Renovating the Rossi

I've had this Rossi .357 Levergun that Paco gave me some years ago. It was accurate BUT so darn long that it was a pain! I mean .. 24" for a .357? That caliber gets most its power in 16 inches. AND IT WAS HEAVY!! And octagon barrel no less.

I started looking for a Rossi carbine barrel that I could replace the fishing pole barrel but man, they are scarce! I talked to Gary about me sending him the barrel and having him turn it down ... but then I got to thinking and decided to cut the octagon barrel just to see how it felt and worked.

After measuring I decided to cut it to 18"

I shortened the forend and then had to cut a dovetail for the hanger for the forend cap.

I shortened the magazine tube and spring. This is how much I had to cut.

I took the gun completely apart and slicked up the action. Rossi's are pretty rough inside sometimes and this one had a lot of boogers to remove.

I put it together and took it apart 20 or 30 times, cleaning up things and making the action smoother and getting it to feed correctly. It now feeds 38 Specials and .357 Magnums really slick ... even SWC bullets.

I cut a new dovetail for the front sight and now it's ready to go to the range and sight in.

The magazine holds 10 357's. The 18" barrel handles really nicely .. balances well in the hand and points quickly. It's enough barrel heavy that it seems to hold pretty steady offhand. I like it!