Puma 92 – Rebuild

[salvo]

Yesterday (Sunday) I decided I was going to re-fit the overhanging butt plate and refinish the wood on my Puma 92 .357Mag/.38 Things were going along fine, but as I was waiting for the true oil to dry between coats, I got carried away and chopped my 20" Carbine, into a 16” Trapper! I had already slicked the action and trigger up earlier. The Front sight is a Marbles small gold bead and the rear sight was replaced with the folding sight that came off my 1895G. I had to shim the rear sight, Rossi cuts the dovetail to wide, metric I guess? I cut a new dovetail for the front.
Took some pictures along the way.

Before


Overhanging butt plate, that started this all


Fitted but plate and stripped the wood


Busted it down


Chopped


Crown


Dovetail


Leftovers


All done






This is my go every were carbine, behind the seat work or play.

[mescalero1]

Nice work, three jaw chuck, nice cut.

[edwardyoung]

You are my hero. I wish I could do that - or was at least brave enough to try.

[Duff L Bagg]

Very impressive, let us know how it shoots.

[20cows]

WOW!!!

That is really nice!

The only thing you did that I'm still scared of is the milling the front sight dovetail. (But that scares me plenty!)

[Ben_Rumson]

[J Miller]

Wow!!! Nice work. Wish we lived next door. You could teach me a thing or two.

Joe

[TedH]

Nice work!

[Rod WMG]

Well done.

[mescalero1]

Joe,
you are going to love my shop, when are you going to make the pilgramage?

[J Miller]

Joe,
you are going to love my shop, when are you going to make the pilgramage?

There is only two things stoppping me:
A job
A place to stay when I get there.

Other than that, I'm as read as I'm gonna get.

Joe

[mescalero1]

Those are two useful things.

[Griff]

Very nice... REMARKABLE improvement!

[jd45]

It's amazing what one can do with the proper tools for the job. Great results! jd45

[Ysabel Kid]

You are my hero. I wish I could do that - or was at least brave enough to try.

Bingo!

Wonderful work Scott! I wish I had the tools - just getting started, the skill (I guess practice helps), and as edwardyoung said, the "guts" to try something like that!!!

[Hobie]

That is really nice!

[salvo]

Thanks allot all! It is like getting a new rifle totally changed the look and feel of the 92. I really liked the 20" barrel and think 20" is a better all around barrel length but for packing around in a truck the little trapper will be better. The 92 was my third barrel chop and was by far the smoothest and fastest compared to the other two. The first one, my Marlin 1895G "Pugslie" Was a bit scary to do, since it was a brand new rifle and my first chop.

[DerekR]

That "overhanging buttplate" is apparently pretty common on the Rossis. It was the only thing on mine that wasn't to my liking. A little file work and some cold blue fixed it to my liking. I did stop at that, though!

FINE looking carbine Salvo!

[Grizz]

Salvo,

That's sweet. Now I have to haul out my GS and put the masking tape on it and see if I can bring myself to do the same thing.

You've made a great gun even better IMO, good going !

[2ndovc]

You are my hero. I wish I could do that - or was at least brave enough to try.

jb

[Old Savage]

Wow, great work!

[J Miller]

Scott,

When you put the barrel in the lathe, do you pull it from the receiver? Not being a machinist I got no clue.

Joe

[salvo]

Joe my little Smithy has a short tail stock and will fit a 16" barreled receiver with just enough room to work. If the lathe was any bigger I would of had to remove the barrel.

[L8agin]

NEAT
After Joe's question-How did you set up the barrel for cutting the dovetail ?
L8

[salvo]

L8, the barrel is leveled then clamped in a V-block. I use a piece of copper (copper washer) at the clamp point to protect the barrel.
Here is a larger view of the set up.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

Scott,
Nice job. I'm not sure if I'm lazy or what but I have got to where I'll hand cut a single dovetail rather than do the setup for it. Before I had a mill I did them all by hand. Old habits I guess.

That "overhanging buttplate" is apparently pretty common on the Rossis. It was the only thing on mine that wasn't to my liking. A little file work and some cold blue fixed it to my liking. I did stop at that, though!

FINE looking carbine Salvo!

Most folks think these guns left the Rossi factory like that but that's not what happened. They bolted the plate on the wood and sand/shaped both, then separated them for bluing and wood finish. The problem back then (90's) is the wood was not properly dried and in a short time as it dried the wood shrinks away from the plate.

[RIHMFIRE]

excellent work!

[salvo]

Thanks Steve & Rihmfire, I only make one pass with the dovetail cutter, then fit the sight with files. It's worth the set up time for me because those files really start cramping my hands after a bit of Heavy fileing and I get to play with my Smithy.

Steve, I took the safety apart today to see how it works. I was going to order a safety filler from you, but I'm sure I could make the filler, but I want to make sure it's OK with you first?

[O.S.O.K.]

Wow - very nice work! I'd say you're a WECSOG master

I will now go google little smithy - I've seen the ads for years.... wonder if I could get it to fit into my shop...

ETA:

OK, is this what you have?



Midas 1220 A bit over $1000.

I'm thinking no, you have one with a larger/longer capacity... yes?

And if you don't mind Salvo, what is your experience level? Did you have any machining, metalworking experience know-how before getting your Smithy? Or did you teach yourself once you got the tooling?

[salvo]

That looks like it, much newer model though and they have gotten less expensive!
I have tought my self. My first project was my Colt Officers Model, I cut the dovetails for both the front and rear Novac sights, talk about nervous Turned out great and the Smithy has easily paid for itself in projects since.

Here is my first 1911 OM Re-build, the hand cut checkering was my first try at it also.


Get one you won't be sorry. You'll end up using it for all kinds of things. I bought a stand alone drill press though and now just use the Smithy for milling & lathe. It's a pain in the but changing the chuck/mill heads back and forth.

[O.S.O.K.]

Cool! Thanks for the info. Thats a sweet 1911!

I've got a nice drill press already and some other tools but have always wanted a good lathe - but that Smithy would be a lot better.

I wonder if a used one....

[mescalero1]

O.S.A.K.
Google up the used machinery places, there are a lot of machine tools on the market these days.

[flb]

Have done a lot of similar work on shotguns so rifle looks pretty easy, BUT, that 1911 you did is awesome. Great job, really nice, quality of work is obvious and congrats.

[Dave James]

Have to say the 16" er is slick,, My all time favorite truck gun is an early 16" 357 carbine model, I had a smith mount a scout scope base on it, installed a tang peep and open then wrapped the lever, its just a little larger than norm, not quit as large as a glove loop. Mounted first a shotgun 1x scope but have gone to a shotgun scope with a turkey reticle in it now

[TomD]

Another cool project Salvo. I want to do it bad, but I sorta like the 20" barrel. I love doing the work, but maybe don't need the result. In my case I wouldn't be too scared to try since the sight seems to be crooked on mine anyway. The butt plate is so overhanging it can't be wood shrinkage, and it is sorta a skull crusher effect. Mainly a nice rifle, The sight and the butt plate seem to be all they missed. And the loading gate is way too stiff. I have Nate's tape, so a few things will be altered.

[Glenn]

Salvo,
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the wood. That stock is 100% better looking! Great job.
Glenn

[Leverdude]

Nice work!
I need one a them things.