.45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

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Carlsen Highway
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.45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

Post by Carlsen Highway »

Guys, I am considering getting another Rossi 92, this one in .45 Colt, being the cheapest way I can get the equivalent of a .45-75 :lol:

I am wondering if the Rossi will feed the heavier .45 Colt bullets, the ones available to me here are the 300 grain XTP or 350 XTP hornady's. Or I would consider buying a mold for a bullet I knew would work, 300-350 grains worth...

anybody load heavy bullets in a .45 Rossi 92 and have them feeding properly?
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Re: .45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

Post by ollogger »

Both of my Rossi will feed a cartridge with a oal of 1.690, I mostly shoot cast 255gr & cast
my own but have bought cast as heavy as 325 gr, cant help on factory bullets



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Re: .45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

Post by earlmck »

I have loaded the 320 grain Lee RNFP bullet into my Rossi 454. It doesn't care whether I use 454 brass or 45 Colt brass so long as the COAL is 1.665" +/- .005. Yeah, really length sensitive. And then it shows further ingratitude by not shooting the bullet particularly well; it does better with the 225 grain round nose and isn't as length sensitive with that one either. It will shoot the 300 grain Hornady XTP fairly well with a length of 1.74" +/- .001.

So I'd guess you can load any bullet you want in the Rossi so it will feed. However, there may not be as much room left over for powder as you would like.
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Re: .45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

Post by 7.62 Precision »

I have found that .45 Colt bear loads with 360gr hard cast feed exceptionally well, but in a .454 Rossi! I think Rossi has adjusted their rifles for different loads over time, don't know if that will be the case with .45 Colts or not. In the .454s, I have found that the earlier .454s feed heavy-bullet .454 cartridges wonderfully, but are not smooth with .45 Colts, especially cowboy loads. I know that they got a lot of complaints about this because most people with .454 rifles are mostly shooting .45 Colts. The newer .454s don't feed my 360 gr hard cast .454 loads smoothly, but feed lighter factory loads fine, but feed .45 Colts beautifully. Holding reliability as more important than a slight boost in velocity, I run the heavy .45 Colts in a newer .454, and the heavy .454s in an older one.

I will try feeding them through a .45 Colt and let you know what I find.

I think the same sort of thing happened with the .38 spc/.357 - the early ones were optimized for .357, but newer ones seem to be optimized (sights and feeding) for the .38s to cater to their largest market. But in my experience most of these feed both calibers pretty well.
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Re: .45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

Post by 1886 »

The last several Rossi 92 rifles I have owned would feed any round I wanted. The only way to know for sure, is to try the load/loads you want to shoot in the rifle you want to buy. Dummy round of course! 1886.
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Re: .45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

Post by Nate Kiowa Jones »

1886 wrote:The last several Rossi 92 rifles I have owned would feed any round I wanted. The only way to know for sure, is to try the load/loads you want to shoot in the rifle you want to buy. Dummy round of course! 1886.

That pretty much sums it up. What happens is because of Rossi's liberal machining tolerances no two will be the same. The problem is parts stack up. I've had consecutive serial numbered guns here that one would just about feed anything and the other hardly fed at all.
I will say that since about 2000 when they got new machines the variables are not as bad as the earlier guns.
The one thing Rossi has going for it is the cart guide geometry was changed years ago to better feed the straightwall ammo used now days. The Rossi guides have faster angle at the rear to help bring the back end up and in line with the bore sooner.

You should be able to make it work with the 300's to 325's as long as the front or meplat is not too wide.
Wide meplat bullets tend to hit the top inside of the chamber before they can make the turn.
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Re: .45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

Post by piller »

That is my experience in the .480 caliber M92. LBT style bullets are fine as long as they are not the WFN type.
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Re: .45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

Post by CowboyTutt »

I trust 1886 and Steve Young on this, my 454 Puma is older and so modified by McPherson that my results don't count. The only thing that I might add is the rifle twist of the barrel. My 454 Puma is 1 in 32 whereas Paco's 454 rifle had a significantly faster twist rate. This might be related to the questionable accuracy that someone mentioned with heavier bullets: yeah, it fed, but didn't shoot so well. I think the advice about using 300-325 grain bullets is sound but it would be a shame if you couldn't also use a 360 grain hard cast bullet. Which again brings me back to twist rate. Its possible to modify the '92 action to feed longer cases/bullets as was done to mine. Mine picked up a 10th of an inch. Not much, but on such a wide case, I picked up another 100 fps with a handload. But if the terminal velocity is too much for the bullet used, then this was not necessarily helpful. The Hornady 300 XTP mag is a great bullet in a Puma, either 45 Colt +P or 454 for hunting ranges out of a rifle. A 360 grain hard cast at shorter ranges with the right hardness, provided a compatible twist rate, would also be a great short range hunting round. Not sure really what your application is. Regards, -Tutt
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Re: .45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

Post by w30wcf »

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Re: .45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

Post by CowboyTutt »

That's unusual using a pistol twist rate in a rifle. I want to say Paco's 454 from Legacy he tested was 1-20 or 1-20 something but I can't find it in his article. -Tutt
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Re: .45 Colt in a Rossi 92 - feeding heavy bullets

Post by jd45 »

I have an LSI Puma, (Rossi) in .45 Colt. Here's what I did to enable it to feed Leadhead 310gr hc's in the cases. There is what I call a "backstop" at the rear of the cartridge lifter. I took a Dremel-like tool & ground it back a sufficient amount to achieve the desired result. It's best to have it out of the rifle, tho, so I did it while I was watching Steve Young's DVD on slickin up the '92. The Hor 300XTPs pose no problem feeding from a "stock" rifle, just the ones that lengthen the COL. On the subject of rifling, my Puma has a 1-in-38 twist. I've got an Armi San Marco '92 with a 24" octagon barrel with I-in-12 rifling that I'd like to transplant to my Puma to better stabilize the heavy bullets. I may send the guns to Regan Nonneman in Grant City, MO for the job, if he says it's do-able. jd45
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