The Rossi Puma .480 Ruger

Guns Magazine, Dec, 2004 by Kevin Gibson

Even though Browning's Model 9:2 was created in the black powder era, the true genius of the design is that it's sound enough to be timeless.

Originally designed as a replacement for the 1873 Winchester, it was chambered for Winchester's popular .44-40, .38-40 and .3220. Smokeless powder came along and the gun took the higher pressures in stride as if it was built for smokeless from the get go. Then came the magnum era, and people wanted a lightweight, handy rifle to go with their new magnum revolvers. Some original 92's were re-barreled in .357 and Browning and Rossi manufactured new ones in both .357 and .44 Magnum with no perceivable change to the original design.

Super Magnums

Now we find ourselves in a new era of what 1 call the Super Magnums, with the likes of the .454 Casull .480 Ruger and .500 Smith & Wesson, and once again, the model 92 design is asked to step up. Let us not forget that this rifle was designed in 1891 to shoot a 200-grain .44 bullet at around 1,200 fps with something in the neighborhood of 14,000 psi of chamber pressure. So, is the old 92 design up to slinging a .475 diameter 325-grain bullet at 48,000 psi? The answer is a resounding yes.

The stainless steel Puma model 92 rifle from Legacy Sports in .480 Ruger is as handsome as a lever action carbine can get, with obvious attention to detail everywhere you look. This 92 wears a very thick 20-inch barrel with an even thicker magazine tube. The magazine tube has a removable spring mechanism, much like that found on tubular magazine .22s, which allows far loading through the tube, making the loading of the 9 round tube much easier than pushing them all through the traditional loading gate. The loading gate is still there, and is handy for topping off the magazine, but the big .480 is a tight fit. The magazine tube is threaded into the receiver so as not to work loose under recoil. Given the stout recoil and the heavy weight of the ammo, this is a very wise idea.

Keeping the lawyers happy, the Puma has a simple firing-pin-blocking safety on the top rear of the bolt that does not significantly change the design. One thing that did manage to get by the lawyers--and I'll appreciate no one sharing this with them--was a nice three-pound trigger with very little creep. Fully adjustable, fiber optic sights and a very well designed recoil pad let you know that this little howitzer is a business rifle that is intended for big game hunting, not just cowboy action shooting.

How It Shoots

The first order of business was to see how reliable this gun is. Extreme function drills were done by fully loading the rifle, placing it on safe, and then jerking the beck out of that lever, cycling rounds through as fast as I could to get it to hang up. After several tries, I gave up. It worked perfectly every time.

As expected, when this little carbine goes off, everyone knows it, especially the shooter. A good trigger and sights that stand out like an honest man in congress made for good results at the shooting bench (see accompanying charts). I was hoping to have more ammo on hand, but it just didn't work out that way. Regardless. I became quite fond of the Speer 275-grain Gold Dot Hollowpoint, as they tended to be a little easier on the shoulder from the bench. Handloads can push heavier bullets quite easily, but be ready to be pushed back equally.

As a backpacking gun in dangerous game country, this rifle would be tops. Or if you hunt large animals in close cover, the little .480 would be hard to beat. Me, I don't do much of either so I needed to find another use for this little cannon. So, I just blew the heck out of anything and everything I could think of to put down range. Yep, I found it's true niche--fun.