NOE R92 'scope rail

The Rossi Model R92, a lightweight carbine for Cowboy Action, hunting, or plinking! Includes Rossi manufactured Interarms, Navy Arms, and Puma trade names.
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NOE R92 'scope rail

Post by severnsider »

NOE scope rail Rossi 92.jpg
Not quite the fit that I had hoped for. Looks like I shall have to bed it onto the barrel in order to get proper contact all round :roll: Is this a "normal" fit for these items?
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Re: NOE R92 'scope rail

Post by Ranch Dog »

I'm in town, but will look at my 357 Mag when I get home.
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Re: NOE R92 'scope rail

Post by 9x80Drilling »

The NOE rail I mounted on my .45 Colt fits similarly to yours, severnsider. I asked about this issue here on the forum a couple of years ago, wondering if I should bed it.
NOE replied that it should not be necessary. I still wonder if bedding would be advantageous every time I look at the fit.
My guess is the potential for problems would be greater as the mass of the sighting implement went up. I used a 2x7 scout scope on the carbine for 2 years. Now I have a FastFire 3 on the rail. If you're familiar with the FastFire 3, you know how light it is-under an ounce.
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Re: NOE R92 'scope rail

Post by severnsider »

9x80Drilling wrote:The NOE rail I mounted on my .45 Colt fits similarly to yours, severnsider. I asked about this issue here on the forum a couple of years ago, wondering if I should bed it.
NOE replied that it should not be necessary. I still wonder if bedding would be advantageous every time I look at the fit.
My guess is the potential for problems would be greater as the mass of the sighting implement went up. I used a 2x7 scout scope on the carbine for 2 years. Now I have a FastFire 3 on the rail. If you're familiar with the FastFire 3, you know how light it is-under an ounce.
The "fit" is very poor indeed - they've clearly machined a constant-radius groove on the base of the rail which is obviously never going to fit properly on the tapered section of the barrel. Hopefully the underside of the rail is at least making full contact with the barrel at the points where the screws pass through. It will be a bugger to bed using a fluid material like "Acraglass", so I'll have to try and find something stiffer - epoxy "putty" perhaps - to fill the gaps.
I'll be using either a Vortex Crossfire II Scout 2x7 'scope or a little Bushnell red dot. I would feel far more comfortable with the rail bedded for use with the 'scope although your experience indicates that it might not be necessary!
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Re: NOE R92 'scope rail

Post by 9x80Drilling »

I've used Brownell's Acraglas Gel when I needed a non-running bedding agent. Are you familiar with that product?
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Re: NOE R92 'scope rail

Post by severnsider »

9x80Drilling wrote:I've used Brownell's Acraglas Gel when I needed a non-running bedding agent. Are you familiar with that product?
Yes, thanks - I'm aware of it but it's hard/impossible to find over here. We are not well provided for in the UK in that respect....... perhaps there's insufficient demand for it. I shall put a few shots down today and see how it goes without bedding. Thanks for your suggestion of the gel.
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Re: NOE R92 'scope rail

Post by Ranch Dog »

Here is the NOE base mounted on my R92 357 Mag.

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I have not had any issues with it, and I didn't bed it in any way. I shoot a stout round of ammunition through this SRC. It is a 190-grain bullet I designed for the 35 Rem propelled by a heavy load of Lil'Gun. The load generates 6.5 ft/lbs of recoil energy and the scope and mount are subject to 270 lbf. There have not been any problems with my setup.

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I would like to offer the "back story" concerning the mount as I was quite involved in seeing it made available. When Rossi stopped manufacturing them, I asked the owner of NOE if he would make them and ended up receiving the first mount so the decision to press forward with the fit is on me. NOE looked at it in depth, and for them to take the blank stock and copy the dimensions of the Rossi offering, the tooling or the retail price would have been prohibitive, and NOE would need to sell about 3,000 units to break even. I felt I was honest when I told him that I didn't think he would sell a single one at that price we were discussing and NOE did not disagree. The Rossi base had been selling for $15, granted they were no longer available, but the aluminum and treatment of it was horrible. I have had two Rossi bases fail.

So from there, it went down to figuring out a price that would work along with a product that would work for the price and be hands down better than what Rossi offered. NOE found out they could purchase lengths of the picatinny rail, cutting it to the appropriate length, and milling it for a fit where it counted. NOE is a pretty smart outfit and handled all the recoil calculations for both base and screws. The next concern I had was the height as it was higher than the Rossi. Tooling to mill the stock down and, surprisingly the screws, were again prohibitive. Remember that Rossi makes all their parts from raw material, they outsource nothing, and that gets very expensive for a small business to compete. Just the shorter screws of a stock that would meet the recoil requirements would require a 10K count purchase, let alone the tools and time to mill the contour to match the barrel.

What it came down to was my suggestion that the Rossi replacement mount use the premanufactured mount stock with a better grade of aluminum than Rossi offered, and that it be anodized and not painted. The mount would have the picatinny rail vs. the two weaver slots which really limited the options of the scope's tube length. Finally, the base would utilize screws that were appropriate for the energies that were being placed on the mount. That is why two of my mounts are JB Welded in place. The screws sheared off in the barrel under recoil. I also added that all this would need to be done for $30 per mount for it to sell.

The bottom-line was that NOE could not do all that for $30. What was worked out within my parameters is the mount that is being sold for $33. It will take NOE 1,000 units to break even. I was concerned about that and suggested we cancel the project, but the owner did not want to let me down either as we are friends. I think to date he has sold about a third of the thousand.

I just thought I would offer what went into that silly bar stock of slots. I guess everything is somewhat a compromise when the price point is the limit and I understand why the XS Scout mounts I've purchased have been so expensive. The mount for my 480 Ruger barrel was very expensive, just the base and it was made from blank stock. I'd rather not say what it cost. I'm going through the same thing with a scout mount for my Gibbs Sumit which is a SMLE remanufactured as a big bore bolt action chambered in 45-70 Govt. The scout mount, just the base, will cost me about $300. It also has to sit in a lineup of other rifles getting custom bases, it will be there for at least 18 months.

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Re: NOE R92 'scope rail

Post by severnsider »

Thanks for the background info Michael - good of you to provide the explanation! I have to say that other Rossi owners I know have said that the NOE looks far more substantial and useful than the flimsy Rossi original item. One of them wishes that he had known about the NOE rail before he sold his Rossi!
I shot 100 rounds through the rifle yesterday and nothing came loose. In fact, the scope itself shifted in the weaver rings so any concerns about the rail were clearly unfounded.
Again, thanks for the reassuring words about the strength of the item and fixings - I hope you will understand my initial concern about the fit of the rail, but I shall now look forward to many trouble-free shots...........
Kind regards
Mike
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Re: NOE R92 'scope rail

Post by Ranch Dog »

severnsider wrote:Thanks for the background info Michael - good of you to provide the explanation! I have to say that other Rossi owners I know have said that the NOE looks far more substantial and useful than the flimsy Rossi original item. One of them wishes that he had known about the NOE rail before he sold his Rossi!
I shot 100 rounds through the rifle yesterday and nothing came loose. In fact, the scope itself shifted in the weaver rings so any concerns about the rail were clearly unfounded.
Again, thanks for the reassuring words about the strength of the item and fixings - I hope you will understand my initial concern about the fit of the rail, but I shall now look forward to many trouble-free shots...........
Kind regards
Mike
I appreciate your comments, Mike, just wanted those that have come to the forum since this went down what was involved and who made the some of the decisions that affected how it turned out.
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Re: NOE R92 'scope rail

Post by mr surveyor »

I bought an NOE base for my R92 .44 in 2014 (I think that was the year) and mounted Michael's suggested Weaver Scout Scope. It's held up to many hundreds of .44 mag loads since then and never even hinted of missing a beat. I've though many times about adding one (with a heads up red dot) to my stainless R92 16" in .357 mag, but since getting trifocal contact lenses last August I'm kinda liking that little handy lever gun with irons. My hat is definitely off to NOE for carrying through the project, and all of Michael's work in getting it done. If I could spare the little bit of money needed to buy a rail "just in case", I'd do it just to help NOE eventually come out on top with the project. It's a really good product.


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