gday from down under. has anyone had experience shooting rossi lever action 357mag's in both the 20inch and 16inch barrel models? how do they stack up accuracy wise?

My experience with them has been excellent. I've got one of each barrel length, and while accuracy was mediocre at first using cast bullets, a little firelapping and each gun will shoot a ragged hole at 25 yards, and even with my tired eyes will shoot an inch or so at 50. The one gun that's outfitted with an aperture sight I can hold 2" at 100yards on demand with my pet .357 load:

BTB .358-185g FNGC/16.0g H110/WSPP/Rem or Starline Brass

Too, this tack driving load will deliver 1800+ fps out of the 20" barrel with this load.

While the accuracy is stellar in both guns, my preference for shooting is with the 20" gun, as it balances better and settles down steadier for those off-hand shots of 100+ yards. However, for quick handling, and carrying on the trapline or while just bumming the woods and field, it's hard to beat the portability of the 16" model, especially with a set of sling swivels and a sling installed.

I like them.

God Bless,

gday from down under. has anyone had experience shooting rossi lever action 357mag's in both the 20inch and 16inch barrel models? how do they stack up accuracy wise?

I got a 16" .357 late in the fall and it was too cold to really check accuracy. I did chrony the few rounds I fired and the velocity increase was impressive. These were a max load 158 gr. XTP's, and they were running at 1950 fps.

Marschall - what kind of peep sight is on yours and the price, if you don't mind?

hms365,

I drilled and tapped mine (easy and fast to do) for a Lyman 66 (model 94 designation on sight). the sight sits nice and low on the receiver, and actually required lowering the front sight a tad for best results. I installed the Lyman, because I set the adjusting screw for elevation so it dialed in my 185gFNGC .357 magnum loads dead on at 100 yards, then the adjustable index on the slider that's graduated in yardage, I set at zero for my pet .38 special load. Most of the time the peep remains set for the spcl loads, but when mags are in the rifle, it's a simple matter of depressing the adjustment slide release button, and lowering the elevator to contact the adjusting screw, and I know that I'm dead-nuts on with the magnum loading, without any guesswork. Put the .38 spcls back in the rifle, and simply readjust (via the same release button) to the zero index on the slider, and the rifles dialed in with my plinker loads once again. It's a neat, efficient system to have two yardage zeros, for two different loads using an aperture sight. Oh, and the screw-in-insert? It went in the junk drawer with about thirty others.... I like my ghost ring type sighting picture :D

God Bless,

I have one with the 16" barrel. It is probably my favorite gun and definetly my favorite rifle. It is accurate enough but what I really love is how it naturally points. I can hit an attacking coke can more times than not without the sights (assuming it is not too far out)