Rossi 44 Mag & 357 Mag Lever Action Rifles

Striper69 · Aug 28, 2016

I now have one of each.

I just put a red dot sight on the 44 Mag and zeroed it at 25 yards. I hand loaded bullets with 240 grain Hornady XTP Hollow Points and 25 grains of Win. 296. Bullseye groups so I think I'm going with that for deer hunting.

I'm waiting on a rail for the 357 to mount another red dot on it. I'll hand load 125 grain Hornady XTP Hollow Points for it this week. I should get the rail by the end of the week.

I'm going to switch back and forth between these 2 rifles for deer hunting. Our gun season starts on Oct. 13th.

Jimbob2.0 · Aug 28, 2016

They are good guns once you clean things up a little. I have both ad keep thinking about a .45LC since I rarely get to shoot my Winchester and Marlins.

Rossi's are great tools and field guns. My .357 Rossi carbine in stainless is my "tag along" gun most of the time when I go camping or traveling.

Kentucky Gun Company currently has blems in .45LC at a good price, you should think about one. .45LC is a great caliber, especially if you hand load.

DutchV · Aug 28, 2016

NOE Bullet Molds makes an excellent scout scope rail for the Rossi rifles. Apparently they got tired of the factory part being out of stock, and made their own.

Steve's Gunz ( http://stevesgunz.com/) has a DVD showing how to tune a Rossi. That's next on my list.

jimbobborg · Aug 29, 2016

Both Rossis should have come with a rail for attaching a red dot. At least my .357 did. And mine was fussy about ammunition. It wouldn't feed anything but RNFPs.

danb · Aug 29, 2016

Mine did not come with a rail for attaching a red dot. This must be a new thing.

Alphabrew · Aug 29, 2016

danb said:
Mine did not come with a rail for attaching a red dot. This must be a new thing.

^ Guess so. My dad bought me a Rossi 92 in .357 when I was a kid and it def does not have a rail on it.

jimbobborg · Aug 29, 2016

I purchased mine new two years ago. I had to take the rail off to get the rear sight on. Check your box, it may be in there already.

DutchV · Aug 29, 2016

My '92 stainless in 44 mag was ordered from Bud's Gun Shop in March. I checked the box again. There's no scope rail hiding in there; just the keys to that weird lock. Hence my post about the NOE rail.

Alan3413 · Aug 29, 2016

A rail on a lever gun?

*shudder*

S&W19 · Aug 29, 2016

Alan3413 said:
A rail on a lever gun?

*shudder*

Kinda agree on that. I have a 30-30 with an offset scope (bought it from somebody who was selling off his granpa's old guns), but my hanguns caliber carbines are iron sighted. Seems strange to fool with the perfectly historic simplicity of a lever gun by adding a rail.

mancheechee · Aug 31, 2016

I had one pre-safety 357 rossi i bought from a member, sold it when I got rid of 357 during consolidation of calibers. I also had bought second one from the member which was also a pre-safety 45LC Rossi which I will NEVER sell. It'll be passed down to one of my kids. The machining is perfect and smooth, bluing is beautiful and the action is far better than modern Rossi lever rifles. Today's Rossi levers are good if you work the action and get rid of the safety. I had a 70s JM Marlin and a modern JM Marlins and didn't care for them much and sold them. I really like how the Rossi lever ejects and how they feel on the shoulders.

oh, that pre safety Rossi 357? A coworker found out I was thinking about selling it. He came over, saw it, worked the action several times and offered me $750 for it...I was surprised and asked him if he was crazy and he said "I know these are hard to find in this great of condition"...so I couldn't say no. I ask him how it's shooting, every once in awhile, and he continues to report that it's the best shooting and smooth action lever he has owned. He also reports that people at the range are very surprised at the build quality and how well it shoots. Those pre-safety Rossi levers...snatch em up if you ever come across one in good shape.

My uncle goes hunting with a 45LC lever.

Striper69 · Sep 1, 2016

mancheechee said:
I had one pre-safety 357 rossi i bought from a member, sold it when I got rid of 357 during consolidation of calibers. I also had bought second one from the member which was also a pre-safety 45LC Rossi which I will NEVER sell. It'll be passed down to one of my kids. The machining is perfect and smooth, bluing is beautiful and the action is far better than modern Rossi lever rifles. Today's Rossi levers are good if you work the action and get rid of the safety. I had a 70s JM Marlin and a modern JM Marlins and didn't care for them much and sold them. I really like how the Rossi lever ejects and how they feel on the shoulders.

oh, that pre safety Rossi 357? A coworker found out I was thinking about selling it. He came over, saw it, worked the action several times and offered me $750 for it...I was surprised and asked him if he was crazy and he said "I know these are hard to find in this great of condition"...so I couldn't say no. I ask him how it's shooting, every once in awhile, and he continues to report that it's the best shooting and smooth action lever he has owned. He also reports that people at the range are very surprised at the build quality and how well it shoots. Those pre-safety Rossi levers...snatch em up if you ever come across one in good shape.

My uncle goes hunting with a 45LC lever.

My 44 Mag is a tack driver with 240 grain bullets and 25 grains of Win 296. I'm hoping the 357 will be the same with my handloads for it. I got the rail today and put a red dot on it. I'll take it to the range tomorrow.

Striper69 · Sep 1, 2016

Jimbob2.0 said:
They are good guns once you clean things up a little. I have both ad keep thinking about a .45LC since I rarely get to shoot my Winchester and Marlins.

Rossi's are great tools and field guns. My .357 Rossi carbine in stainless is my "tag along" gun most of the time when I go camping or traveling.

Kentucky Gun Company currently has blems in .45LC at a good price, you should think about one. .45LC is a great caliber, especially if you hand load.

I'll have to check on that 45LC and yes, I do handload. :party29:

Striper69 · Sep 1, 2016

S&W19 said:
Kinda agree on that. I have a 30-30 with an offset scope (bought it from somebody who was selling off his granpa's old guns), but my hanguns caliber carbines are iron sighted. Seems strange to fool with the perfectly historic simplicity of a lever gun by adding a rail.

You can't adjust the stock sights to even zero the gun at 25 yards so I had to use the red dot.

DutchV · Sep 1, 2016

Alan3413 said:
A rail on a lever gun?

*shudder*

My eyes are no longer young, and I've found that a scout scope makes a big difference over iron sights.

You can always reinstall the rear sight later. On a Rossi the scope mount holes are already there, hidden under the rear sight. So the switch is not permanent, and we aren't talking about a rare model anyway.

Striper69 · Sep 3, 2016

I got a red dot to put on it today (after 2 tries). I zeroed it at 25 yards with 158 grain bullets my neighbor kindly gave me since he no longer has a .357. I then went to a local store and bought a box of 158 grain bullets and loaded some of my own to try out tomorrow.

John from MD · Sep 3, 2016

I have a Rossi .44 Mag trapper that I got from Buds for a pig gun. I put a rail on it to use either a scout scope or red dot as my 65 year old eyes aren't as good as they used to be. The Rossi shoots better than most Marlins as it has a .429 - .430 bore where as most Marlins have .431 on up! That said, they do need a lot of polishing to get the action smooth. There are plenty of videos on line to show you how to do it.

If you cast your own, the Rossi is even more accurate with heavier bullets. Marlin's other problem was the 1 in 38 twist that they used was too slow. Rossi uses a 1 in 30 and will keep 300 grain bullets in a cloverleaf at 100 yards off the bench.

FYI, the red dot I use is a Burris Fastfire III. It is lightweight, has auto or manual dot brightness and can stand up to .44 Mag and 30-06 recoil. I have been using them since they came out and they have never failed.

Get the Rossi and you won't regret it.

DutchV · Sep 3, 2016

John from MD said:
That said, they do need a lot of polishing to get the action smooth. There are plenty of videos on line to show you how to do it.

I got the DVD and spring kit from Steve's Gunz. So that should do it, when I get time to mess with it.

I was very surprised that the stock trigger was so nice. No grit, and somewhat light for a factory trigger. Very acceptable as it comes.

Striper69 · Sep 5, 2016

I had to spray some Remington gun cleaner into the action because it was getting a bit sticky but that took care of the problem.

Bootknife · Sep 5, 2016

I just got a .44 SS at the end of Last Month What was the Link for Steve's Gunz? I used a Valve Grinding Paste in the .357 Rossi to Smooth it up when it was New and it worked Well.

Rossi 44 Mag & 357 Mag Lever Action Rifles

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