Rossi 92 range report

Well, after getting some feedback and reading up on lever rifles, I went with the Rossi 92 in 357/38 16" rifle. Out the door for $500, I must say I have no regrets. The action was much smoother out of the box than I had expected. I disassembled the whole rifle and sprayed down all metal with carb cleaner and blew out with compressed air till dry. Then with CLP followed by air, I reassembled and used a dab of white lithium grease on all bearing surfaces. I didn't file, stone or sand anything. The bolt has plenty of "play" in the receiver, like a well used 1911 or AK47. The rifle was now even slicker and smoother. After about 200 dry cycles it was slick as could be, easily cycled with one finger. Trigger pull came in at 4 3/4 lbs., just right for this type of rifle IMHO.

At the range I ran 50 rds. of PMC 130 gr, RN FMJ 38 spec. with 100% feeding and 50 rds. of Perfecta 158 FN FMJ, again with 100% feeding. Ejection was very strong , empties going straight up 4 feet or so , a few falling on my head. At 50 yds. with my 40+ year eyes I managed 2" groups with the 357 and 3" to 3 1/2" with the 38. With the rear sight set on the second step it shot a few inches high with 357 and a few inches low with the 38's. My plan now it to refinish the wood with some BLO and file down the "horns" off the buckhorn rear sight. My 10 year old is going to love this rifle, the 38's were like 22 mags and even the 357's felt very mild. I don't know why I waited so long to get into the lever game, this is one fun rifle.

I researched and asked around and could not find one single documented case where a RN FMJ 38 caused a magazine to blow up. I would think in this sue happy world if it was remotely possiable, there would be a warning lable on the ammo box as to state NOT to shoot them in lever guns. Even plated bullets like 9mm Blazers have warnings about not to fire them in ported barrels. I plan on pulling a bullet and resting it on a empty primed case and hitting the bullet with a ball peen hammer , like a punch, to see if it's even possiable under the most unlikely conditions. I would think if dropping them down the mag tube of a Henry doesn't set them off then recoil surely isn't going to. Any thoughts?

Well I just got done doing a few tests with some pulled bullets and primed empty cases. First with a primed case in a fixture I held the pulled RN FMJ with pliers with the nose on the primer. It took a sharp wack with a ball peen hammer to get the primer to pop. Not a real hard wack, but more than recoil or dropping the gun would cause. Then I placed a three foot piece of steel tube over the primed case and dropped bullets (nose down) down the tube on the primer. No ignition after several attempts. I then added two 1/2 oz. lead sinkers behind the bullet and let them all drop at once. Again no ignition. After these test and what Recoil Rob brought up, and the fact there in no documented cases of this ever happening, I see no issue using RN FMJ 38's in my Rossi.