New production Rossi/Taurus M92?

Ed Ames · Aug 7, 2014

Had a chance to handle a new (just unwrapped by the gun store) production Rossi/Taurus M92 lever action. It was a stainless steel 16" .454 Casull model. I have an older LSI/Puma 20" .454 so I am familiar with the basics of these rifles.

The first surprise was the fact that this stainless gun had a blued extractor. The locking bolts also had a black finish (though the tops were polished). Is this normal now?

Second surprise was the taurus lock on the hammer. I suppose that isn't a big deal but on top of the silly safety on the bolt it is kinda unwelcome. Apart from a drop of loctite to keep it out of play, has anyone done anything to get rid of this?

The buckhorn sight was better than the sights that came on my older gun, but I would still prefer a peep. Does the Steve's Gunz safety replacement peep sight still work with these guns? Also, does anyone know if the dovetail is still oversized? Or did they fix that?

Overall it looked quite nice, and I like the feel of the 16" gun. The older 16" .454s seem quite rare and I have about given up looking for one. I have seen a number of these new Taurus guns show up online and even in stores recently so the availability is there, I'm just not sure on the blued parts and other quirks of the one I handled.

BCRider · Aug 8, 2014

I'm going to guess that if it's a blued finish that it's not actually stainless. Or does Rossi/Braztech show a blued stainless on their web site? Otherwise it's more than likely a mis-label issue on the box. Or you're simply assuming that all .454 rifles are stainless.

I only just finished up slicking up two 92's in .357 for a couple of shooting friends. Because both rifles will be used by folks in cowboy action shooting the needless safeties were pulled out and put in an old film container for them. Both were easy to remove with a small pin punch. Both have a REALLY tiny ball and spring in them so if you want to keep them for some future use be sure to remove these parts inside a clear plastic bag. They'll shoot out through the tiniest opening between your fingers otherwise.

The good news is that while we keep seeing reports of shoddy exterior metal finishing and poor wood to metal fit that I found with both that the insides are fully up to par. And in many ways the internal workmanship is BETTER than my older Rossi from 6 years back.

The only downside is the wood finish used on the new guns. It looks like old house paint. It is also resistant to the hellish stripper I used and is no longer water soluble as they were at one point. So if you want to refinish the wood sandpaper and elbow grease is a must.

I also recommend the lighter duty spring kit be installed. It makes the gun a lot nicer to operate in every way and is still every bit as reliable as the overly strong stock springs.

Here's a shot of the wood partly through re-finishing with a stain and boiled linseed oil combo. The middle stock is the factory finish that was stripped and rinsed but still retains the original finish despite this treatment. It's got a wipe of mineral spirits on it to wet the finish out so you can compare the sanded and oil stained wood on the right and left to what the factory finish looked like.

Ed Ames · Aug 8, 2014

BCRider said:
I'm going to guess that if it's a blued finish that it's not actually stainless. Or does Rossi/Braztech show a blued stainless on their web site? Otherwise it's more than likely a mis-label issue on the box. Or you're simply assuming that all .454 rifles are stainless.

Hah...I must have been less clear than usual.

I was looking at a stainless carbine. So barrel, magazine, receiver, lever, trigger, and barrel bands were bright stainless steel. It didn't look like nickel plating and wasn't carbon steel in the white.

It had a blued extractor. In other words, looking at the top of the bolt, there was a stripe of blued steel down the center.

The locking bolts (the two steel bolts that slide up and down to lock the action closed) were polished on the ends that rise up out of the top of the action, but if you flipped the gun over they were black where they straddle the lever. A coating or finish of some sort.

I shoulda taken a picture....

There is one of those tiny safety detent balls in my carpet somewhere from when I replaced the safety with a peep sight on my 20". Sigh. I did the springs on my 20" too. Brownell's sells a set for $13 or so. Much nicer to have ejected brass drop at your feet vs flinging 5 meters behind you. I also replaced to plastic follower with a stainless version and would do so again.

BCRider · Aug 9, 2014

No, it's not you. I was reading while being dumb....

It's all there just like you say.

And yes, that does seem a little odd. But perhaps it's some new move to hold down costs. Much like using the really cheap wood that came on these last two rifles. Or perhaps they ran into supply issues for the better quality stainless alloys that they would normally use for the spring extractor and tough locking bars? If so they might simply have sent out a batch with blued parts in response to demand?

Ed Ames · Aug 10, 2014

The buttstock wood looked better than my 20", but some of that was just that you could actually see wood grain through the urethane they seem to have switched to. My older lsi/puma era gun looks like it was stained with used motor oil.

I wish these weren't so rare in the stores I frequent. This is literally the only 16" .454 m92 I have seen in person. I see them listed online every so often with stock photos so who knows what you actually get.

Cump · Aug 10, 2014

The locking bolt and extractor are blue/black, along with the factory sights, on my new 20" M92 in 357.

Fit and finish are good on mine.

New production Rossi/Taurus M92?

Ed Ames

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