Rossi Rifleman

The more I shoot this rifle, the more I want it to be all it can be with cast bullets. From my chamber impression, this rifle is cut to the SAAMI 45-70 Govt spec but that spec does not serve the needs of heavy cast bullets in this cartridge. Here is what the cut looks like, the red oval is the area of the throat which there is basically none.



The rifle is timed to accept a 2.550" cartridge, it just cannot chamber a heavy cast bullet because of the case bulge. I ordered the Pacific Tool .458 Uni-Throater with a 3° taper. This is a pretty cool hand tool, over a plain Jane throat taper reamer, in that it allows you to establish the current cut and then move forward in .0005" increments while examining the cartridge chambering between each increment. Once you have the cut where you want it, the length can be locked so it is repeatable with the same model of firearm. Only thing that needs to come out is the bolt and extractor and you cut it with hand pressure.

This rifle continues to impress me with my daily testing but I want to be able to shoot my 300, 350, and 425-grain bullets at a 2.550" so I did something today that will start taking care of just that.

Different strokes fer different folks.
I find it so much simpler to hand load the Hornady 350 grain jacketed RN or the new 325 FTXs.
Plenty accurate, cheap & hassle free.......no need for special case trim lengths, extra chamber freebore or aggressive barrel deleading techniques.
Just tediously boring simplicity & good paper punching, freezer filling results.

RD,

It will be interesting to see how the 425g develops....it is my favorite bullet in my 1895's.

Dan

Greetings
Being a bullet caster I would have to say RD has the right idea. For the price of one box of 350 Remingtons you could near buy a mold and never have to wonder about projectiles again. I can take any of my rifles to the range and fire off 100 rounds of cast and if I desire go dig up my lead that day and have the same 100 rounds ready to go the next day with only time and powder to pay. I will get in 4x´s the shooting as a bullet caster and still have the mold on hand to sell in the future. But far worse will be the day when Remington (and all the others) no longer produce bullets at 10 times todays price. But a caster will still be happily flipping the lever watching his home made product fill the table. Just my observations from a life of watching bullets made at home.
Mike in Peru