Rossi Rifleman

I completely disassembled my .357 ranch hand because after the initial cleaning and lubing 6 or 7 years ago, outside of cleaning the barrel occasionally and shooting it a few times a year, I wanted to see how things were wearing in. I am glad I did that.
I noticed the hammer was getting way more drag marks on one side. I figure to do a little hammer shimming, and after looking at the rear of the bolt I am going to do a little filing on the inside edge of the right side hammer guide/shroud part of the bolt. The firing pin hole looks off center in the slot because that side of the bolt is about .020 thicker than the left side. The bigger problem I found with the bolt was the raised lip that was partially around around the firing pin hole at the front of the bolt. I have managed to file and hone that lip down but it was tall enough to leave a polish mark on the primer when I placed a cartridge on the bolt face and spun it around with my finger. I'll have to keep checking that after reassembly and field testing.

That raised lip is probably because the firing pin is hitting the backside of the firing pin hole pretty darned hard. There may be modifications you can make to avoid that but you might need to lighten the hammer spring a little so it isn't putting quite as much energy into the firing pin.

Truing up the back of the bolt a little probably won't hurt anything. The slight wear on the side of the hammer probably isn't much to worry about although it is evidence it is probably dragging a little. Cleaning up the situation and shimming the hammer so there's no drag will allow it to hit just a little cleaner maybe a little harder.

Yea, I don't know if that will solve the problem but I'm waiting on a reduced power hammer spring from SG. I did come across other examples of that happening to other people. None of them were R92's. I've been thru all the pages on the R92, Ranch Hand and DIY forums and have not come across anybody here having this issue. May have missed it. Found a thread on sass.net from a guy with an Uberti cattleman, I think, having this issue which had some pretty good pics.
Just shimming the hammer is not going to fix the other issue. I'm going to have to file the bolt. Here is a couple of closeup pics, a little grainy, copy of a copy thing, showing where the bolt is getting hammered, no pun intended, and the hammer is getting peened slightly. Any recommendation on which cold blue to use?

Regards, Jim.

I usually wind up using Birchwood Casey products. Perma Blue for example.
Clean the heck out of the part first and make sure there's no residue on it when you blue it.
Hit it with some gun oil after you are done.

I had a friend who tended to heat the part a little with a hair dryer or heat gun first. I haven't really tried that.

Dawn and HOT water is the best prep after solvent has been used. After clean I submerge in boiling water to pre-heat. After "cold" blue part needs washed in hot water with soap again then oiled. If it's an internal part I don't bother.

Thanks for the tips.
I filed down that part of the bolt, took off around .015 approx., deburred the little ridges I created, hit with some 220. I didn't try to be perfect just good enough.
I filed the long part first and when I thinned it to what I wanted I hit the corner where the arrow is pointed. Was not sure if the hammer would rotate into that spot. I think that is too large an area to leave swinging in the wind so I'm going to try to spot cold blue it. First time cold bluing anything. I'll see how that works out.

I spot cold blued the bolt a little over a week and 1/2 ago. Pretty much all I can say is meh. I can justify my work by saying it fits in with the whole utility/truck gun thing.
After shimming and filing , the fit and function between the hammer and bolt is excellent. After careful measuring and not having the tools, material, nor inclination to make my own, I just bought them from Triggershims.com. The left side of the hammer is shimmed .005 and the right side is .012.

That looks far better than what you had.
All this reminds me alot of blue printing a small block V8 engine.

Thanks, but considering how loose the fit was, I would have to go with making sure the tire wasn't rubbing on the wheel barrow frame analogy.