Troubleshooting a Troubled Carbine

This Brazilian-made version of the Winchester 1892 carbine decided to call it quits after just a few shots. The carbine was new, and this happened shortly after being removed from its carton. The carbine in question is chambered for the .454 Casull cartridge, a relatively new chambering for this import. Although the 1892 has strong twin vertical locking bolts, the .454 is still a very powerful cartridge for this action design—the word "scary" enters my mind—developing some where in the neighborhood of 65,000 psi.

But let us not dwell on that thought at this time. Someone, I believe, was asleep at his station when he let this carbine pass final inspection and hop a boat for the U. S. It was, in fact, my brother who just had to have this carbine as a stable mate for his Taurus Raging Bull in the same chambering. As it turned out, I was present when it came time to sight in the Rossi. Problems arose almost immediately, after firing only three or four shots.

The problems were mostly feeding related, but included one or two others. Consequently, the Rossi was returned to the place of purchase and from there to a warranty repair station. Fast forward six or seven weeks: The Rossi carbine was returned to its owner and—you guessed it—was not repaired, and came with no explanation as to why.

This brings us to the purpose of this article, which will deal with not only this little carbine’s problems, but might also be helpful for anyone having similar problems with other lever-action imports. Analysis/Repair Having been present at sight-in gave me somewhat of ahead start on the problems with this firearm, in that I was able to see first-hand exactly what was taking place and what wasn’t. One of the first problems to surface was failure of the cartridge to mount the carrier.

The carrier had failed to reach its lowest point to allow the cartridge to mount. At this early stage, it could not be visually determined what was causing this to happen. Additionally, we had a problem with the cartridge rims jamming between the cartridge guides. Sometimes this problem can be traced to loose guide screws—not so in this instance. Added to this was a magazine follower that was protruding into the area where the carrier resides.

These are not all of the problems that plagued this little carbine, but I determined that attending to these problems should get the Rossi up and running. I’m going to skip over the disassembly sequence for the Puma carbine, since this information can be found in the appropriate NRA guide to firearms disassembly, and just stick to addressing the problem areas. This Puma model has two new features that will not be found on earlier models.

They area redesigned magazine tube, and a firing-pin locking safety located at the top rear of the breechbolt. Another point to watch for: Most of the pins in this model are directional. Looking closely, you’ll see that one end of the pin has a "star" appearance. Drive from the opposite side. The first problem I’ll address is the magazine follower. This was moving past the cartridge stop, intruding on the carrier. This should not happen, and required disassembly of the inner magazine tube.

The tube must be supported well—a block of wood will work, and you must remove the magazine plug by removing its retaining pin. Look at the pin ends 45 LC and .357 Magnum. Problems have been reported, however, with early production Pumas in .454 Casull.

1 Barrel 2 Front Sight 3 Front Sight Pin 4 Upper Band 5 Upper Band Screw 6 Magazine Plug 7 Magazine Plug Screw 8 Magazine Spring 9 Forend 10 Lower Band 11 Lower Band Screw 12 Magazine Tube 13 Magazine Follower 14 Rear Sight Assembly 15 Elevator before driving it out; I drove mine right to left. The cap is under spring pressure; control it. Now you can remove the magazine spring and the follower. The follower in this model was a pretty piece of yellow plastic, but not something I would consider to be very durable.

After it rolled off the bench and onto the floor, I accidentally stepped on it. Oops! It didn’t matter much, though, because 16 Receiver 17 Carrier 18 Carrier Stop 19 Carrier Stop Spring 20 Carrier Stop Pin 21 Carrier Screw 22 Saddle Ring 23 Saddle Ring Support 24 Trigger 25 Trigger Pin 26 Lower Tang 27 Trigger Spring 28 Trigger Spring Screw 29 Lever & Breechbolt Pin Hole Plug Screw it had to be replaced anyway. The follower that was supplied from the factory was not manufactured to the correct dimensions.

The raised belt on the forward section of the follower was too narrow. (See the arrow in the photo at the top of page 21.) This belt engages the crimp at the end of the magazine tube, as can be seen in the photo, to hold it at the correct location within the tube.

The belt being too narrow allowed Rossi Model 92 Lever-Action Carbine (Specifications subject to change without notice) 30 Cartridge Guide, Right 31 Cartridge Guide Screw 32 Spring Cover 33 Spring Cover Screw 34 Finger Lever 35 Friction Stud 36 Friction Stud Spring 37 Friction Stud Stop Pin 38 Locking Bolt, Right 39 Locking Bolt, Left 40 Locking Bolt Pin 41 Locking Bolt Pin Stop Screw 42 Cartridge Guide, Left 43 Cartridge Stop 44 Cartridge Stop Joint Pin 45 Cartridge Stop Spring 46 Ejector 47 Ejector Spring 48 Ejector Collar 49 Ejector Spring Stop 50 Ejector Spring Stop Pin 51 Extractor 52 Extractor Pin 53 Breechbolt 54 Firing Pin 55 Firing Pin Stop Pin 56 Lever & Breechbolt Pin 57 Hammer 58 Mainspring Rod 59 Mainspring Rod Pin 60 Hammer Screw 61 Mainspring 62 Stock 63 Buttplate 64 Buttplate Screw the follower to extend too far.

The follower in the photo is made from aluminum bar stock to the correct dimensions. Keep in mind that this condition can be readily detected upon close inspection. Barring some kind of damage to the tube itself, this is the area to check. The follower should stop just short of the cartridge stop, which is pinned to the forward end of the left cartridge guide.

The next problem could not be readily detected with a visual inspection until the carrier was removed from the firearm. The carrier was not reaching its lowest point to pick up the cartridge being released from the magazine. If and when it did pick it up, the cartridge rims began jamming up at the base of the cartridge guides. I’ll start with the carrier problem first. After removing the carrier screws, the carrier is worked to the rear of the receiver and out the open back.

When I reached the point where the carrier stop had lined up and engaged the left carrier-screw hole, my rearward progress came to an abrupt stop. Using a 1/8-inch punch, I attacked it at the opposite side of the hole, being careful not to damage the screw threads in the receiver. Now, I’m not a weak man, but getting the carrier stop compressed enough to release its grip in the hole was a chore. The carrier-stop spring was very strong, to say the least.

Once the carrier was removed, an inspection of the inside of the receiver could be made. Refer to the photo at the top of page 22. Looking through the loading port at the inside left receiver wall, the two parallel furrows milled into the wall determine the distance that the carrier travels up or down. Note the trench that the carrier stop has cut into the receiver wall between the furrows. I personally have never seen Binder Ad (p/u from page 18, AGM-June 05) this happen before, at least not to this extent.

I’m not a metallurgist, but I’ll venture a guess that the receiver has been heat treated for shock (rather soft), while the carrier stop has been treated for wear (very hard). This is not a good combination for this application. You can also see the metal shavings that this was creating. One solution to this problem would be to case-harden this area, and I suppose it could be done, but it would be very hard to reach.

Thinking back to the difficulty I had with the carrier stop and its strong spring gave me another idea that didn’t involve heating the receiver. Take down of the carrier stop was in order. Driving out the directional carrier-stop pin and controlling the stop, I removed the stop and its spring. I was banking on this spring being a lot stronger than it needed to be. You’ve probably figured out by now where I’m going with this. Next I retrieved my Brownells master spring kit.

These springs are ready to be put in service. I chose one that matched the diameter of the one furnished, only half as strong, and cut it to length. This spring has to apply a great deal of force. The carrier should move smoothly without a lot of friction. It should also not cut a trench! I was betting on this as the cause of the carrier failure. Before I reassembled, I deburred the stop hole with apiece of emery cloth, also polishing the tip of the stop.

I cleaned up the burrs at the trench in the receiver and gave it a little polish. I also put a little dab of gun grease on the spring on reassembly of the carrier stop. As you can see in the photo at the bottom of page 22, the carrier-stop spring was not the only modification that the carrier received. (Now we’re coming down the home stretch.) The cartridge rims jamming in the cartridge guides can sometimes be traced to loose guide screws, but not in this instance.

First off, the Model 92 has an action that is extremely cartridge-dimension sensitive. Com

paring the 45 Colt cartridge to the .454 Casull, we find that they share the same rim diameter of .512 inch, but the overall length of the Colt cartridge is 1.600 inches, while the Casull is 1.770. A difference of .170 inch might not seem like much, but to this action, it is. Also keep in mind that rim diameters will vary from one manufacturer to the next. The rim should line up with the guide grooves before it starts to climb the slope, and make light contact with the guides, evenly and without binding.

Guide grooves should be slick, not rough, and the ejector face should be slick. The guide grooves on this model were rough, and polishing was in order. The ejector face got the same treatment. The front slope on these guides were a little steep, in my opinion. Trying to change the slope angle with a file would be risky, This solution may not be elegant, but it works. because the width of the groove is also critical. I had to find away to change the angle of the cartridge being fed into the chamber.

This is where the overall cartridge length becomes important. Remember that .170 difference in overall length? The cartridge pitch was great enough that the nose of the bullet was striking the top of the chamber mouth. A little experiment was in order that called for reassembly of the firearm. I cut three strips of duct tape and started to build up the top of the carrier. The duct tape was .008 thick.

I placed two strips on top, I also placed a strip on top of the carrier-cartridge stop to shift the cartridge forward a bit. Loading a dummy cartridge into the mag, I gave her a try. Lo and behold, she chambered with no difficulty. To make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I repeated the exercise several times. Well, what have I managed to do here?

What I believe happened is that I raised and shifted the cartridge enough to where it engages the guides a little higher on the slope, thereby Here, the carrier stop has cut a "trench" into the receiver wall. decreasing the pitch of the cartridge. I wanted something a little more permanent than duct tape. Referring to the photo at the bottom of the page, you can readily see what was done here. What I used was steel shim stock, overlapping two pieces cut to size, .005 on the bottom and .010 on top.

These could be sweat soldered in place, but I chose to glue mine with Acraglas epoxy, a very strong bonding agent available from Brownells. To do this, you have to clean the top surface of the carrier well, removing all bluing before soldering or applying epoxy. The forward edge must be tapered so the cartridge rims don’t hang up. The chamber mouth on this carbine had a very sharp edge, and bullet noses will hang up on this.

Occasionally you’ll run into one of these actions that will need adjustment for the shell you’re trying to feed it, no matter what the caliber. This Puma still had a couple other problems that needed to be taken care of. The machining on the bolt face looked like it had been done with a dull cutter—metal chips and burrs galore, and then there was the brass-eating extractor that rendered the brass useless. But these matters were relatively simple to cure.

Conclusions The Winchester 1892 was noted for its reliability, as long it was fed the correct fodder. Stray too far away from its cartridge-specific dimensions and you’ll run into trouble. The Rossi Puma M92 that I worked on—a Winchester clone—has been back in service for a little over a year now, with no more complaints. I suspect that this .454 version of the carbine was of early production. Even so, I don’t think it should have been shipped in that condition.

Then again, if all firearms were perfect, there would be no need for gunsmiths. ■