Puma M92 .357 Mini-Review

As stated previously, I bought a Puma M92 in .357 mag (imported by LSI). That evening, Dick, L, and I took it out to T's to wring it out. What is the verdict?

This gun is a BLAST! Its light weight and short overall length (~33.5") make it easily the handiest rifle I own.

It fed FMJ truncated cone 38 spl. with no problems. Unfortunately, the only .357 we had on hand was some old Hydra-shock that Dick had lying around. We ran a few rounds of it through the gun, which seemed to be a bit finicky with this cartridge. The recoil, even with full house defensive .357 is negligible.

On the down side, the sights were difficult to see against any dark background and hit a few inches high at ~20-25 feet. In order to remedy this, I ordered a new front sight with brass bead and a Marble rear sight. What I didn't know is that Rossi seems to have decided to use a completely different dovetail for their sights than EVERYONE ELSE IN THE GUN INDUSTRY! Yeah, I'm a bit miffed about that. Usually lever-action rifles utilize a 3/8" dovetail for both the front and rear sight. A bit of searching turned up that Rossi's dovetails are slightly larger which I confirmed when the front sight slid all the way through the barrel dovetail.

At any rate, I've purchased a Williams FP-94/36 receiver peep sight. It should allow me to fairly easily adjust for changes between ammo types. Now I just need to get the receiver drilled and tapped for the sight. This sight should also make it easier to adjust for having a suppressor on the barrel. I'm seriously jonesing to have this thing set up for a suppressor, especially after seeing the job this guy did on a 44 spl. Uberti 1873. To use a slightly out-of-date pop culture phrase: "That's hot."

Right now, I'm still up in the air as to specifics on the idea but I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna have to get the mag tube set back slightly in addition to having the barrel threaded. And I don't know of any local gunsmiths who aren't just swamped who are capable of doing this kind of work.

I'm currently looking at these two suppressors: AWC's Titanium Abraxas and Yankee Hill Machine's Wraith QD combo.

The advantage to the Abraxas is size. It's only 5.7 inches in overall length and weighs in at 3.3 ounces. The Wraith's stats are 7.5 OAL and 5.8 ounces. I'm also curious as to whether the Abraxas will need to have the mag tube set back. In the picture on AWC's website, it appears that there is a stainless sleeve that threads onto the barrel that is significantly reduced in diameter compared to the suppressor body.

The Wraith's advantage is ability to remove the suppressor easily. This could come in handy on occasion but I'm not sure if it's worth having that crazy-looking flash suppressor on the end of the barrel when the suppressor isn't attached. The only real concern I have is that a suppressor might not be legal for hunting. I've given Arkansas' state hunting regulations a cursory glance and didn't see anything on the subject but I'm thinking it's probably not permitted. And even if it is, I'd probably have a hard time explaining that to a G&F officer.

Anyway, that's my short review and hazy future plans for this little carbine. I'll have a few more short reviews once I get in a few more of the items I have on order and get the Williams peep attached.