Yesterday’s post about underrated guns made me scratch my head a little, until I remembered the Rossi family of pistol-caliber lever rifles. Here’s the R92, in .357 Mag:
What you get for (ATOW) around $700 new is a lovely trigger and very reasonable accuracy. Longtime Buddy Combat Controller has one of these, has popped dozens of wild pigs with it, and swears by its reliability and performance. It’s his go-to brush gun.
The R92 is also offered in .44-40 and .454 Casull. The latter makes my shoulder ache just thinking about it. Lever rifles are not really geared for heavy or powerful cartridges.
Is the finish as good as, say, a Winchester of the same ilk? No; that extra money you pay for the Winchester gets you that — from memory, the Rossi may have a few rough edges here and there, because at the end of it all, you get what you pay for. But what you do get, as CC can attest, is a silky-smooth action right out of the box — better, in my opinion, than its Marlin 1894 competition.
The hammer-blocks safety catch is pretty simple too, although lever-rifle purists will find it annoying:
I would suggest, however, that for a knockaround brush gun, cosmetics ain’t that important — spend the extra $1,000 for a Cimarron or Uberti if that’s important to you. What is important is the trigger, the action, reliability and accuracy, and Rossi has the first three completely covered. What about accuracy? You’ll need to get the longer-barreled (20″ rather than 16″) model, I think, but anywhere under 75 yards — which is where the .357 Mag works best — it’ll drop pretty much anything the rifle’s pointed at, regardless of barrel length, as long as the shooter does his job properly.
Rossi also makes the R92 in .44 Mag and .45 Colt, if you’re looking for something a little meatier. But for my money, the .357 Mag will work just fine. Regardless of caliber, though, you’ll have a “companion” piece for your Colt, Ruger or S&W revolver in whatever of the three recommended chamberings.
You do have one of these already, right?