Loading .44 Magnum for my Nephew's Rossi 92 Lever Rifle....

[canoeguy]

Several months ago I mentioned here that my 38 year old nephew had bought a Rossi 92 lever rifle in .44 Magnum caliber, and did anyone have some brass they could spare so I could load him some ammo. Forum Member TLawler generously hooked me up with 160 cases, I let go another 100 so I had 260 cases to make him a stash of .44 Magnum.

I was able to order some Speer 240 grain "DeepCurl" jacketed soft points from Midway USA, they were literally the only pistol bullets of any variety in stock at the time. Ordered 300, 100 for the Nephew, 200 for me....

I had on hand some Missouri Bullet Company 200 grain lead round nose left over from another reloading project, had 60 of those left. I also had a generous quantity of 240 grain Lead Semi Wadcutter I cast from a Lee Tumble Lube mold, cast from wheel weights. I literally have thousands of those on hand, so I figured if his rifle liked them, he would have a steady source of cheap ammo.

So, here's what I loaded:

100 each Speer 240 grain jacketed soft points, 16.5 grains 2400 for an advertised velocity of 1250 FPS.

100 240 grain Lead Semi Wadcutter from Lee Mold, 6.7 grains Unique at 800 FPS.

60 Missouri Bullet Company 200 grain Lead Round Nose, 6.1 grains Trail Boss at 890 FPS.

My Nephew came to stay with us this past weekend to shoot his Rossi and other guns he's picked up this Summer, a Henry Golden Boy .22 and a Ruger 10/22. He has really become enthused with shooting, I think in large part because he has a good place to shoot now, his Uncle's property! Behind the house we have a pretty nice shooting range set up with up to a 200 yard shot.

The Rossi ate every load with no issues, sights were dead on from the factory, smooth cycling. The Nephew was able to hit good with it too, shots from the standing position were hitting my steel targets at 100 yards no problem. The mild cast lead loads were fun to shoot, while the jacketed 240 grainers were hitting steel with much authority. I'm thinking anything that gets within 100 yards of him and this rifle is in trouble.

Here's some pics:

The stash of .44 Mag ammo:



Shooting in the rain from the protection of the cabin back porch cover:





Rossi 92 and steel targets shot from 100 yards, standing position. Targets are 13" in diameter:



Nephew and steel target also shot from 100 yards, target is 12" X 24":



Henry Golden Boy and Nephew, another neat lever rifle he's picked up. We had some enjoyable action shooting together, he with the Golden Boy and me with a Winchester 9422.



In two days we probably spent six hours shooting, half of the .44 Magnum ammo is gone, the empties are back in the tumbler to be loaded for his next visit. We probably burned through 600 rounds of .22 also. A great time was had by all!

[Ivan the Butcher]

Back in the early 1980's I was loading for 357 carbines and found that working with a little slower pistol powder gave faster carbine performance. So instead of 2400 and 296, I went with 180 grain over a "Book" maximum of H or IMR 4227. I found they were an incredible round for my Model 28-2 too!

Ivan

[bigwheelzip]

Spending time with family and lever rifles, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, when the tree's leaves have begun their show... that's a Blessing. Thanks for sharing.

[mtgianni]

I chased elk in the thick timber with mine for a few years. You can load a cast bullet to over 1500 fps easily with one but you will need some kind of recoil pad on it, That slight curved buttplate bruised me every which way I tried it, shoulder, arm and shoulder socket until I got a pad. I traded it of for something and occasionally wish I had it back.

[roo_ster]

Originally Posted by canoeguy

Several months ago I mentioned here that my 38 year old nephew had bought a Rossi 92 lever rifle in .44 Magnum caliber, and did anyone have some brass they could spare so I could load him some ammo. Forum Member TLawler generously hooked me up with 160 cases, I let go another 100 so I had 260 cases to make him a stash of .44 Magnum.

I was able to order some Speer 240 grain "DeepCurl" jacketed soft points from Midway USA, they were literally the only pistol bullets of any variety in stock at the time. Ordered 300, 100 for the Nephew, 200 for me....

I had on hand some Missouri Bullet Company 200 grain lead round nose left over from another reloading project, had 60 of those left. I also had a generous quantity of 240 grain Lead Semi Wadcutter I cast from a Lee Tumble Lube mold, cast from wheel weights. I literally have thousands of those on hand, so I figured if his rifle liked them, he would have a steady source of cheap ammo.

So, here's what I loaded:

100 each Speer 240 grain jacketed soft points, 16.5 grains 2400 for an advertised velocity of 1250 FPS.

100 240 grain Lead Semi Wadcutter from Lee Mold, 6.7 grains Unique at 800 FPS.

60 Missouri Bullet Company 200 grain Lead Round Nose, 6.1 grains Trail Boss at 890 FPS.

My Nephew came to stay with us this past weekend to shoot his Rossi and other guns he's picked up this Summer, a Henry Golden Boy .22 and a Ruger 10/22. He has really become enthused with shooting, I think in large part because he has a good place to shoot now, his Uncle's property! Behind the house we have a pretty nice shooting range set up with up to a 200 yard shot.

The Rossi ate every load with no issues, sights were dead on from the factory, smooth cycling. The Nephew was able to hit good with it too, shots from the standing position were hitting my steel targets at 100 yards no problem. The mild cast lead loads were fun to shoot, while the jacketed 240 grainers were hitting steel with much authority. I'm thinking anything that gets within 100 yards of him and this rifle is in trouble.

Here's some pics:

The stash of .44 Mag ammo:



Shooting in the rain from the protection of the cabin back porch cover:





Rossi 92 and steel targets shot from 100 yards, standing position. Targets are 13" in diameter:



Nephew and steel target also shot from 100 yards, target is 12" X 24":



Henry Golden Boy and Nephew, another neat lever rifle he's picked up. We had some enjoyable action shooting together, he with the Golden Boy and me with a Winchester 9422.



In two days we probably spent six hours shooting, half of the .44 Magnum ammo is gone, the empties are back in the tumbler to be loaded for his next visit. We probably burned through 600 rounds of .22 also. A great time was had by all!

I regret that I only have one like to give that post.

My wife has an old 92 Rossi that some SASS fellow slicked up. Great shooting carbine.

[nbedford]

Only bullet I have tried so far in my Rossi R92 has been .431 240 grain Oregon Trail laser cast SWC's in a 44 Magnum case. Sitting on 7 grains of Unique they have been running about 1050 fps. Pleasant to shoot and very accurate. I just made a bunch of Lee .430" 240 grain tumble lubed bullets, and this is a reminder for me to try them with the same load of Unique and see how they do. I have been loading them with 6.5 grains of Unique for my 44 Special.

[Qc Pistolero]

I'm looking for such a place to spend days shooting.Do you mind if I call you ''uncle''?

[smoothshooter]

I had one of those a few months ago.
Sold it because I had to load it down to .44 Special rifle levels ( 200 gr. cast at approx 1,100 fps. to keep it from beating the **** out of me when shooting from a rest due to the light weight of the carbine.
I already have two Uberti lever actioned .44 Special 24” barrelled rifles that I load 200gr. RNFP cast bullets at a chronographed 1,350 fps. that are much more pleasant to shoot even with the heavier loads.
Replaced the .44 Magnum with a Rossi .357.
Definitely more pleasant.

[ajgunner]

Next time shoot it all up and just buy more cast lead. No sense is burning up those expensive jacketed bullets when lead will still ring the steel. Then you can tumble up all the brass and teach him how to load before he goes home. You do know that the next thing he needs is a nice 44 revolver to go along with the lever gun.

[canoeguy]

AJGunner,

The Nephew just picked up a 7 1/2" barrel Ruger Super Blackhawk, around 1977 vintage. Planning another trip to shoot it and empty some more .44 Magnum cases.

We do shoot more of the cast lead than we do jacketed. The 240 grain cast lead are powerful enough to know you're shooting .44 Magnum, but still easy on the shoulder. I have a lifetimes worth of lead to cast more, but I do intend to introduce him to casting and reloading, let him do some of the grunt work!

[BigBill]

I purchased some Cor-Bon 44 mag 300 gr sp bullets and some 300 gr jacketed so and 300 gr leadcast to try out. They had the Cor-Bon 300 gr in 45 long colt too.

[cowboy4evr]

I have a Rossi 92 , stainless w/16" barrel in 45 Colt . This is my 2nd one as I gave my first to my sister . It's real accurate and just a hoot to shoot . I've only shot cast , in both . I use the LEE 255 gr RNFP sized .454 . That bullet sitting on top of 8 grs of Ramshot Zip is a real nice load . Easy on the shoulder , yet very hard hitting and very accurate . Regards Paul