Rossi Rifleman

I wanted to post my experience with a newly acquired Rossi M92, Stainless Steel, 20 inch barrel, in 44 Magnum.

First of all let me tell you how things go around here, civilians can´t legally have semiauto carbines or rifles in centerfire calibers, bolt action, leverguns and shotguns are allowed, so if you want a long gun for multiple chores like hunting, home defense and SHTF situations you are stuck with manually operated long guns (but we can own semiauto shotguns….crazy laws!).

Regarding costs, shooting is a very expensive hobby here, as references a box of 20 rounds of Hornady Leverevolution 44Mag 225gr. costs USD 50, a box of 50 rounds of Remington 44mag 180gr. USD 100, the Rossi M92 is between USD 500 and USD 650, a Glock 17 USD 1.000, Remington Express 870 USD 850, Remington 700 SPS Stainless USD 2.150, and a normal salary runs in the order of USD 1.000.-

Back to the fun part, I picked the M92 at the gunstore, and did what I have read at this forum that needed to be done, dissasembled the whole rifle in orded to clean the factory grease, and also to smooth all the burrs and machining marks, I used the instructions from Marauder and other sites, including one from neutered 10mm in youtube, I used 600grit sandpaper oiled with Hoppes, and smoothed the trigger, bended and polished the trigger spring, smoothed the lever…the bolt ….the extraction claw…and the locking bolts, and cut 2 coils from the hammer spring, and finally applied white lithium grease to all the innards. The action was very good from the Factory, but the difference in the action and the trigger was amazing after 2 hours of smoothing with the sand paper.

Yesterday I went to Argentina´s Federal Shooting club, one of the biggest shooting clubs in South America, and proceeded to test the Rossi. I went to the 50 meters line (55yds) and used a big target to see where it was grouping, the front sight brass bead covered the whole 8 inch red circle of the target, I used reloaded 44 Mag. ammo from a friend, 240 grain bullet teflon coated, but I don´t know the quantity of the powder he used (national powder), it felt like a medium charge.


The first shot went 6 o`clock and started to climb up with the second (in the red circle) and third (bull), then I ajusted the bead and covered the whole red circle with it, just leaving a small red portion from the top of the circle as a reference, and the magic happened!, 6 shots into 3,2 centimeters! (1.25 inches).
I will try to file down the bead into a triangle to be able to see more of the target and test it with Hornady Leverevolution or other factory ammo as a more clear reference.

I am more than happy with this carbine! It felt like kissing again that first girl in your life, my wife is extremely annoyed!

I really hope my experience serves others who cannot decide yet on the Rossi M92, it is a small gem!, and thanks to all of you that have contributed to making me take the decision on buying it! This forum has been an eye opener!

Welcome wargunn,
It's nice to hear of someone having a good experience for a change. It looks like your's is shooting as well as mine did on it's first time out. Also sounds like your friend knows how to reload too.

I use pliers and wiggle/pull that bead out of the front sight. I do much better with a black blade. I also use a file on the sides and top to "square" it up a little and thin it a little too. Then spray it with flat black paint. I grind off those buckhorns on the rear to make it flat across the top, and to make the notch more shallow. Touch up blue works good to color and dull it. I use a 6 O-clock hold so that I can see the bullseye or whatever I'm shooting at.

Let us know how it shoots when you try those leverevolution bullet. But it's going to be hard to shoot a smaller group than you have already done.

Be sure to go over it now and retighten all the screws, especially the one going through the magazine plug the pushes against the barrel bottom at the muzzle. It tends to work loose and will allow the magazine to jump the notches for the cross bolts.

Thanks for the advice donhuff !!!, I´ll try grinding the buckhorn sight, it sounds good, also I have a set of williams rear peep sight that came with a Sig Sauer 522 but it has a picatinny rail mount with 2 cross pins, maybe if I can adapt a picatinny rail to the threads under de buckhorn I will be able to put the williams without the peep (it unscrews) and leave it as a ghost ring.....but it might be a little tall arrangement. Or go the red dot way...who knows!

I know the grouping was newbies luck!

Looking down the image I see that it is a Williams WGRS sight mounted atop a picatinny adapter, do you think that if a take the adapter off and grind the WGRS to the barrel profile, will it be able to sit tight with only that front screw??

good news

donhuff wrote:Welcome wargunn,
It's nice to hear of someone having a good experience for a change. It looks like your's is shooting as well as mine did on it's first time out. Also sounds like your friend knows how to reload too.

I use pliers and wiggle/pull that bead out of the front sight. I do much better with a black blade. I also use a file on the sides and top to "square" it up a little and thin it a little too. Then spray it with flat black paint. I grind off those buckhorns on the rear to make it flat across the top, and to make the notch more shallow. Touch up blue works good to color and dull it. I use a 6 O-clock hold so that I can see the bullseye or whatever I'm shooting at.

Let us know how it shoots when you try those leverevolution bullet. But it's going to be hard to shoot a smaller group than you have already done.

Be sure to go over it now and retighten all the screws, especially the one going through the magazine plug the pushes against the barrel bottom at the muzzle. It tends to work loose and will allow the magazine to jump the notches for the cross bolts.

If necessity is the mother of invention then pragmatism is its second cousin.
A little innovative out of the box thinking and the "use what you got" paradigm instead of going to the already very rich Brownells bros website and buying the most convenient $49.95 sight replacement kit.
After all the reason we buy Rossi clones instead of Miroku or Italian clones is that they are a lot cheaper.
Congratulations donhuff on your inventiveness.
I intend to borrow your excellent ideas & perform the same modifications with the incumbent iron sights on my 3 x Rossi 92s.

Welcome wargunn:

Glad you are enjoying your new rifle.
This site is indeed a great source of knowledge & tips about the Rossi rifles.
A lotta bang for the buck here in the USA & Canada even though you might have to polish of a few rough spots before the enjoyment part (the shooting) gets really good.
Considering the prices of guns in Argentina the government has got to be making a bundle in hidden taxes on gun sales.

The Williams sight kept showing in my dreams, so what the heck!....I took off the buckhorn sights, took off the picatinny adapter of the Williams WGRS, wich has a flat base and tried it on the barrel drilled holes, the WGRS original screws are the correct size for the Rossi, but just one hole matches, the ones on the Rossi are closer.

I will sand down the flat base to make it concave in order to fit the barrel profile, metallic epoxy fill the WGRS second hole and re drill a new one where the barrel threads are.

You can see in the pictures that the Williams can be used as a ghost ring (unscrewing the peep) or as a peep sight, and even though the sight sits very far, the sight picture is quite good, thinning the blade as donhuff recommended might make it perfect!

......I will keep the results posted

That looks pretty good!

I've had good luck matching contours like the barrel, by wrapping sand paper around the barrel and then rubbing the part on it. You'll have to keep the strokes short since the barrel is tapered so much. I would also start the cut with a round file or sanding drum in a dremel, and start the trough down the middle of the base. That would keep you from having to sand so much. Just don't go to deep to begin with.

Donhuff...Sir...you are the leverguns modding bible!...I was thinking about wraping the barrel with the sanding paper but thought that it would be too much "cavemanish" (if that exists!)...I will do as you said!...thank you very much!

That existing hole in the barrel seems awfully close to the one in the sight base. I'd probably open up that hole in the sight base before modifying the rifle. Just my $0.02