Why not a Puma 1892???

[SFC]

I planned on buying a Puma 1892 from a local gunshop on the 1st of May.  I sent an e-mail to a gunsmith for tuning (well known cowboy action gunsmith), and he recommend I not buy a 1892.  He said he'd pass on it and get a Marlin, because it was a better rifle.  I am not going to use it for cowboy action shooting, but for plinking and maybe hunting.  It probably wouldn't need an action job, because it feels alright to me now (seemed like a solid rifle with excellent wood to metal fit).  I am now kinda hesitant about picking it up now.  I am sure the Marlin may be the better deal, but I prefer the old look of the 1892.  What gives?  After reading some posts on this forum and others, some hate the Rossi 1892 and others love them. 

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Howdy Pard 

           You have to remember what you hear is just that person's opinion, and thats all, if you like the gun, and the action works well, and it's what you want, I say go for it.....The rossi 1892 is a fine clone of the real Winchester 92 , but this one comes with a safty. nothing wrong with this, but you can have this taken off if you so wish, the gun is rock solid , and everybody I know that has one likes it just fine, I have one my self , and a 1894 and 1873 , and I love all three, I use the 73 and 92 in CAS but wouldn't be afraid to hunt with them either depending what game I was going for. the Marlin's are nice guns too , and you wouldn't be wrong if you were to choose one of them, but to say one was better than the other I don't buy that at all . So make your self happy and get the one want , and be done with it. ( IMHO ) And oh yea I don't know of anybody that doesn't like the Rossi Puma 1892, and mine was perfect right out of the box , all I had to do is degrease it and reoil with Gun Butter , which is what I like to use on my guns now, so have fun and enjoy what ever gun you choose.


                                                                    tEN wOLVES 


                                               

[Silver Creek Slim]

Good advice, Ten Wolves Fiveshooter.

Slim

[SFT]

Good advice.  If you were to use the 92 for CAS, you would want it slicked up so you could shoot it faster, but if you like the way it feels and cycles right now there nothing else needed except a place to shoot it.  The Marlin is a good gun as well, but in your case it is purely a matter of personal taste.

Go for the Puma and let us know how you do. 

[SFT]

FYI- EMF has a special going right now on the stainless 1892 in .45 only.

$504.00
http://www.emf-company.com/1892-winchester-rifle-carbine1.html

[Marshal Tac]

I have a Puma stainless 92 in .454, two '73's in .45 Colt, a Taurus lightning clone in .45 Colt and a Marlin 1894 Cowboy in .45 Colt. All of them are decent guns and all of them can be used in matches. The Taurus is finiky about bullet length and Black Powder, so it doesn't get shot much. The '73's are my main match guns and are the "slickest" and fastest, so that's why I use them for competion. The Marlin was my "stand in" main match gun when my '73's were at the smith getting slicked up. It ran fine once some of the "bumps" were smoothed out of it and I learned to keep it lubed when using BP. The Puma (mine) is to short to hold 10 rounds of .45 Colt for a main match, but it is a great shooter and the strongest action of all of the different types of .45 rifles I own. I have carried it afield several times when I am hunting with loads that I would not even think about shooting in any of my other lever guns OR revolvers (except my Ruger Blackhawk).

If you like the Puma 92, buy one that can hold 10 rounds and enjoy it as a duel purpose rifle (CAS and Hunting). It will work well in both areas. You may never break any speed records with it, but unless you are a nationally ranked shooter, you will probably never even notice the slight speed advantage of a '73.

For the money, the 92 is a hard gun to beat.

Just my $0.02 worth.

[SFC]

Well, I bought the 1892 (.45lc) and I shot it for the first time today.  It shot great without any problems.  After purchasing, I tore it completely down and used a fine stone to smooth it out a bit.  I didn't change the springs.  The receiver and bolt had a lot of rough and sharp edges.  After 3 hours of work, I oiled her up and reassembled.  Reassembling was more difficult than I expected, but I figured it out.  The extractor was especially difficult to keep in the bolt and pain in my ***.  In all, the carbine cost me $390 and is definitely worth the price. 

[Troublesome River]

Howdy all,
Just bought my new puma rifle (24" barrel,.45 Colt), and have shot various loads through it and no complaints.
With its's brass hardware it looks good to. Always remember,though, opinions are like (whoops , uh, noses, that's
it), everbody has one-Troublesome

[SFT]

Well, I bought the 1892 (.45lc) and I shot it for the first time today.  It shot great without any problems.  After purchasing, I tore it completely down and used a fine stone to smooth it out a bit.  I didn't change the springs.  The receiver and bolt had a lot of rough and sharp edges.  After 3 hours of work, I oiled her up and reassembled.  Reassembling was more difficult than I expected, but I figured it out.  The extractor was especially difficult to keep in the bolt and pain in my ***.  In all, the carbine cost me $390 and is definitely worth the price. 

Sounds like a great deal to me!  Just out of curiosity, what it the twist rate?

[SFC]

I'm not sure what the twist rate is on the 20" barrels. 

[SFT]

I'm not sure what the twist rate is on the 20" barrels. 

Just wondering.  Maybe it is the same as the Marlin, 1:20.  At any rate, it should stabilize heavy bullets of 300 grains and up, just in case you need to add some real thump to your rifle.

[slap happy]

hi pards! i bought my puma 45 colt in april, i've shot about 1000 rounds thru it without a problem. I like the light weight quick handling of rifle. It was very accurate out of the box, and the price was right. later mb

[Compass Will]

I have the EMF in 24" barrel with brass receiver in 45 colt.  I use it for lever action silhouette matches. (and SASS once I get my shot gun ready). Last month I got 10 pigs in a row!  Tomorrow I hope to do even better.  tomorrow  I am using my own cast bullets that seem to shoot even better then the ones I was using before.  I did have a problem where a round would get stuck as it feed into the chamber but after around 250 rounds the problem went away.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Howdy Gents

       I thought I would join in on this subject, I have an E.M.F. Hartfield 1892, blue with case harden frame and butt plate  it has a 20" octagone barrel and a nice brass bead front site,I got it in 45 long Colt, to match my sixguns, it's a straight shooter, when I bought it , the action was smooth , right out of the box , when I got it home, I cleaned it and degreased it real well, then reoiled it with Gun Butter , the gun went from smooth to SUPER SMOOTH, I really love this gun butter , I dressed it up a little by making a butt cover, and wrapped the lever in leather, this is a fun gun to shoot, it handles like a dream, it's easy to get on target quick, and it won't  jam if you remember to fully rack the lever, I 've seen some pards get in a hurry , and not compleatly rack the lever , and WHAM you have jam. but all lever actions are like this, it's one step you don't want to forget to do.

                                  So all you 92 Pards ENJOY your 92's their GREAT GUNS.......



                                                tEN wOLVES 

[Compass Will]

I just won the A class in lever action silhouette on Saturday with a 26. (only 2nd match so far).
Shooting a Legacy Puma 1892, 24" barrel, Brass receiver with the stock sights.  This was shooting clays behind a 255 grain Lee bullet I cast from wheel Weights.  both matches I shot so far with this gun I got 10 pigs in a row!

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Howdy Compass Will 

                      Way to go Pard, it doesn't get any better than that. My Hats Off to ya Pard


                                                          tEN wOLVES 

[Wills Point Pete]

 If anyone still cares the .45 caliber Rossi clone of the '92 Winchester has a one turn in thirty inches twist. I have a 24 inch stainless model. At a CAS Match it shoots black powder and it's a (slow) ray gun. I simply do not miss with it. It comes home, gets a quick slosh out to get the top layer of goo off. Then I turn the receiver sight a couple of clicks and load the rifle up with a max load of H110 behind a 250 grain Hornady XTP-JHP. I've never kept one of those bullets inside a Texas whitetail deer and it discourages coyotes as far out as I can hit one. I have a reasonable expectation that it would cause a tractor thief to reconsider his career choices, too. I have loaded 300 grain bullets to the same velocity as those 300 grain Remington .45-70 loads. The recoil like to knocked my fillings out with that crescent steel buttplate so I went back to the 250s.

There are many people that like the '66 or '73 clones. Those rifles are a tick faster, not enough to lose sleep over unless you are already in the top five or ten percent of shooters. At my age I'll never outrun my '92. Of course everyone says that the '73s are faster than the Marlins, too. Except for those records Deuce Stevens keeps breaking with his Marlin. I looked at the '66s and '73s. I decided on keeping my little Marlin 1894C that rode in the trunk of my car the last ten or twelve years of my career. In my rural department I wanted a little something that would reach out further than the issue shotgun. The same cartridge as my service revolver was a plus.

When I wanted to shoot a rifle cartridge to match my cowboy guns I would have been happy with another Marlin, I got a deal on the Rossi. The famous Nate Kiowa Jones claims that the Rossi is stronger because they chamber it in .454 Casull Mag and Marlin doesn't. I wonder, though if that is really a factor of action strength or does Marlin, paying American wages, simply need a longer production run to make money. All I know is that my Marlin digests the top .357 loads with ease, my Rossi digests the top "Ruger only" .45 loads with ease. My little Marlin does the same duty as my Rossi at the front door. Either will digest a steady diet of loads that would turn a '66 or '73 into scrap metal and wood splinters. These guns are a comfort since I live where there are periodic outbreaks of rabies and if the the nearest Sheriff's car is busy it may be twenty or thirty minutes until the next one can get here.

The advantages of these rifles is only evident to someone who uses them for more than one purpose. The older toggle link designs are plenty strong enough for CAS and will give a lifetime of service at those ballistics.

[SFT]

I would expect that the Marlin's faster twist rate would be better at handling bullets heavier than 325 grains than the Rossi, although the difference may not be noticable.  Marlin doesn't chamber the .454 in the 1894 models due to it's extremelly high operating pressures, which they feel would put too much stress on the gun and would cause accelerated wear.  If you need to shoot big heavy bullets then the 336 models in 45-70, .450 Marlin and .444 are ready for that.

The 66 and 73 models with their toggle links systems were designed long before smokeless powder was discovered, so only low power pistol cartridges powered by black powder were considered, so you could shoot the same in your pistol and rifle.  Any more thump needed and you got out your single shot 45-70, 45-100, 50-70, etc.
The only way to make the 66 and 73's faster than the Marlin is to put in a short stroke kit, and even then they are not as reliable as the Marlin or 1892 designs.  I know this comment will cause some reaction, but it is simply my own personal observation from shooting CAS for the past 7 years.  After and during a match, there is always a 73 needing an adjustment or a jammed shell removed, but never on a Marlin or 92 clone.

Nate Kiowa Jones used to sell the 1892's already smoothed up, but as with other replicas and clones, the quality has improved greatly over the past few years.  Used to be that any 1892 needed an action job (to varying degrees), whether it was going to be used for CAS or not.  Now we have better quality, fit and finish than ever before, but virtually every firearm made based on a 100 year old design can be improved upon, even if it's just a little.  In that respect, if you want to put some fancy grade stocks on your 92, you've got several choices.  Stainless, color case, blued, nitre-blued, you can get it all.

The 1892 was and is a fine rifle.  Happy shooting!

[Camille Eonich]

The '92s are very unreliable and are very picky about OAL even with a Nate Kiowa Jones action job.  I do know this from experience and if you call Nate he will tell you that getting a good one is more luck than anything.


The Marlins are much better but fast shooters can still out run them.  I don't know who did the work on Duece Steven's but it's an exception to be able to run one like he does.  The '73 and '66s are of such simple design that if you do manage to jam one up on the line if you know what you are doing you will most likely be able to fix it while on the line and still not  gain too much time.  The biggest problem that I see with '73s and '66s malfunctioning is worn extractors jumping off the case rim or jamming due to the tube not being cleaned as it should and rust causing ammo not to feed correctly.  Even in a case such as that you can usually get my with gravity feeding and get through the stage.


The 1892 is a fine rifle but it takes no time to build up the speed to outrun one and equipment failure is no fun at all!

[RRio]

The '92s are very unreliable and are very picky about OAL even with a Nate Kiowa Jones action job.  I do know this from experience and if you call Nate he will tell you that getting a good one is more luck than anything.

The 1892 is a fine rifle but it takes no time to build up the speed to outrun one and equipment failure is no fun at all!

I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree with you on this my dear Camille.  

I've been shooting Rossi-made '92s since my very first one in 1978. I've never had any problems with any of the 7 or 8 that I have owned. The LSI Puma .357/ .38 that I use regularly, is stock straight out of the box, no action work at all, and smooth as silk.
The other that I use regularly is an EMF Hartford '92 SRC in .45 Colt, again, stock straight out of the box, no action work at all, and almost as smooth as the Puma. I have never had any problems with either one.

As far as outrunning one, I disagree with that also. I would like to see a '66 or '73 do this:

http://www.riflemansrifle.com/video/original_demo.html

The only way the '66 and '73 can outrun a '92 is because of short-stroke kits.