Rossi Rifleman

So I got an email saying from FedEx saying it had been delivered. And by delivered it meant they left it on my door. Good thing it was not, say, a firearm.

Here is a picture of the box and the inside packaging. The carbine is still wrapped; it is the longer wad of brown paper. There is another wad of paper still stuck on the bottom of the box; my arm is not that long and I am too lazy to stick something in it to fish the wad.

and the carbine out of it, orange zip tie still in place:

The handguard seemed to have been replaced as I had applied lineseed oil on the wood. The buttstock was still what I sent. And, let's get into what really matters: they did replace the barrel. Inside it looks brand new. What looks likes a bit of grinding right on the bottom edge of the chamber looks like a ramp:

It looks dirty inside, but they did test it out with 18 rounds of ammo:

After the pictures were taken, I decided to repeat the same test I did where it would not load a single 38 special snap cap. And this time, it loaded fine. I also will note that the lever action felt much smoother/lighter than when I sent to then.

So far so good. I am yet to test fire it but I am feeling quite pleased with the turnaround time, the work done, and how it feels right now.

Awesome

Is the top chamber pic the way you got it back?

Too bad they didn't return some spent brass samples. Maybe they are in that wad of paper, might be worth opening the other end of the box to find out.

GasGuzzler wrote:Is the top chamber pic the way you got it back?

Yep.

Ranch Dog wrote:Too bad they didn't return some spent brass samples. Maybe they are in that wad of paper, might be worth opening the other end of the box to find out.

Not a bad idea. I did not bother because I did not expect a manufacturer to sent the spent brass with the firearm.

I think I'd get some spent brass from it as soon as possible.

Make smoke,

That's the plan. I have been able to go to a range to test drive it yet.

So I took it to do some testing. Ammo I bought was
Two boxes of Perfecta: one in .357 158gr and one in .38pecial. Note the bullet shapes.

Some 15 rounds of LAX munition (reload). Note the flat is larger than in the Perfecta and the sides are more rounded (almost like they took the 38Special perfecta bullet and chopped its end).


I ran 5 rounds of each slow fire and then 5 more in fast fire. Since I had 5 more of the LAX loose, I later on shot those. In slow fire, all of them loaded and fired without a hitch. In rapid -- as fast as someone who never shot a lever action anything fast -- the LAX seemed to get trapped just as it was about to load. But if you held it there for a few seconds it would pop loose and get in. I take it is smacking the brass lip somewhere; more of that later.

I did notice that while the .357 empty shells looks clean, the 38Special had a bit of burn deposits on the mouth. Can I assume that is because of the different case lenghts?

Here is another view of the same brass. Note the nick (shiny bit) on the lip. I also noticed that in some degree in most of the brass. Since I did not have a sharpie or some other pen with me, I could not figure out where in respect to the vertical in the cartridge that is happening.


While operating the lever I did not feel at any time I was fighting with it: it did move smoothly and lightly besides when it jammed with the LAX in rapid fire.

Comments?

Probably length but could also be lower pressure is not expanding the brass enough to completely seal the chamber. How do the 357 cases look? No bulges I hope.

In both my 92s 357 and 45C light plinking load result in smoked cases. I think it's a combination of low pressure and larger chambers. Although, checking fired cases they measure under max by enough that I don't let it bother me.

Make smoke,

I will go with the lighter pressures of the 38 Spl not expanding the case quick enough. Very common. I'm wondering about the shape of the cases at the web?