Lee Loader

I flat sanded the machine marks down then machine polished the guts on my .357 to a chrome look on all places where parts run against each other with exception of the sear. I shimmed the trigger spring, replaced the ejector spring, and trimmed the magazine spring. After adding a little grease and oil upon reassembly it's very slick but overkill. I treated (not refinished but mine is old with better finish) the wood and refit the poorly made butt plate. I spent nothing on it other than time and consumables I keep on hand. All of this applies to a newer ones in any caliber other than the stock refinish need.

Im not a reloading or manual safety overlord but RD is correct. Mine has no safety because it's too old but I've had an AD myself by closing the lever with my index finger out of the loop.

ya know... you guys are making this potential purchase of a new gun sound more like a project! AND a lotta work!!!

I said mine's not new and my work was overkill.
I expect to work on every gun I buy so it's fun.
Your quoted price is at least 15% under common price so.....

pushing me over the edge is that it would be an awesome house defense gun! Who needs an ugly plastic black gun anyway?!?! lol!

oscarflytyer wrote:ya know... you guys are making this potential purchase of a new gun sound more like a project! AND a lotta work!!!

It's not, you will spend less than 30 minutes cleaning out the action and breaking it in. Don't worry about the safety or sights or wood or anything else. Shoot it and see what you think of it.

oscarflytyer wrote:pushing me over the edge is that it would be an awesome house defense gun! Who needs an ugly plastic black gun anyway?!?! lol!

NOE Picatinny Mount with a red dot then...

I should add to my previous that my 45 Colt has no problems with SWCs. I cast and shoot the 452-252 and any number of local commercial caster 255 SWC. I use the Lee 452-300 for my hunting loads. As far as SWCs and my Rossi 92s neither of them have any problems. With the 357 I've got a Lyman mold, don't remember the number off hand, drops about 160 with my alloy and sized to 359 the Rossi thinks it's the cat's meow and I need to find time to cast more.

Make smoke,

Ohio3Wheels wrote:I should add to my previous that my 45 Colt has no problems with SWCs. I cast and shoot the 452-252 and any number of local commercial caster 255 SWC. I use the Lee 452-300 for my hunting loads. As far as SWCs and my Rossi 92s neither of them have any problems. With the 357 I've got a Lyman mold, don't remember the number off hand, drops about 160 with my alloy and sized to 359 the Rossi thinks it's the cat's meow and I need to find time to cast more.

Make smoke,

All the other info is great! But THIS is REALLY what I was looking for! 45 Colt lever that will cycle/feed/eat/shoot 250-300 grn SWCs is really what I am interested in.

I bet the .45 colt isn't a whole lot different that the .44 mag in the R92. I don't have the .45, but do have the .44 - and I had a tough time working with the swc's for the first few days. Then, I decided the gun would be "mine", so I decided to do my redneck gunsmithing on it. The "wings", "ears" or whatever you want to call the pair of flat projections on the working end of the extractor were obviously too long and cut square. You couldn't even close the bolt without feeling, and seeing, some over-tension. I took mine apart, removed the extractor, then took a file and some wet/dry sand paper to those projections and took off several thousands inch off the length and put a nice radius on the lower front "corner" (I really don't believe the lower front should be jagged/ sharp corner). After a bit of shaping/checking, all the problems seem to have been fixed. Dealing with memory issues, I can't remember how long ago, but I think early 2015 ... or 2014. Anyhow, it allowed me to easily load my swc's as well as my long oal rnfp's with no problems, and still full ejection of spent brass.


jd

My 45 was a bit different. I bought it a gun show knowing nothing about Rossi guns. I liked what I saw and the guy let me go over it completely. I picked up 2 boxes of ammo one 250 rnfp and the other 255 rnfp. Two weeks later I went by one of the legs for loading supplies and found some 255 grain swc from a local caster. Started out with making dummies rounds that matched the oil of the rnfp loads, short version wound up at a smidgen over and they feed fine.

I later found on the Internet, so it must be true, that lever guns aren't supposed to feed swc bullets. Guess my Rossi levers didn't read that book . It's not a Rossi but a 70s Era Marlin 336 in 35 Remote and if I work it carefully it will feed 158 grain swc cast. Used them on groundhogs many years ago.

Levers seem to each be a law unto themselves and you may have to play a bit, but it's worth the effort as the 45 Colts Zander the liver is hard to beat for fun and hunting.

Make smoke,

Ohio3Wheels wrote:.....Started out with making dummies rounds that matched the oil of the rnfp loads, ....

..... 70s Era Marlin 336 in 35 Remote .....

......45 Colts Zander the liver is hard to beat for fun and hunting......

Autocorrect? I got no idea what some of that means.