Rossi 357 Grouping Problem

[northmn]

At first I thought it was the heavier bullets but I noticed a trend in that my 357 Rossi would hit the black and move up the paper in subsequent shots. It does this with the Lee 358 rnfp, the Lee 150 rn and 125 gr jacketed. A gunsmith told me one time when he sighted in 94's that he would shoot one or two and let them cool as the barrel rings played hob with their accuracy. To save me some time and possible screw ups, has anyone else fixed this problem? It does it with all loads just worse with the hot ones. The vertical string is almost a straight line so its is shooting OK right to left whcih would not be a stabiliztion problem. I did loosen the barrel band screws and at least hit the black three times in a row. It would walk maybe 5 inches before.

DP

[fecmech]

Is the barrel band touching the barrel at all?? If it is relieve it so it does not. On my carbine the barrel groove for the band screw was so tight that after removing the screw I could not start it in the threads on the band. I had to take a needle file and clearance the groove so that the screw would not interfere with the barrel and go straight to the hole in the band. You might also check the magazine tip screw by backing it out a hair. Good luck. Nick

[Jeff H]

......On my carbine the barrel groove for the band screw was so tight that after removing the screw I could not start it in the threads on the band. I had to take a needle file and clearance the groove so that the screw would not interfere with the barrel and go straight to the hole in the band. You might also check the magazine tip screw by backing it out a hair. Good luck. Nick

Mine was like that too. Don't know HOW they got it in there to begin with.
I don't know if it made a difference in groups because I did it before I shot past 25 yards.

[wrangler]

Having the same problems with my .357. After firing about 6 shots the barrel gets hot in the last half and shots start to scatter.Tried 5 different boolits 3 different powders and varied the loads.The barrel slugs at .355 . Then I took the magazine off and it shot well. Am lapping the bands but so far not much improvement. It's new and I haven't had this much trouble wuth a Rossi before. Had a good one but sold it a few years ago [dumb] and the guy won't sell it back.

[northmn]

I have not had a chance to take it out but the forestock fitted the barrel so tight it just snapped off. I lossened that fit as it still holds tight to the magazine. Have not had a chance to take it out since doing that, but it was a tight fit. If I could get a good group with 5-6 shots I would call it fixed. Mine will shoot the first five in about a 5 inch string at 50-75 yards with a milder load. It walks with all loads to varying degrees. A hotter load will really make it scatter them upwards. I tried a 158 grain bullet chronographed at 1700+ and thought it was the bullet. It settles doen at 1400 to a more reasonable group but still walks. Another bullet does the same thing. I may have to lap the barrel bands also.

DP

[northmn]

Loosening the forestock seemed to have helped. I can now get about as good of a group as I can expect with the iron sights and older eyes. Elevation is not so much pronounced. I think a combiantion of the tight forestock and the barrel rings were the cause. I am now wondering if I needed to do so much work on the rear sight. Right now the load I tried is low at one setting and high at the other.

DP

[Jeff H]

When I took my fore end off, it sort of snapped on too.

I would have considered relieving the barrel channel a bit, but there's not a lot of wood there to begin with. The web between the barrel channel and the nmag tube hole is cracked from one end to the other as well.

I think my barrel is reinforcing my fore end.

I am glad you have been posting your findings. When I take mine apart again, it will be getting tuned up and some "wood" work done to it to shore up the balsa wood they used.

If in the interim, it desplays any vertical stringing, I will consider doing more. My barrel band is only touching on the sides and I almost bet that if I backed off of the screw it would open up. If not, I may just relieve that too.

I have been resting as much of the action as possible and as little of the fore end as possible on the bag though and that may be helping some.

[northmn]

Mine has a "crack" between the magazine and barrel, but as long as it is length wise and still supporst the magazine I see no harm in it. I did loosen the barrel bands and need to lock tight the settings. I will have to find a load that hits to the sight settings now. Most of the stock pressure against the barrel was on the sides.

DP

[northmn]

I found another little problem that should have slapped me in the face. I ahd several boxes of small rifle magnum primers and no rifle that uses them so I was using them with powders like 2400 which can use magnum primers. It shoots much better with plain old small pistol primers. There was another thread where some had good results with rifle primers in a 357 rifle, I do not. Should have caught it quicker.

DP

[Farmall]

One thing I do when evaluating levergun accuracy, is to always keep the magazine full, topping it off after each shot. I find as it empties, the harmonics must change, with resultant scattering of shots.

Don't know if there is anything to this or not....but it seems to have made a difference when shooting from a rest.

Andy

[northmn]

I do just the opposite and rarely carry a full magazine. Mostly a couple in the mag and one in the chamber. Difference could contribute to what you are saying. Some of the work I did on the forearm seemed to help but I was not getting what I would call decent accuracy afterwards.

DP

[robertbank]

If you are shooting from a bench you might try ensuring your rest is as close to the receiver as possible. This will avoid any chance of either the mag tube or forearm from effecting the harmonics of the barrel from pressure of the gun on the rest.

Crazy I know but it worked for me with my #4 Longbranch and it might tighten up groups in the Rossi.

Take Care

Bob

[hiram]

Check this. I did what I could. I am still developing a load for my 94 so I can't say how much it helped but I got less than an inch at 50yds with the rd 165 boolit with 7-10 gr unique.

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/paco/chapter23.htm

[DJ1]

I bought my daughter a 357 Rossi a few years ago for SASS competion. I can say the accuracy has been suprising. The biggest issue was the fit and machining. I spent several days shimming to get it to feed, polishing poorly finished surfaces, and doing a trigger job.

If I had it to do all over I would have gotten her the Marlin. It is running fine now and she likes it so I guess that is all that matters.

[northmn]

Mine funstions very well with a variety of bullets, but it took a bit of tinkering to get it to shoot. I di quite a bit of what was reffered to in Hirams post. The screw for the forearm band goes through a notch in the barrel. Relieving the bands a bit and freefloating the forearm helped. I just got stubborn and wanted to use up the magnum rifle primers. It jsut plains shoots better with standard primers.

DP

[Four Fingers of Death]

Mine groups the boolits ok, but I wish it would group the brass better, it flicks it forward 6-8' and in an arc of about 150degrees. Real bear to recover on the range, all over the haybales :( Good job it is cheap!).

[northmn]

Mine does have positive extraction also. The Marlin's seem to fall at your feet, where the Rossi really kicks them.

DP

[fecmech]

Mine does have positive extraction also. The Marlin's seem to fall at your feet, where the Rossi really kicks them.

DP

If you change the ejector spring they will fall right next to you. It will also smooth the action up as that's where the resistance comes from as you close the lever. I went down to my local Ace hardware store with my stock ejector spring and picked out one the same size with about half the wire thickness.