As a freshly registered user I would like to say warm hello to everybody from the frosty, snowy eastern Poland.
Not a long time ago I fulfilled my childhood dream of not only handling but also owning and firing a lever-gun. It's not a Winchester '73 (like from the movie that they showed back then on our TV), it's even more hollywoodish (or bollywoodish?
): a Rossi 92 
.Unfortunately my dream lasted till the first visit on the range. Me and my wife tried our hands. The .357 would cycle without shaking and wiggling. 38 SPL were OK. Then was a problem with ejecting a case: it got torn apart while extracting, than again, this time the brass ring got stuck in the chamber. I managed to push back it through at home. But also managed to break the firing pin by accident. I got replacement and finally, yesterday set out to make the thing to work again.
The gun was bought second hand, although the cycling was still rough. I made a few dummy rounds and worked them through the gun to make the .357 feed at last. The bolt and lugs are rather smooth moving. No binding or grinding. The ejector spring is impossible. It may well be employed in a small car suspension. What's more, the collar wouldn't slip under the dog leg so the full force of the spring had to be taken by a dummy round leveraged on the extractor when putting the bolt in. After several test diss- re-assembly sessions I didn't cry anymore and somehow showed the True Grit (TM)
and managed to push the dummy and prevent it from flying to the Earth's orbit while sliding in the bolt. Even more fun than shooting a Mosin .Yesterday I got the new firing pin, put it in and reassembled everything to make a function check with the dummy rounds. I loaded two, cycled vigorously (it needs that with the longer .357s!). I got startled by the ejected dummies and moved to the bedroom, further from the windows and any breakable stuff. Pushed four rounds in, cycled the two and wanted to replenish the magazine. The round would not go in. I decided to empty the remaining two rounds, ejected one and that was the beginning of the disaster:
The bolt will not close fully. During the last successful reload I had a feeling that the final "snap" was heavier, but this time the overcoming the ejector spring force becomes impossible. The lever and the tang start to bend but the bolt won't move the last 2-3 mm. The cross-pin is visible in the LH hole but it's impossible to drive it out, it needs a fraction of a milimiter. The last round sits in the magazine it was not released by the stop.
[Breaking news]
While writing this I decided to loosen the cartridge stop screw and give it a wobble. I've found a firing pin tip underneath. Broken again! The tip had got stuck underneath the stop and prevented the last round from coming out of the tube, and what's worse it bent the ejector's lip. Now the cartridge stop moves freely, I managed to remove the cross pin and the bolt. What a lovely day!
I don't need help with finding the cause of the jam. I am a happy owner of a pretty but useless carbine, a single sports car suspension spring (need at least two!) and two firing pins complete with their tips (available separately).
[A breakfast later]
Having nothing better to do, I took a closer look at the bolt, which now devoid of all the messy bits, I moved to and fro. It has the final resistance, which seems to be coming from the extractor mortise in the barrel chamber. The right hand side of it comes with contact with the extractor a bit to much. One can see the shiny metal and the bolt binds to the degree of not falling out under its own weight when positioned vertically (the right way down of course
). A tap is needed to dislodge it. I suspect it wasn't exactly the feature envisioned by J.M. Browning, or was it? Do the real Winchesters 1892 have it, other Rossis 92, too?Anyway, it's time for me to thing over a new order for a few more firing pins and finding a competent gunsmith dealing with lever guns here LOL. Someone will have to learn a new skill of hand fitting Rossi firing pins
.Cheers
Andrzej
.
and Welcome to THE Forum from Texas.