[taliv]

jsut got my new puma 92 in .480 ruger (lever action like the win92) and i've got a couple questions about the safeties on these rifles.

when i put the safety on, and pull the trigger, the hammer falls. on every other gun i own, the hammer won't fall with the safety on. so, i was thinking the gun was broken. however, on further inspection, the hammer doesn't fall quite as far, as it's stopped by the firing pin, which doesn't move forward when the safety's on.

so is this the way it's supposed to operate?

is this the way all win92 pattern guns operate? or is it unique to puma replicas?

assuming it's operating as designed... i'm not aware of the widespread availability of crack in the 19th century, so *** were these guys smoking when they decided stopping the hammer with the firing pin would be a good idea for a safety?

is it ok to dry fire these guns?

thanks

[dfariswheel]

The "safety" is really more of a hammer blocker device that prevents the hammer from driving the firing pin forward, but doesn't lock the hammer or trigger.

The people in the 19th Century weren't smoking crack, since they weren't responsible for this.
The hammer block safety on lever action rifles is a recent invention to stave off possible lawsuits.

Similar devices have recently been added to Winchester and Marlin lever rifles.

[HPJeep]

The safety you have is newer than the Rossi 92 that I have. No early American lever action gun had safeties per se. They did have the half cock notch though. Most people in the 1800s to 1950s had proper gun safety ingrained whereas we 'modern' folks 'need' a safety due to the stupid lawyers and stupid people handling loaded guns. I can't answer you on your 92 Rossi's safety though. I do not know how it operates.

[gbran]

Hey, tell us how it shoots. How does the .480 perform in a levergun?

[taliv]

thx for info. i kind of suspected it was modern design, not original.

i'm taking vacation tomorrow, going shooting. i'll let you know how it does!

[taliv]

i got to go shoot it today.

about 40 degrees, 1500'+ elevation

rossi/puma m92 .480 Ruger, 20" barrel

my relatively light handloads (400g speer gold dots over 21g of W296) over the chrono were
1247
1274
1264
1279
1278

mean 1268

factory ammo (hornady 325g XTP)
1516
1473
1503

mean 1497

for comparison, my handloads through my taurus raging bull with 8 3/8" barrel were
1108
1117
1137


so, the extra 12 inches of barrel added roughly 150 fps (not much, really)
and 150 fps over the published velocity of 1350 fps on the hornady factory ammo.

energy on the factory ammo works out to a respectible 1624 (compared to 1433 on my intentionally light handloads)


anyways, the gun is very comfortable to shoot. recoil i'd say is comperable to shooting 308win out of a rem700. i.e. you for sure know when it goes off, but it's not painful.

no failures of any kind.

the action is very stiff. i think it'll be great once i break it in.

(btw, 400g speer gold dots are on sale at midway for $10/box of 50 right now...sale ends tomorrow. i just ordered another 15 boxes)

as far as accuracy is concerned... i don't much care for the sights on the gun. if you're shooting a deer or a bear, they're just fine. (I didn't get the goofy hiviz ones... i just got regular iron sites) However, when your'e shooting at b-16 NRA targets from 50 and 100 yrds, I couldn't focus on the front sight and see the black. so my groups at those ranges were appreciably shy of impressive. at 50 yrds, , i'd say, 3 inches or so of spread but it really opened up at 100 yrds. i don't think that was the gun or my fault.. we just weren't working together. (btw, thats from a sitting position, no rest)
curiously, i was about 3" high at 50 yrds and 4" low at 100yrds and i was attempting a 6 o'clock hold on the black, though as i say, i couldn't really see it and was sort of guessing where it was.

on the whole though, i'm extremely pleased with it. especially for the $350 price. i'm thinking about getting two. a friend recommended receiver sights, so i'm going to check that out.

[MatthewVanitas]

Wow, that's a big-bore levergun! Artsy gun pics are in order here.

I was considering the .357 version, but then got a good deal on a 39A, so my lever-lust is sated for the nonce.

I did run across the site of this cat, Steve Young, who is apparently the expert when it comes to tricking out Rossi '92 for competition.

http://www.stevesgunz.com/

That's a fun gun you've got, post some pics!

-MV