After receiving a 44 Mag barrel from RossiUSA, I was hot to trot to shoot it. Once at the bench with the new barrel I started to experience a couple of issues; the safety was having a tough time moving between the two positions and the rifle was experiencing some vertical stringing.
I pulled the rifle apart at the bench and looked closely at what few parts there are. What I found was that the channeled recess in the base of the barrel was full of "packing crud" that I had not cleaned out. This is the channel that contains the extractor lever and spring. Once cleaned and oiled, it appeared that the lever was in a bind. I thought about removing the pin and parts to polish the channel but decided to pack the channel with 320 grit valve grinding compound and then work the lever back and forth manually to see if that would mate the parts to one another.
Manipulating the extractor and extractor lever is tough but using a flat blade screw driver will help. This first photo shows how to "cock" the extractor. Place the blade of the screw driver between the part and your finger and apply the pressure. You will hear the "click" of the extractor lever moving into position. You will notice that the channel is full of polishing compound.
This photo shows the problem that I encountered and which I hoped to correct. The lever should be flush in the channel but the aft end of the lever is slightly exposed. This is directly related to the vertical stringing I was seeing down range. As the action was closed, it was locking but was not achieving a complete seat. In the photo below the slight angle of the lever at rest is best observed against the blade of the screw driver.
I started to work the extractor lever back and forth by "cocking" the extractor as I did in the first photo and then applying pressure to the aft end of the extractor lever. Notice in the photo below that the extractor is cocked.
Pushing against the extractor lever has released the extractor in the photo below.
I worked the extractor/extractor lever back and forth an arbitrary 25 times while keeping it full of polishing compound and then flushed it, lubed it, and put the rifle back together. That was all it took! The safety now functioned properly and the vertical shot stringing down range was ELIMINATED![hr][/hr][hr][/hr]The Forearm
I've also invested some ammo looking at the effects of forearm tension and the use of an o-ring that is commonly place between the forearm and barrel of the H&Rs. My advice, against my three barrels, is don't bother. In every case of messing with forearm fit, the accuracy downrange (tested at 100 & 200 yards) is always between with nothing between the two parts. Tighten the forearm attachment screw down to the stop, Rossi has done their homework on the fit. I am concerned with wear of the forearm wood against the metal washer that is between the forearm and screw with the hammering of the heavy recoil of my 444 Marlin and 45-70 Govt barrels. I placed a thin rubber washer between the washer and wood with no affect on the accuracy.[hr][/hr][hr][/hr]The Buttstock
If you want to induce horizontal shot stringing, reduce the tension on the Stock/Receiver Screw. Anything less than solid tight immediately induces stringing.
As a note I did not get a Wizard specific Owner's Manual with my rifle but a Single Shot manual instead. The stock/receiver screw (allen head screw) on the Wizard is accessed through the pistol grip cap versus the butt stock of the Single Shot series (1/2" hex head bolt).
). 
) was giving me ragged-hole 3-shot groups @ 50 yards with the Big Green 405 grain factory ammo off sandbags over the factory irons.
