Is This What Happened to All the Rossi Lever-Actions?

Bisley

Active Member
Saw on the news where Brazillian President Bolsanaro signed an order easing firearm restrictions in Brazil. Does that mean the end of Rossi exports? I haven't been able to find one on the normal distributor networks (Gunbroker, Bud's, etc.).

If this is too political, then I have no problems with deletion.

Bisley
 

Bisley

Active Member
Awright. I was looking in the wrong places. They're on Gunbroker for between $5-600.00. Thanks for your patience.

Bisley
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Glad you found them.
I sure like my .357 Magnum Rossi 92/ EMF Hartford Sporting Rifle. A .45 Colt carbine would be right spiffy, too.
 

Bisley

Active Member
What about polishing all the internal parts? I am told the action is rough unless internally polished. I saw a couple of Youtube videos talking about this. If I have to pay a gunsmith to smooth out the action, I might as well see if I can find a used one.

Bisley
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
For the right price I would buy one. Cleaning up the insides I can do.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
I know a guy with a couple of 92s in Colts .
The actions were good in 80's rifle and the 2013 . Neither will feed RP cases whether brass or nickle . Winchester , Fiocchi , Starline , PMC and FC run fine in both . The 2013 had some polishing done but must have been a good example to begin with . The wood is way beyond it's price point on the 80s rifle while it's just boring on the 2013 .
The barrel is the proverbial fly in the 13' rifle . It is/was .442×.450 with the dovetails cut too deep for the front sight resuling in a dip under the front sight and over magazine tube hanger . The 16" barrel is very useful as a quick response gun for hogs and bumps the RBH loads 200-225 fps . It's off to get a new barrel from a Green Mountain .452 24" 1-16 blank . I'm torn to have it finished with a front ramp sight base milled in at 20" or have it milled with 1913/Weaver rail out to the barrel band and keep the rest .750 to utilize MSR gas block quadrail fittings .

Look for actions with an M serial number for Colts , as these are shared with the 44 mags and were the ones they built the 454 guns on as well . Well if you want to share loads with your Rugers anyway .

That's about all I have .
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
I bought mine lightly used for $400, disassembled it, checked for burrs, did a wee bit of the normal polishing, cut half a coil off the ejector spring, did a thorough cleaning and lube, and finished it off by cycling the action several hundred times over the course of a few days.

The rifle is simple enough to work on, so if you are fairly mechanically inclined and have proper gunsmithing screwdrivers, etc., a gunsmith should will be needed. That said, I did pay mine to improve on the 9 pound trigger pull, only because there are some triggers I'm not comfortable working on.
 

Bisley

Active Member
Thanks for the information on the Rossi. Especially happy to see someone makes 1-16" twist barrels in 45 Colt. I would like a hog / fun-to-shoot gun, and I am tooled up to load .45 Colt. Henry has a solid top and 16" twist, but Rossi has the loading gate. Rossi will take repair readily but Henry comes ready out of the box. I am travelling right now and I am just gathering opinions. Never worked on rifle internals before, but I think I can handle it.

Bisley
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
My 44mag Puma from (I would guess) the 80's is reliable and accurate. Action is stiff but I've never had time to play with the internals beyond fixing a broken firing pin. I'd really like a 357, which is what I wanted but never found, and then the 44 showed up!
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
The Rossi's have a 1-32 in the Colts .
If it stays sub or super all the way to the target it's fine mine tumbles and departs line of flight at 10:00 when it drops through ...... Another good reason for the faster twist .
 

Bisley

Active Member
Thanks again for the responses -- they've been informative and useful.
This is looking more like the Henry for me. I am studying different options to accompany my wheelgun. It takes .454, has a 1-16 twist, and I like the classic 454190 design for the revolver. Those 1873-vintage engineers knew what they were doing, I believe. But not for lever-action rifle, as I have been advised in the Henry thread earlier on this forum. Ian's design in AM 45-297G looks good (maybe I'd put a cup hollowpoint on it), but I don't think anything that long and heavy is gonna work with 1-32 twist. Henry's got 1-16, and the out-of-the-box readiness appeals to me. My travel schedule has me departing the ol' homestead in two weeks for the next two months, and int'l travel tentatively scheduled from September through early December. I've got time to make up my mind...
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
The Henry is also as heavy as a dead mule compared to the Rossi. Sheer weight is one of the things that has kept me away from Henrys products. Those things are pushing 9 lbs. A Rossi might go 6 lbs, give or take. If you're range shooting, it's not an issue. If you want to actually carry the thing around in the field it may be an issue. OTOH, if you plan on loading these things up for hogs or bear, the Rossi kicks harder by several degrees. My 44 mag is unpleasant with heavy loads. Just food for thought.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
it also depends on the Version your talking about.
the 24" octagon rifles are heavy after a walk in the mountains.
the 20" round barrel carbine isn't.
the 20" 'short rifle' is only slightly lighter than the 24" rifle, but is the best compromise, and it has a flat butt plate.
they are few and far between for some reason.
 

Bisley

Active Member
Bret, Fiver,

I had not discussed the barrel length. I was thinking the 20" steel (not necessarily all-weather) Henry round barrel carbine. For .45 Colt, I think that would be the most efficient. I am not sure there's a good Bbl-length / velocity trade-off past 20 inches with the .45 Colt. Also, is lube runout an issue at 24", where leading occurs in the last four inches of the barrel? Or is this a problem with AM 45-297 plain Base? I already own Saeco #945 GC SWC (Casts .453 diameter out of lino/wheelweight mix), and I am eager to try that, too.

I am still collecting input. Thanks for your time.

Bisley
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
The 16" gains right at 200 fps load for load over the 7.5" RBH the 20" gained 235-250 fps bullet/powder/lube changes had more effect . A friend's 24" was -10 to +20 over the 16" .

Off the books , and the load that made me buy a 45-70 , from Quick Load , H322 under a 350 gr at maximum feed length ran 1280 fps around 16-17,000 psi . The goal was a heavyweight sub to shoot groups at 100 .......
 

Ian

Notorious member
Running out of lube is a myth. Running out of powder gas volume/pressure and having too much barrel past the alloy's relax point is very real. Low Sb alloy lessens the effect.

The 297G was made with the Henry BB specifically in mind (.010" longer than the sammi max of 1.600" is absolute max OAL in mine) to cram as much bullet in the rifle as possible for low-velocity thumping. Meplat is about max it will feed, too. However, for general use I think a 250-grain bullet would be a little more suitable. The other reason for the 297G was I wanted a bullet to shoot in all of my .45 Colts, one of which is suppressed, and most of my revolvers are regulated for a heavier bullet and shoot much more accurately with a longer bullet. One load, one bullet, set the progressive press up and forget it. YMMV.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I have a couple of 24' barrels [two are identical 45 colt guns] and have used everything from commercial too hard plastic lube, to gloppy wet you can see it spray in front of the barrel lube.
I have also pushed the speeds from 4.5grs of powder up to enough 2400 to get just past 1650 fps.
none of them along the way gave me any leading, there have been some other lube anomalies noted from the shooting and temp etc., but no leading.
 

Cherokee

Medina, Ohio
I have fired thousands of 45 Colt loads thru my Uberti 1866 24" and never had any leading. In fact, I've never cleaned the barrel because all I can see is powder residue. I use Lars CR lube exclusively. I can say the same for my Marlin 24" except it hasn't had as many rounds thru it.
 
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Missionary

Well-Known Member
Before I bought a new Rossi I would search about for either a Navy Arms or Interarms import. These seem like they were inspected before sold. I have not had one that was in need of work. We have 5 now and I think I am done with hunting more Rossi's .....