Thread: I love my Rossi .357 levergun, but I don't shoot well with it.

Heh, Barefoot, you have a way with words

I don't have a .308 now, but I might be tempted to get another one (a threaded Bergara would be nice)... but I must investigate those projectiles.

I had one new in 44mag...it didnt function/ cycle most of the time and was replaced with another new (cant fault the service there) one in 44mag again...it went alright I spos shooting 4-6 inch groups at 100y with factory irons and factory ammo.
Probably would have gone better with a scope and handloads.

I prefer the .44 mag but mine was a 94 trapper Winchester.
I have a mate who brought a new Rossi in 44 mag and it was a shocker. Huge spread at 50mtrs, you wouldn't hit a goat.
He thought it was his shooting but I tried it as well and was getting some huge flyers.
Ended up taking it back to the shop who forwarded it to a gunsmith who discovered the barrel was closer to 45 cal than 44.
Suppliers replaced entire rifle for free and the next was much better but still no great shooter past 100.
4-5 inch group on a good day which is ok on a bush round / rifle...gets the job done.

Changing the rear sight to an apeture from the original semi buckhorn style will give a longer sight radius and better sight picture.
The crappy factory sights on most lever actions 94s included are what gives them a reputation for being close range numbers only. An apeture would half your groups at least based on my experience.
With your rossi do you reload or use factory? Factory is loaded to pistol pressure and you can jazz it up heaps for a rifle by hand loading. Having said that its got more grunt than the 32/20 and that works ok!

Did you sell the trapper viper?always wanted one but they are rare as rocking horse shit.

Originally Posted by Coote

So PommyMcPomFace, is your .44 a Rossi?

Bergara.

Originally Posted by The bomb

Did you sell the trapper viper?always wanted one but they are rare as rocking horse shit.

Yeah I did but for another reason, the barrel wasn't screwed true into the receiver.
It was the angle eject model so I mounted a low power scope but ran out of adjustment to the left, had me totally buggered.
Rang a gunsmith and explained it and he straight away said it's shooting way off to the right, which it was.
It was about the 8-9th one he had seen like it. Didn't matter with iron sights as both the rear and fore sight are barrel mounted but put a scope on ( receiver mounted ) and the barrel is way off going right and the scope is straight ahead on the reciever and you run out of scope adjustment to the left. Once I l knew and looked down the receiver the barrel was bloody miles out of alignment.
No wonder Winchester went broke producing shit like that, check one before you buy it.
Shame as it was a very cool little gun, joy to carry.

i have the 44 mag version. shoots well but 100m is the absolute limit on it.

I would like to have aperture sights on a couple of my rifles, including this one, but in this case I might just be flogging a dead horse.

Yesterday I wondered if the poor grouping was mainly my fault. I don't wear glasses, but I find that sometimes things aren't so clear when I'm using open sights. I haven't done as much regular shooting in latter years, but I hope to remedy that. I'm a believer that we can exercise our eyes and improve how we see (eg the 'Bates Method' if anyone is interested)... so I'm hoping to keep shooting - and improving - for years to come.

A few years back I came across 'pinhole glasses' which really are an interesting thing. You can't drive wearing them, but you can read and, as I found out yesterday, you can shoot with them. While shooting they are at an angle to the target which doesn't help, but they did improve the sharpness of what I was looking at. Sometimes in certain light conditions and especially with high-contrast targets I see, without the glasses, a second 'ghost' image of the target or foresight. I generally still shoot well enough in such conditions, and an aperture would probably reduce or eliminate this problem... but yesterday I wanted to reassure myself of my abilities.

I have an Anschutz .22 repeater with open sights. The foresight isn't ideal for target shooting because I've sloped the back of it and covered it in white nail polish... but it was the most suitable rifle for the test. Leaning over my car bonnet and using the pinhole glasses I got an encouraging group at 25 yards despite the less-than-perfect trigger and the old Norinco ammo which sometimes misfires.

I then shot a group of factory loads through the Rossi, and the results were not nearly as good.... I'm not sure how you define a group officially, but if you measure the holes centre to centre the group was probably just over 2 inches. Fine for short ranges in the bush, but not a sniper rifle.

Here are my pinhole glasses:

my one is in the in the 4" ish grouping at a hundred. 357 with the 16" barrel and quite square open sights, but it is circa late 80's early 90's vintage.
BUT the kicker is it does it with everything. Mate used it at the Kopara blackpowder club (using normal handloads though) and it put absolutely everything and a bunch of shots into that 4" group at a hundy. It was off center and a little low for him though otherwise he would've absolutely cleaned up-his words.
And I do only consider it a hundred meter gun. as far as I'm concerned its fine.

I had that exact rifle and loved it. I could reliably hit A4 paper at 75, but never did any better than that. It's the wrong kind of gun for anything but stiff bush and close up shots anyhow. Sights were crap though, the rear blade blocked out way too much. I tried to swap them for better sights and it was never quite right again.

It seems that my rifle isn't a whole lot different to other Rossi's out there. They seem to be tough and reliable, but not a long range match winner. Ideal for the bush.

Have you tried using a 357 with ballistic tips?

CH wrote an article in one of the latest guns n hunting mags about glasses for use with open sights.....similar type of theory as them pinhole glasses.....I saw a pair of those 25ish years ago they were great for reading a book out in bright sunlight too.

I've never tried ballistic tips in any caliber, but it seems they are good for extending the 'point blank' range. I am fairly busy for the foreseeable future, but I hope to do a whole lot of reloading and shooting before too long and ballistic tips would be a good thing to try.

I reckon those glasses might be good for competitive long range shooting where iron sights have to be used.