Nuthin' fancy - just Nice Little Leverguns...

[AJMD429]

The 16" Rossi leverguns are just so NICE; I've managed to get hold of one in 357 Mag, 44 Mag, and 45 Colt, and like a set of triplets, I don't think I could say which one I like the most.

Light weight, almost as 'handy' as a large handgun, but more accurate due to being able to shoulder-fire them, and a wide spectrum of loads can be used. What's not to like...?

With 38 Special loads and Marble's 'Bullseye' sights, this one is always the first 'center-fire' rifle I have my non-shooter friends learn to shoot. Even newbie shooters have no trouble ringing the 6" gong at 50 yards with it.

[gamekeeper]

I wish I still had my SS .357 Rossi...

[JayF in AZ]

I've been thinking about getting one. Does yours have the safety? Did you get rid of it if it does?

And what's that white stuff on the ground???

[AJMD429]

I've been thinking about getting one. Does yours have the safety? Did you get rid of it if it does?

I used NKJ's 'button' replacement (considered an accidental drop of JB-Weld or epoxy to hold the factory safety in position). I haven't put the 'button' on all my Rossi's, because my 24" octagonals are more just 'fun guns' for target shooting or hunting, and I don't hunt things that can kill me if the safety's on by mistake.

I really don't know which one is my favorite:

• the 357 Mag is so quiet with 38 Specials, and easy to shoot that it just seems like the 16" 32-20 I'd love to have, but I know that stepping up to hot 180-grain thumpers or speedy 125-grain two-leg-predator loads is easy to do.
  
  the 45 Colt is barely louder and also offers even more 'thump' when needed, and offers a cartridge that has even more 'nostalga' than a 32-20.
  
  the 44 Mag is maybe the most 'practical' in that I have more 'companion' handguns for it than I do with the 45 Colt.

All I know is the 16" ones seem to sacrifice nothing vs. the 20" or 24" that I miss, other than my 24" models happen to be old-fashioned-looking octagonals and are set up with tang sights. They hold 8 rounds vs. the 24" holding 12 rounds. The 'compromise' 20" ones are perhaps more standard and I put Williams FP sights on them to allow a bit more precise sight-adjustments than the 16" ones with Marbles Bullseye sights, but all-in-all, I prefer the balance of the 16" ones unless I really feel I need that bit of extra velocity and bit of extra sighting radius.

Since the 16" ones seem the best 'woods-walking' guns, and the 24" models the best 'range/target' guns, I've started morphing the 20" ones into "Night Scout" guns, and setting up the 16" ones with the Marbles Bullseye sights.

[AJMD429]

...and of course every levergun has to have a 'companion' wheelgun...

[octagon]

Doc what is the recoil like on the .44 lever? I have considered getting one for a pig gun for the Boy to maybe grow into... He is only 12 and about a 100 lbs. How might it compare to a 170 grain 30-30?

[3leggedturtle]

Doc what is the recoil like on the .44 lever? I have considered getting one for a pig gun for the Boy to maybe grow into... He is only 12 and about a 100 lbs. How might it compare to a 170 grain 30-30?

i shoot a 16" 45 Colt. Using a 255gr RNFP at 1550fps the steel buttplate hits yer shoulder enough so that I only do 10-15 rounds off the bench.

Doc I really would like a 16" SS in 357. When I get back to reality in a few months.

[piller]

Doc, fancy is not necessary for a working tool. I like the Rossi I have, and it is not fancy. I am afraid that If I bought a fancy firearm, it would be a safe queen. I like the idea of having a leveraction firearm that shoots the same cartridge as the pistol I am carrying with it. That idea is pretty old, and has worked since at least 100 years before I was born.

[Streetstar]

Doc what is the recoil like on the .44 lever? I have considered getting one for a pig gun for the Boy to maybe grow into... He is only 12 and about a 100 lbs. How might it compare to a 170 grain 30-30?

I cant speak for the Rossi firsthand, but i recently sold a Marlin .44 ---- it had a stock MArlin flat plastic buttplate ---- One of the reasons i sold it was the recoil.
Now before anyone calls me a nancy, -- i will add that the recoil is not bad for a hunting rifle , - but it was noticeably a little bit sharper than a 30-30 with an equivalent plastic buttplate ------ but part of the fun for me with a pistol caliber carbine is plinking , and if i am emptying the magazine in fairly rapid succession at a 50 yard berm full of spinners and clay birds, -- it would be an irritance after a box of cartridges (not pain, but an irrritance - )
I hadnt properly geared up for reloading .44's , so all i shot were full house factory loads -- if i reloaded for it, i could very well have loaded up some lighter spec loads for the type of shooting i was doing, -- but as it was, it wasnt a fun gun for me, so i sold it and kept my .45 Colt carbine instead

It didnt help that it was a 4-5" gun at 100 yards either, for me (which is typical -- and probably acceptable for what you'd hunt with it )

If i already had a .44 pistol or two and was geared up to handload for it, i'd probably like it as much as my .45's --- but i didnt

[C. Cash]

All very nice, and versatile. I have been really impressed with the heavy cast 180's in 357 Mag. of late. Not much it wouldn't stop it seems to me.

[Ysabel Kid]

Sounds like great triplets to me!

[CowboyTutt]

Nice "triplets" Doc! Rossi makes a good "every day companion" rifle. -Tutt

[AJMD429]

Doc what is the recoil like on the .44 lever? I have considered getting one for a pig gun for the Boy to maybe grow into... He is only 12 and about a 100 lbs. How might it compare to a 170 grain 30-30?

I am for whatever reason not particularly recoil-sensitive, so I don't really have any guns I consider very bothersome, aside from my breakopen 12 gauge shooting slugs (Ouch...!), so I can't really answer that.

HOWEVER, I can say the 357 Mag version to me is barely distinguishable from a 22 LR, nor is the 45 Colt one if I'm using "Cowboy" loads. I don't use reduced loads in the 44 Mag, but I'm sure 44 Special-level loads would have virtually no recoil. When my daughter was learning to shoot, she preferred 44 Specials in my Marlin to 180 grain 357 Mags out of a Marlin 357, but keep in mind in the Marlin 1894's, the 357 Mag is a light gun like the Rossi 16" ones, vs. the 44 Mag is a 20" and much heavier gun.

[octagon]

Doc I just got a bad feeling that I asked you this exact Same question a year or two ago. At age 50, I am much to young to be afflicted with OFS, and yet I may not remember tomorrow, a blessing after all...Right?

[vancelw]

Doc I just got a bad feeling that I asked you this exact Same question a year or two ago. At age 50, I am much to young to be afflicted with OFS, and yet I may not remember tomorrow, a blessing after all...Right?

You got anything better to be doing right now? I hate it when that happens, especially if the wife witnesses it

[Panzercat]

Stop it! Just stop tempting me with Rossi levers! I want a .454 soooooo bad, but my last experience with them was... substandard! Dang you! Why can't somebody else make a .454 lever?! I'd kill for a pistol caliber mossberg lever! Grrlrlrlrhrhrlrrrlrlrlrlrlrrrrllll!!!

But really, I'm starting to look at a Taurus Raging Bull in 8in to get over my 454 fixation, then sending the cylinder off to be worked for .45acp on moon clips as well. Hmm, 6" or 8".... Choices, choices...