Buckshot
10-04-2016, 02:43 AM
http://www.fototime.com/1E3476AAA5405E2/standard.jpg
I happened to walk into the local Big 5 Sporting goods several years back, and per usual I always head for the gun section first. This rifle was in the rack with a sign stuck in the muzzle stating, "Mgr's unadvertised Special $399". I didn't know at the time if it was a good deal or not, so I drove home. Then got on the computer and checked around, and drove back down to the store and bought it.
http://www.fototime.com/219630625C79467/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/FFE087A5378E051/standard.jpg
The wood was much lighter in color, so some years down the road I used some Minwax Red Oak on it. In the right photo you can see that I broke the corners of the handguard. As bought they were sharp enough to be painful in recoil.
http://www.fototime.com/5F7D681A0D25094/standard.jpg
Some years later I bought this Uberti carbine rear sight. It was on Midway's clearance list, and is a very nice sight. While mine is a short rifle and not the carbine it looks nice and is a fine improvement. BTW, my rifle has a 16" twist. I'd heard somewhere that apparently Rossi rifled everything with a 30" twist. Plus I'd read in a couple places (here was one I think) where somebody had one in 38/357 and had mentioned that due to the slow 30" twist they shot better with lighter (shorter) slugs. My Rossi in 45 Colt does seem to have the slower twist however.
http://www.fototime.com/38B2FDAE04BEE1B/standard.jpg http://www.fototime.com/5985ED0F8F32566/standard.jpg
Everything on this piece was very well polished and blued. However one thing I simply couldn't stand was the original barrel band. It was simply a smooth oval over the barrel and around the stock. It was very thick over the barrel and had considerable windage between it and the wood of the forend. It simply looked too 'Kludgy' to belong on such a neat trim little rifle. So, out came the files and the Dremel Tool. I used a parting blade to cut a slit through the bottom. I pinched it together and then MiG welded it back together. This rally snugged it up on the handguard. In fact I had to do a bit of scrapping of the wood so it would fit back on.
After that I used files to put in the 'step' on either side to reduce it's OD. Ideally the step 'should' be at the top flats of the handguard, but the interior step was above that level, so then was the steps I had to create on the outside. Regardless it looks 100% better I think.
http://www.fototime.com/BD14211F2674C94/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/5A9FFAF4E7D64F6/standard.jpg
This is one of my favorite loads in this little rifle. It's a Lee 148gr Micro-Groove WC, and at this OAL it will load through the gate and function in the rifle. In the right photo you can see that it engraves well. About 50 yards with the iron sights is about it for me. It shoots very well indeed and if you can "Kiss Up" a ground squirrel it works right well. A central hit will generally launch the upper half of Mr Squirrel several feet into the air. They're very cheap to load, and lots of simple fun to shoot, regardless the target.
..................Buckshot
I happened to walk into the local Big 5 Sporting goods several years back, and per usual I always head for the gun section first. This rifle was in the rack with a sign stuck in the muzzle stating, "Mgr's unadvertised Special $399". I didn't know at the time if it was a good deal or not, so I drove home. Then got on the computer and checked around, and drove back down to the store and bought it.
http://www.fototime.com/219630625C79467/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/FFE087A5378E051/standard.jpg
The wood was much lighter in color, so some years down the road I used some Minwax Red Oak on it. In the right photo you can see that I broke the corners of the handguard. As bought they were sharp enough to be painful in recoil.
http://www.fototime.com/5F7D681A0D25094/standard.jpg
Some years later I bought this Uberti carbine rear sight. It was on Midway's clearance list, and is a very nice sight. While mine is a short rifle and not the carbine it looks nice and is a fine improvement. BTW, my rifle has a 16" twist. I'd heard somewhere that apparently Rossi rifled everything with a 30" twist. Plus I'd read in a couple places (here was one I think) where somebody had one in 38/357 and had mentioned that due to the slow 30" twist they shot better with lighter (shorter) slugs. My Rossi in 45 Colt does seem to have the slower twist however.
http://www.fototime.com/38B2FDAE04BEE1B/standard.jpg http://www.fototime.com/5985ED0F8F32566/standard.jpg
Everything on this piece was very well polished and blued. However one thing I simply couldn't stand was the original barrel band. It was simply a smooth oval over the barrel and around the stock. It was very thick over the barrel and had considerable windage between it and the wood of the forend. It simply looked too 'Kludgy' to belong on such a neat trim little rifle. So, out came the files and the Dremel Tool. I used a parting blade to cut a slit through the bottom. I pinched it together and then MiG welded it back together. This rally snugged it up on the handguard. In fact I had to do a bit of scrapping of the wood so it would fit back on.
After that I used files to put in the 'step' on either side to reduce it's OD. Ideally the step 'should' be at the top flats of the handguard, but the interior step was above that level, so then was the steps I had to create on the outside. Regardless it looks 100% better I think.
http://www.fototime.com/BD14211F2674C94/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/5A9FFAF4E7D64F6/standard.jpg
This is one of my favorite loads in this little rifle. It's a Lee 148gr Micro-Groove WC, and at this OAL it will load through the gate and function in the rifle. In the right photo you can see that it engraves well. About 50 yards with the iron sights is about it for me. It shoots very well indeed and if you can "Kiss Up" a ground squirrel it works right well. A central hit will generally launch the upper half of Mr Squirrel several feet into the air. They're very cheap to load, and lots of simple fun to shoot, regardless the target.
..................Buckshot