Range Report .357 Mag Rossi Lever Gun

[WyrTwister]

 Range Report .357 Mag Rossi Lever Gun
I am turning in to a wuss ( or more of one ) in my old age . And even more of a cheapbastard , as Geoff coined the term .

I have migrated down form a .45-70 lever gun to a .44 Mag to a .45 LC . ( Each step down has less recoil and burns less powder and lead . )

Tuesday I picked up a Rossi .357 Mag lever gun , from lay-a-way .

Loaded the following in .38 Special brass ;

~ 150 grain Lee RNL seated to ~ .357 OAL - Feed great

~ 150 grain Lee SWC seated to ~ .357 OAL - Had to hand feed them , one at a time

~ 150 grain Lee SWC seated to ~ .38 Special OAL - Feed OK , but not quire as good as the RNL

All were loaded with ~ 13 grains of AA # 9

Since I do not own a .38 Special gun , I am not too worried about possessing .38 brass loaded to above .38 Special pressures .

If I owned a .38 Special , it would probably be a different story .

I rested but did not shoot some factory .38's .

Accuracy ? Probably about as good as my vision permits . We shot at 200 meter rams .

I need to file down the front sight , I was close to or at the top notch on the front sight . Had to do the same with the .45 LC Rossi . In fact , it needs a little more filing , too . No big deal .

No idea of the velocity , did not set up the chrony .

The .357 would knock down a ram , but not every time . I suspect , if it hit it high ?

A good time was had by all . :-)

You all ought to try this ! :-)

God bless
Wyr

[Dee]

Have had the Navy Arms "Deluxe" version of the Rossi 357 mag with a 24" octagon barrel for about 6 years. Ain't for sale. I put a Lyman receiver sight just like the one on my Model 94 Winchester, and a XS post front sight also like the one on the 94. They are sighted in the same, just at different ranges.
I also went thru the 4570 Cowboys, the bolt guns, ect. and sold them all keeping my 53 year old Winchester I've had since 1958 (bought new), and the Rossi along with a couple of 22s, and a 223 auto.

[LocnLod]

I've got the 24" Octagon barrelled Rossi in .357 as well.  I got it for Cowboy Lever action silhouette (up to 100 yds) and swinging rams @200yds.  I selected that model and caliber based on price, that I already had dies and brass for that caliber, the barrel length and the caliber can work in both matches.  Though as I found out the other weekend the hits on the 200yd ram can be hard for the spotters to see when there are already a number of hits on it.
I put a Marbles 1/16 bead on the front, fold down rear sight and Marbles tang sight on it.  Then I noticed that my barrel is not sitting square in the receiver and it pointing quite a bit to the left.  So I ended up tapping the front sight over some and adjusting the tang sight most of the way over.

[jlchucker]

I got a trapper version of the Braztech 92 in 357 last Christmas. I bought it as a cast-bullet plinker, and I've just now had time to try it out. Mine feeds jacketed hollowpoints and cast semiwadcutters in 357 just fine.  I have an abundance of used 38 special brass, given to me by a realtor who was selling one of his apartment buildings where a box of around 1000 cases was left over.  I loaded some up with the Lee 125 grain bullet, and had nothing but feeding problems. After lengthy discussions with my gunsmith, viewing Nate Kiowa Jones' DVD, and exchanging emails with Nate, I tried seating these out to 1.498 inches OAL and crimping them into the upper edge of the lube groove, the jamming problem vanished and the gun feeds fine.  I find that the little Rossi is a fun gun to shoot, and mine is minute-of-clay-pigeon-fragment accurate at the 50 yard berm at my gun club.  I didn't file the front sight like you did, but replaced both front and rear with Marble's ones--a semibuckhorn rear (rifle length) and a brass bead front. The Braztech Rossi's have standard 3/8 dovetails so the latter was easy.

Nate Kiowa Jones' DVD is well worth owning.  By the way--he filmed it using a 357 caliber carbine for demo--and in the video he gets it to feed 38 specials through just fine and dandy.