Who has a Rossi 44 or 45 with 24" barrel?

[gundownunder]

I think I need another rifle for CLAS pistol and rifle matches.
Our local club only allows cast bullets as we have mild steel targets.
I'm currently using a 357 Marlin cowboy which gets 1.5" at 50 yds with a 180 gr bullet.
I like the idea of a Rossi 44 or 45 as they are affordable to buy and cheap to reload.
Can they match my 357 for accuracy? I believe the 45s have an oversize chamber. Does that significantly effect case life, or can it be overcome by neck sizing only?

[Dan Cash]

I have a Rossi "Puma" rifle that is maybe 15 or 20 years old in .45 Colt. It is a neat looking rifle and functions very well but accuracy is nothing to brag about, at least with loads compatible with the Colt revolver. Chamber is oversize but can't say how much case life is reduced as my ammo is shot in both rifle and pistol. I don't have any significant case loss.

[rond]

I have the 20 inch in .45 and yes the chamber is oversized. It shoots very well, better than I can.

[Harter66]

I have the 20 inch in .45 and yes the chamber is oversized. It shoots very well, better than I can.

Me too .
The neck area is correct it just has a fat body . This is true of the pre safety and the 2013 in my control .

[Bzcraig]

I have a 24" 45LC and a 20" 44mag. With Stevegunz bolt safety replacement peep sight my 45 shot this 20 round group at 50yds.

[earlmck]

I have the 24" octagon bbl Rossi in 44 mag. Properly sized chamber so easy to load for. A bit picky in the COAL department, so doesn't give me a lot of leeway for bullet seating. And it doesn't like the 300 grain LFN bullet that is my favorite in the RedHawk revolver which was a disappointment. But it does fairly decent with lighter bullets, though I don't have one that would equal your 357 results (yet). 'Tis a beauty to fire off-hand, though -- one of my favorites for tin-can blasting.

[Ed in North Texas]

I also have a 24" octagon .45 Colt, new in 2015. No evidence of oversized chamber in fired cases.

[w5pv]

My Rossi 24 inch barrel in the 45C shoots closer that I can hold it,about 1" at 50 yards and everything that I have shot with it has fell like a sack of rocks.Love it Standard 255 grain bullet and I forget what powder I loaded with but I never load heavy loads.

[holsterguy]

Not sure if this counts as to your caliber ?, but I have a 24" rossi octagon rifle, blue and cch, in 44-40. Very accurate.

[Bzcraig]

My Rossi does have an oversized chamber which I missed until I read a thread here about it and compared my fired brass to new brass and brass resized in my Lee carbide sizer. Got the steel RCBS sizer which will not over work the brass like a carbide sizer will.

[runfiverun]

I have both.
the 44 is silver the 45 is blue that's how I tell them apart.
other than that they get the same powder loads and reloaded the same way.

[The Ozzman]

Hi mate.

Accuracy is generally no issue with the Rossi rifles, they perform fine and even better with some tweaking. There are a couple of websites/guides out there about physical modifications one can do to these lever guns to improve accuracy.

My gun has issues due to a barrel problem that was done by the previous owner. Unfortunate because it is the 24 inch barrel, half round, half octagonal. It is fine for western action though.

As for the chambers, mine does seem to split a few more cases than normal, I would imagine that if you could just neck size this might help. I have never cast mine or anything, nor have I heard too many complaints with the chamber from others.

Note; mine is an older manufacture, I have a felling that on new/newer ones have better chambers.

Cheerio

[gundownunder]

Thanks guys.
From the comments I'm reading it sounds like the 45s have better accuracy than the 44s, or is it just that there are more 45s out there.
As for loads, I will need to load up a bit as I plan to use the rifle out to 200 yds for CLAS, and that would take a lot of sight adjustment with a heavy bullet and an anemic powder load.

[hornady308]

My 44 is more accurate than my 45 with cast bullets. The 45 has an oversized chamber that can handle .456" bullets, yet the bore slugs at .4515" and can be very picky about the bullets designs it likes. On the other hand, the 44 has never met a bullet design it didn't like and does very well with everything from the Lee 429-200-rf to the Lee C430-310-rf at 100 yards.