scooter123
Member
Specifically a blued round barrel Short Rifle in Winchester speak, meaning it has a 20 inch barrel. Yeah I've seen the issues posted on the net and YouTube but for 529.00 out the door I felt it was a reasonable buy even if it did need a bit of work. However, I did take 3 dummy rounds with me to test for feed function before putting my money down.
First the positives.
While the finish isn't flawless it's still a rather good looking rifle with the defects being minor. Mainly 2 small areas where the bluing wasn't perfectly even. The wood appears to be Philippine Mahogany, otherwise known as Luan and while it's supposed to be oil finished someone was really stingy with the oil.
Second positive is that it feeds BOTH 357 Magnum and 38 specials flawlessly as long as you don't short stroke the lever.
Third positive is the fundamental accuracy seems quite good. I was able to produce one 5 shot group spanning 1.75 inch vertically and .75 inch horizontally at 50 yards and with 60 year old eyes the target was just a blur when using readers to see the sights. With a scope I believe it's likely capable of 1 inch or smaller groups at 50 yards.
Fourth positive is that it comes pre-drilled for a Scout Rail forward of the receiver. Note, a Scout Rail can be purchased from Stevesgunz.com for 34.95. I may order a rail tonight just to try it out with my 2.5-8x28 Nikon handgun scope just to see what it can do. For field carry I would probably go with my much lighter Nikon 2x20 EER scope.
Fifth positive is that the 1892 is a John Browning design and he used lessons learned on the earlier 1886 Winchester. This means that it is actually pretty easy to detail strip this rifle to a bare receiver. BTW, the M92 follows the original design quite closely with the only notable difference is the original uses a leaf type mainspring and the Rossi uses a coll mainspring.
Now the negatives.
First, the interior of the receiver was not de-burred at all. While everything functions properly those burrs did create a rather rough feel. If you have the skills plan on using a 1/4 x 1/2 inch stone to flat file the interior surfaces and remove the burrs created by the broaches used to cut the various channels. Doing this will make the action much much smoother.
Second, Rossi dropped the ball on sighting. Possibly a result of using the same sights for the 357 Magnum, 44 Magnum, 454 Cassull, and 45 LC versions of this rifle. Whatever the reason the 357 Magnum shoots about 4-5 inches high at 50 yards with the elevator all the way down. Plan on ordering a 5/8 inch tall front sight from Midway or Brownell's or using a Dremel to re-cut a deeper notch in the rear sight. Of just remove the sights, mount a rail and use a handgun scope.
Third issue is first time detail strip. I had to use a brass punch to pry the lower tang loose from the receiver due to the burrs mentioned earlier. After stoning the receiver the lower tang now slides into place easily.
The fourth issue falls into picking nits to some extent. That is the ejector spring is a LOT stronger than it needs to be. Pop the lever open quickly after firing a shot and "to the moon" comes to mind with the way the brass is launched. That super strong ejector spring also causes a noticeable amount of drag when closing the lever slowly. So, a weaker ejector spring is part of tuning the M92 to match the smoothness of the original Winchester.
Next nit to pick is the finger lever detent, IMO it locks the lever closed with more force than necessary. I'll be spending a bit of time re-shaping the lower tang to reduce the effort required to open and close the lever. That will be a bit trial and error but some small ramps should make a big difference.
Final nit is the firing pin safety on top of the breech bolt, it's not really needed and a bit of an abomination on an 1892. However it does provide another layer of protection if you are using the lever to cycle loaded rounds out of the rifle. Right now I am undecided on whether to remove it and install a plug.
Summing it all up the M92 really isn't a bad buy for the money. Yeah, it has some warts and the quality issues posted on the net likely have a foundation in fact. However the Japanese made Winchester retails at around 1400 bucks and the Chiappa reproduction imported by Taylor's is about 1100 bucks. One way or another you just have to pay the piper.
PS: for those wondering about why a 357 Magnum lever rifle is such a big deal you just have to shoot one sometime. You'll have look hard to find a more enjoyable balance of power, accuracy, and simple fun factor for just shooting. If you happen to load your own ammo they are also rather cheap rifles to shoot.
First the positives.
While the finish isn't flawless it's still a rather good looking rifle with the defects being minor. Mainly 2 small areas where the bluing wasn't perfectly even. The wood appears to be Philippine Mahogany, otherwise known as Luan and while it's supposed to be oil finished someone was really stingy with the oil.
Second positive is that it feeds BOTH 357 Magnum and 38 specials flawlessly as long as you don't short stroke the lever.
Third positive is the fundamental accuracy seems quite good. I was able to produce one 5 shot group spanning 1.75 inch vertically and .75 inch horizontally at 50 yards and with 60 year old eyes the target was just a blur when using readers to see the sights. With a scope I believe it's likely capable of 1 inch or smaller groups at 50 yards.
Fourth positive is that it comes pre-drilled for a Scout Rail forward of the receiver. Note, a Scout Rail can be purchased from Stevesgunz.com for 34.95. I may order a rail tonight just to try it out with my 2.5-8x28 Nikon handgun scope just to see what it can do. For field carry I would probably go with my much lighter Nikon 2x20 EER scope.
Fifth positive is that the 1892 is a John Browning design and he used lessons learned on the earlier 1886 Winchester. This means that it is actually pretty easy to detail strip this rifle to a bare receiver. BTW, the M92 follows the original design quite closely with the only notable difference is the original uses a leaf type mainspring and the Rossi uses a coll mainspring.
Now the negatives.
First, the interior of the receiver was not de-burred at all. While everything functions properly those burrs did create a rather rough feel. If you have the skills plan on using a 1/4 x 1/2 inch stone to flat file the interior surfaces and remove the burrs created by the broaches used to cut the various channels. Doing this will make the action much much smoother.
Second, Rossi dropped the ball on sighting. Possibly a result of using the same sights for the 357 Magnum, 44 Magnum, 454 Cassull, and 45 LC versions of this rifle. Whatever the reason the 357 Magnum shoots about 4-5 inches high at 50 yards with the elevator all the way down. Plan on ordering a 5/8 inch tall front sight from Midway or Brownell's or using a Dremel to re-cut a deeper notch in the rear sight. Of just remove the sights, mount a rail and use a handgun scope.
Third issue is first time detail strip. I had to use a brass punch to pry the lower tang loose from the receiver due to the burrs mentioned earlier. After stoning the receiver the lower tang now slides into place easily.
The fourth issue falls into picking nits to some extent. That is the ejector spring is a LOT stronger than it needs to be. Pop the lever open quickly after firing a shot and "to the moon" comes to mind with the way the brass is launched. That super strong ejector spring also causes a noticeable amount of drag when closing the lever slowly. So, a weaker ejector spring is part of tuning the M92 to match the smoothness of the original Winchester.
Next nit to pick is the finger lever detent, IMO it locks the lever closed with more force than necessary. I'll be spending a bit of time re-shaping the lower tang to reduce the effort required to open and close the lever. That will be a bit trial and error but some small ramps should make a big difference.
Final nit is the firing pin safety on top of the breech bolt, it's not really needed and a bit of an abomination on an 1892. However it does provide another layer of protection if you are using the lever to cycle loaded rounds out of the rifle. Right now I am undecided on whether to remove it and install a plug.
Summing it all up the M92 really isn't a bad buy for the money. Yeah, it has some warts and the quality issues posted on the net likely have a foundation in fact. However the Japanese made Winchester retails at around 1400 bucks and the Chiappa reproduction imported by Taylor's is about 1100 bucks. One way or another you just have to pay the piper.
PS: for those wondering about why a 357 Magnum lever rifle is such a big deal you just have to shoot one sometime. You'll have look hard to find a more enjoyable balance of power, accuracy, and simple fun factor for just shooting. If you happen to load your own ammo they are also rather cheap rifles to shoot.
