Rossi Rifleman

Took out my Rossi Rio-Grande yesterday and ran a few rounds or Remington 300gr HP thru her..at 75 yds off handed put 5 rounds in a 6 inch circle (one semi flyer or it woild have been a 4inch circle)...I fell that was good enuf for a Whitetail

Eh gosh can't se3m to find my pictures on my phone...

Buckeye! wrote:Took out my Rossi Rio-Grande yesterday and ran a few rounds or Remington 300gr HP thru her..at 75 yds off handed put 5 rounds in a 6 inch circle (one semi flyer or it woild have been a 4inch circle)...I fell that was good enuf for a Whitetail

Eh gosh can't se3m to find my pictures on my phone...

Yeap, that ought to do it!

The accuracy of the rio grandes that everyone is reporting is getting very intriguing. It is a shame that Ohio does not permit rifles for deer hunting, otherwise I might already have one......

May sound sacreligeous but accuracy is overplayed in most deer hunting discussions.
You're hunting a fairly large game animal at ranges usually much less than 100 yards.
Being from Ohio and a hunter you are no doubt aware that many deer are taken with shotgun buckshot, slugs and archery equipment yet when you read some posts on gun forums you'd think that 1/2 MOA was critical and shooters are slugging barrels, measuring bullet diameters for micrometer accuracy and goodness knows what other exotic and elaborate processes to achieve that theoretical standard.
If your gun can hit an aluminum 6" diameter mini pie plate at 50 yards consistently it's a deer hunter.

A lot of bison fell to stone tipped wooden arrows shot from horseback at full gallop. But everyone knows 21st century deer can't be harvested without a minimum of a scoped 300 win mag at woods distances.

pricedo wrote:May sound sacreligeous but accuracy is overplayed in most deer hunting discussions.
You're hunting a fairly large game animal at ranges usually much less than 100 yards.
Being from Ohio and a hunter you are no doubt aware that many deer are taken with shotgun buckshot, slugs and archery equipment yet when you read some posts on gun forums you'd think that 1/2 MOA was critical and shooters are slugging barrels, measuring bullet diameters for micrometer accuracy and goodness knows what other exotic and elaborate processes to achieve that theoretical standard.
If your gun can hit an aluminum 6" diameter mini pie plate at 50 yards consistently it's a deer hunter.

In that most of the prep for deer hunting is done from a bench, what I want to see at 100 yards is 2.5 MOA. This Minute of Angle translate to 2.62" at 100 yards. I use MOA as it translates no matter the distance used to test a load. I hold all the hunters that pass through my place to this standard.

If it can't be done, we figure it out and correct it. Sometimes it is simply the hunter that isn't capable of it. In that case I close the distance, until they can and then will match that distance in the hunting setup. I had a fellow shoot a very nice six year old trophy at 35-yards with a 300 Win Mag because he wasn't capable of shooting it any further and he insisted on shooting his rifle. Through the following year, this fellow worked at his shooting (much of the issue was induced by the Win Mag) and he took a similar trophy with a very difficult shot at close to 200 yards. He made the rifle and cartridge proud with hard work on his behalf.

The only hunter that I haven't let hunt on account of this standard was my ex-brother-in-law. I told him to bring a lot of ammo for his rifle as I knew his shooting was weak and I had not seen him shoot the rifle in a decade. He brought six rounds and with three out the barrel, I knew it was not going to work out. You cannot find 300 Savage ammo within 100 miles of this place, I told him that. I offered to let him use any rifle from the dozens that I have but he threw a temper tantrum. I put him in time out and he spent the weekend not hunting. Suited me fine.

I have adopted a 3-shot, 2" max group @ 100 yard standard for my scoped rifles but for personal satisfaction rather than any tangible relationship to deer/elk/moose hunting efficacy.
Similarly I have adopted a 3-shot, 2" at 50 yard standard for my iron sighted firearms.......again a personal preference criterion rather than any direct bearing on hunting big game.
All shots with scoped rifles taken from sand bags or solid rests.
All iron sight shots taken sitting with my elbows supported on a table or bench.
My purpose in the above is to set a baseline for the rifle and eliminate as much of the me-variable as possible from the accuracy equation.
Free hand shooting at live wild game is another quite different situation which I think is the point of this dissertation.

This thread brought back fond recollections of my old Cree trapper friend from Kenora, Ontario.......gotta remember to send him a Christmas card & a gift.
That ancient old Winchester 94 of his would most cerainly fall short of your standard but I've yet to see that meat pole outside his cabin without a deer or moose hanging from it in the fall.
That old guy could track a jack rabbit & he could come up behind you in dense brush with the ground covered by dried leaves that crunched underfoot like cornflakes & tap you on the shoulder without you hearing him. It was unnerving.
Having personal knowledge of his woodsmanship skills (in his younger days the Ontario Provincial Police used to hire him to find people who went missing in the wilderness) I assume that he'd stalk to considerably less than 50 yards of his quarry before squeezing the trigger on that old relic of a rifle.

Pb2au wrote:The accuracy of the rio grandes that everyone is reporting is getting very intriguing. It is a shame that Ohio does not permit rifles for deer hunting, otherwise I might already have one......

Yes they have a bill to use silencers for hunting to me this is rediundent as we cannot use rifles anyways they should refine a bill for rifles though. I do understand there are so many homes that when pheasent season near killdear plains kicks in not unuasaul to have gutters full of lead shoot from shooties. So not sure how safe rifles will be but if rifles in pistol calibers were used would not be an issue. maybe someday

In terms of accuracy, I've been curious to see how the Rio's in 45/70 do. The barrels look a little light for the venerable 45/70 gov, but it looks like I'm happily mistaken.
As for hunting, I have to agree about Ohio. At least where I hunt, if you have a shot over 50 yards, it is quite rare. Most of the hills and hollers I hunt are filled with these big things called trees. They are on steep hills, which are separated by brushy valleys.
My personal accuracy standard is about like Ranch Dog's. The only exception is for small game like ground hogs, but that is a different story.
I am seriously on the fence about a Rio in 45/70 or another M92 in 357 for the Misses. These threads are not helping.

I just got a new scope mounted on my new 45-70 yesterday and will be trying it out sat,i will post how it goes. I have 14g and 15g loads of Unique under a 350gr cast boolit that I will be shooting.