Rossi Rifleman

Hello all, my first posting here. I purchased a Rossi R92 Stainless last night, my first lever rifle!

I took it apart to clean it and noticed that several of the internal parts appeared to be stainless, but were coated in some dark substance. I thought it was grease but it seems to be bonded to the metal. A small amount of it came off with just a paper towel and some Hoppe's, but still left a dark stain on the metal. In other places it did not come off with even a little light brushing. The locking bolts and the part of the lever where they connect were the most heavily coated.

Any idea what this is? Can/should it be removed? I have watched several videos around disassembly and modification and have not seen this in any of them, so I'm guessing that people are removing it somehow.

Thanks!

What you may be seeing is bluing on steel parts. We've been seeing reports of SS Rossi '92s that did not have all stainless parts. Loading gates and locking bars seem to be mentioned several time. That being the case I'd leave it on. Get the shipping gunk off re-lube with a good product and bang away.

Make smoke,

Thanks for the response! I will definitely be taking your advice after work today, smoke will be made :-)

Ohio3Wheels wrote:Loading gates and locking bars seem to be mentioned several times.

Funny you should mention it, my loading gate is black, but the black seems to want to scratch off easily. I loaded a couple of rounds just to test the action and it already has a little silver showing through.



Here are the two locking bolts. It just struck me as strange how uneven the coating was; the light places you see aren't reflections, they are where the bare metal is showing through because the coating is thin/missing.

My locking lugs were polished stainless where they protruded through the top of the bolt, and black where they attached to the lever. I polished the black portion to match the shine on the upper portion.

So, maybe it is a coating. But why you you coat stainless? Oh, wait, it's Rossi, great guns but sometime weird

Make smoke,

I'm thinking that the blackness is the as-forged surface, and shiny is machined.