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 Dave_Markowitz
A little short for a Storm Trooper
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Posted: 7/12/2012 9:11:59 PM
THE IMAGE ABOVE IS A PAID ADVERTISEMENT The blue looks good although the wood is nondescript. The wood/metal fit was acceptable, and the action felt smooth. I got it for $459.95 out the door.
 This top view shows the bolt-mounted safety and the Taurus gun lock in the back of the hammer.
 Compared with the Marlin, the Rossi is much slimmer and about a pound to pound-and-a-half lighter.
After I verify it works, I'll replace the safety with either a plug from Steve's Gunz or one of his bolt-mounted peep sights. I'll also do something about the wood. I've seen the pics COSteve has posted of his Rossis after giving their stocks a coat of Watco Danish Oil, and I'm leaning towards following suit.
The hammer mounted lawyer lock doesn't bother me too much. If a gun is going to have a built-in lock, Taurus's design is probably one of better designs I've seen, at least aesthetically. I may put something in it to prevent any chance of it being accidentally activated, though. E.g., a drop or two of BLO will secure nicely.
I'm hoping to get to the range again tomorrow and will post a report after I've shot it.
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Posted: 7/12/2012 10:03:20 PM
"Hammer mounted lawyer lock."
Something new? |
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Dave_Markowitz
A little short for a Storm Trooper
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Posted: 7/12/2012 10:13:53 PM
Originally Posted By Him: "Hammer mounted lawyer lock." Something new? I'm guessing it was added after Taurus bought Rossi. |
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Seven-Shooter
Gun Shop Counter Monkey
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Posted: 7/12/2012 11:09:19 PM
Originally Posted By Dave_Markowitz: Originally Posted By Him: "Hammer mounted lawyer lock." Something new? I'm guessing it was added after Taurus bought Rossi. i noticed it on mine as well, but also noticed that there was no key to either activate or deactivate it.  |
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Dave_Markowitz
A little short for a Storm Trooper
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Posted: 7/13/2012 8:43:43 AM
My rifle came with two keys. I bet if you call Rossi they'll send you a couple for free. They'd be good to have if you ever sell the rifle, IMO.
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Posted: 7/13/2012 9:25:16 AM
VERY NICE!You are lucky. I'm having Steve of Steves gunz build one for me.Sept delivery date. The action is smooth that sounds good. Does it have the plastic lifter?I want a 357 16 in carbine bad! It is going to be a long wait.
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Dave_Markowitz
A little short for a Storm Trooper
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Posted: 7/13/2012 10:47:11 AM
Originally Posted By Jimi: VERY NICE!You are lucky. I'm having Steve of Steves gunz build one for me.Sept delivery date. The action is smooth that sounds good. Does it have the plastic lifter?I want a 357 16 in carbine bad! It is going to be a long wait. The lifter is metal, the magazine follower is yellow plastic. I'll probably replace the follower with a steel unit. |
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COSteve
World's 1st G20L - 10mm Goodness!
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Posted: 7/13/2012 4:03:20 PM
Great purchase! You're going to love your Rossi. With a bit of practice, you'll find that 8" steel plates at 200 yds are in serious trouble with it. The 'lawyer block' has been there for a number of years, even before Taurus got into the act. You'll find that the thing throws empty brass into the next county and the last 1/8" bolt closure is going to be a bit stiff.
To correct all that while having fun learning about your Rossi and making the action slick as snot while you lighten up and crisp up the trigger, lose the stupid bolt safety, increase the mag capacity, replace the mag follower with a steel one, and increase the service life by lightening up the wear on the action all you need is to buy Steve's Gunz $58 Rossie action kit which includes a DVD on exactly what to do and how to do it, plus his $19 bolt safety plug. You can get them HERE and HERE. It can go from this plain jane:  To this beauty:  Also, their 24" rifle slicks up just as nicely:  |
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Dave_Markowitz
A little short for a Storm Trooper
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Posted: 7/13/2012 6:05:42 PM
COSteve, it was your pictures that gave me the Danish oil idea. Your rifles are gorgeous.
Aside from removing the safety and the mag follower, and refinishing the wood, I'm going to hold off on any action work until I have at least a couple hundred rounds through it. The action is already quite slick and the springs do not feel too heavy. Perhaps Rossi has improved things in that regard. (?) |
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Posted: 7/13/2012 10:26:07 PM
When you shoot .357 mag if you do check your brass they are notorious for damageing the brass mine did until I did the action work and replaced the extractor spring. Now the brass does not fall far and no damage to them either. I refiished mine with fromby's low gloss tung oil I had a thread a while back I had went the hard way and took off my wood from my Rossi didn't think I could achieve results like Costeve did by just applying it while on the gun but I was impressed as well. There is a new way to do a fast and nice apllication of TruOil and armor all in this thread I am linking from rossirifleman.com
http://www.rossi-rifleman.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=304 rossirifleman.com new refinish idea that is fastrefinish Here my before 
here is after 6 coats I think it was of fromby's 
and here it is after all that time of the oil soaking into the grain more she darken up nicely  |
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Dave_Markowitz
A little short for a Storm Trooper
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Posted: 7/13/2012 10:36:04 PM
That came out really nice.
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Posted: 7/14/2012 10:16:15 AM
Nice purchase. If you wanted to get rid of the lock on the hammer you could probably replace it with one from an earlier model. At least it's fairly unobtrusive.
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Posted: 7/14/2012 10:47:35 AM
Can somebody post a photo of the "Lawyer Lock"?
Thank goodness mine doesn't have one, but it does have the firing-pin-block safety. I don't mind it, but lots of folks get their panties all bunched up over it. The "Lawyer Lock" sounds worse, although I guess it's just what you, as an individual, will tolerate. |
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Dave_Markowitz
A little short for a Storm Trooper
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Posted: 7/14/2012 1:55:47 PM
Originally Posted By Him: Can somebody post a photo of the "Lawyer Lock"? Thank goodness mine doesn't have one, but it does have the firing-pin-block safety. I don't mind it, but lots of folks get their panties all bunched up over it. The "Lawyer Lock" sounds worse, although I guess it's just what you, as an individual, will tolerate. Look at the base of the hammer in my second photo in the first post. |
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Posted: 7/14/2012 4:09:36 PM
Originally Posted By Dave_Markowitz:
Look at the base of the hammer in my second photo in the first post. Thanks, I didn't even notice it. What does it do, or how does it work? |
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Posted: 7/14/2012 4:19:22 PM
[Last Edit: 7/14/2012 4:20:21 PM by akuser-47]
If it is like other taurus ones it locks the hammer in place I don't have it on mine so not sure if this is the case with the rossi/taurus rifles. All new taurus guns come with two keys similar to an oepen end torx or allen hed tool that is the key.
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Dave_Markowitz
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Posted: 7/14/2012 9:30:37 PM
Originally Posted By akuser-47: If it is like other taurus ones it locks the hammer in place I don't have it on mine so not sure if this is the case with the rossi/taurus rifles. All new taurus guns come with two keys similar to an oepen end torx or allen hed tool that is the key. This is correct. |
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Dave_Markowitz
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Posted: 7/15/2012 4:38:49 PM
[Last Edit: 7/15/2012 4:43:23 PM by Dave_Markowitz]
Today I got out to the range and shot the Rossi 92 for the first time. I ran 150 rounds through it: 100 Sellier & Bellot .357 Magnum 158 grain JSP and 50 Winchester white box .38 Special +P 125 grain JHP.
When cycling the gun empty at home the action felt pretty smooth. However, once I loaded it up it became evident that there were some burrs in the action. In particular, the S&B .357s were hanging up when trying to load them into the chamber. There were a couple burs on the breech face, alongside the ejector slot. After about 20 shots I took a needle file and knocked them down a bit. I worked through 50 rounds of .357 plus 10 rounds of .38 (which fed smoothly). After about 60 rounds the gun was noticeably smoother and I was able to do rapid mag dumps.
The S&B .357s were loaded with a truncated cone bullet, while the Winchester .38s had bullets with more of a curve to the ogive, basically a RNFP with a hole in the tip. The gun seems to feed better with a more rounded bullet profile so I'll try to use that sort of ammo in the future.
I am going to have to tweak the ejector a bit. Ejection of .357 brass was positive but when trying to eject the last .38 in the gun, the empty case stayed in the receiver every time.
When shooting .38s I also experienced one time when the cartridge on the carrier ejected from the gun along with the empty.
After about 60 or 70 rounds I noticed the bolt pin stop screw on the left of the reciever was loose. It will get some Loctite.
AIUI, it's not uncommon for the Rossi .357s (or Marlin 1894s in .357, for that matter) to experience issues with the shorter .38 rounds. As long as it works 100% with .357s I don't mind the occassional bobble with .38s.
The trigger is good. Probably about 5 or 6 pounds and crisp, with very little creep.
I shot the gun at 50 yards, mostly with my arms rested on a shooting bench. The gun will group into about 3" with the loads I shot today. With the rear sight set on the lowest position it shot a few inches high and about 2" left. Since it was pretty close I didn't adjust the sights today, concentrating more on functioning.
Aside from making sure the ejector is not binding on anything and is properly shaped, I plan to strip the gun and polish the wear points to slick it up (but I will NOT be touching the locking bolts, which set headspace). I will also probably replace the plastic magazine follower with one made from steel, and replace the ridiculous bolt-mounted safety. Finally, the wood will be getting some attention to make it look nicer.
Overall I'm pleased with the Rossi. It's a light, quick handling rifle in a useful caliber at a reasonable price. With a little "fluff and buff" it'll have a really slick action.
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COSteve
World's 1st G20L - 10mm Goodness!
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Posted: 7/16/2012 9:07:24 AM
Originally Posted By Him: Can somebody post a photo of the "Lawyer Lock"? Thank goodness mine doesn't have one, but it does have the firing-pin-block safety. I don't mind it, but lots of folks get their panties all bunched up over it. The "Lawyer Lock" sounds worse, although I guess it's just what you, as an individual, will tolerate. It's a pain in the ass and can easily be turned accidentally when hunting. The rifle design is 120 years old and for almost all of that time millions of versions have done just fine with just the halfcock Winchester designed it with. With:  Without:  |
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vanilla_gorilla
Cleatus Maximus
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Posted: 7/16/2012 9:37:30 AM
Originally Posted By COSteve: Originally Posted By Him: Can somebody post a photo of the "Lawyer Lock"? Thank goodness mine doesn't have one, but it does have the firing-pin-block safety. I don't mind it, but lots of folks get their panties all bunched up over it. The "Lawyer Lock" sounds worse, although I guess it's just what you, as an individual, will tolerate. It's a pain in the ass and can easily be turned accidentally when hunting. The rifle design is 120 years old and for almost all of that time millions of versions have done just fine with just the halfcock Winchester designed it with. With: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/Coloradoglocker/RossiSafety.jpg Without: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/Coloradoglocker/RossiSafetyPlug.jpg He's not talking about the safety. He's talking about the locking mechanism on the hammer. I didn't realize mine had it until just now. |
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Posted: 7/16/2012 11:16:38 AM
Originally Posted By vanilla_gorilla:
Originally Posted By COSteve:
Originally Posted By Him:
Can somebody post a photo of the "Lawyer Lock"? Thank goodness mine doesn't have one, but it does have the firing-pin-block safety. I don't mind it, but lots of folks get their panties all bunched up over it. The "Lawyer Lock" sounds worse, although I guess it's just what you, as an individual, will tolerate. It's a pain in the ass and can easily be turned accidentally when hunting. The rifle design is 120 years old and for almost all of that time millions of versions have done just fine with just the halfcock Winchester designed it with. With: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/Coloradoglocker/RossiSafety.jpg Without: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/Coloradoglocker/RossiSafetyPlug.jpg He's not talking about the safety. He's talking about the locking mechanism on the hammer. I didn't realize mine had it until just now. Is a replacement hammer w/ out the safety available? |
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Posted: 7/16/2012 11:24:11 AM
[Last Edit: 7/16/2012 11:31:36 AM by akuser-47]
I hope they have replacement hammers as well that would be sweet
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COSteve
World's 1st G20L - 10mm Goodness!
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Posted: 7/16/2012 11:41:35 PM
[Last Edit: 7/16/2012 11:44:48 PM by COSteve]
That hammer lawyer lock is strange. I didn't know that they were using those on repro 1892a. That's different than both the bolt lock on the Rossi and a lever lock on an 1873, however, I've never seen a lever lock on a 1892. They are the knob at the back of the lever that keeps it closed. The rear of the lever has a tang on it that the lock can grab. 1892s and 1894s don't have the tang or the lock.
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Berzerker77
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Posted: 7/17/2012 1:52:43 PM
Different lock CoSteve. This one locks the hammer so the rifle can't even be cocked with a thumb. It is located on the hammer, not the lever.
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COSteve
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Posted: 7/18/2012 10:44:26 AM
Originally Posted By Berzerker77: Different lock CoSteve. This one locks the hammer so the rifle can't even be cocked with a thumb. It is located on the hammer, not the lever. Yep, I realized that was what he was talking about after I posted about the lever lock. It must be something new that Rossi is adding now that Taurus bought them. Essentially it's a gun lock as the action won't operate when locked. Another 'interesting' idea taken from the internal locks they've tried on Glocks and other pistols. |
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Posted: 7/18/2012 1:22:34 PM
I have one. You'll love it.
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