The Rossi 92 as a practical, real-world 'Go-To' gun

[AJMD429]

Which gun do you grab if there's a pack of wild dogs or coyotes in the goat-pen this afternoon...?
Which gun do you take with you when you go out to check the feeders and watering troughs...?
Which gun do you take with you if you're going on a walk in the woods, but might spot a varmint or in-season game...?
Which gun do you grab if there's noise in the chicken-coop, and it's 3 a.m....?
Which gun do you grab if there are a couple unknown 2-legs milling around your barn...?
Which gun do you grab if you just want to go back to the range behind the house, and plink at the 100 yard gong...?

The above six scenarios gave me an excuse to have six different firearms (I know, an 'arsenal' ), but it would be nice to just keep ONE gun loaded and handy for most of those duties. Thus started the quest for my 'Ranch Rifle' of sorts, only my Ruger rifle of the same name was not a candidate, because I don't want to wear hearing protectors every time I go outside and might shoot. ALSO, I wanted to be able to shoot a possum scurrying around the chicken coop, or a coyote darting off into the night, but the ungainly and expensive notion of a "Night-Vision-Equipped-AR-15" was NOT a gun I was going to tote when I had to carry a bale of hay to the feeder, and would NOT want to shoot at night, without hearing protectors, unless it had a suppressor, adding more cost, and more legalities (even if I actually OWNED such a firearm, there's no way I'd want to leave a suppressed firearm with a $3,000 night-vision setup on it just on a hook behind the back door, if you get my drift...).

Thus was born the concept of creating a 'Night Scout' rifle - kind of a 'ranch' version of Jeff Cooper's concept, set up for day or night use.

I was very happy with the (link) Marlin "Night Scout" rifle I made a few months ago, especially after firing THIS 50-yard group - AT MIDNIGHT, with NO moonlight whatsoever.



...but of course after having one in .357 Mag, I happened to fire a 16" .45 Colt with Cowboy Loads in it, and realized how quiet they were, certainly on a par with the .38 Specials out of the Marlin.

So, naturally I had to make me a Rossi .45 Colt "Night Scout"...!

The scope-mount options for the Rossi are limited, vs. the Marlin, but since I was using a Holographic sight, position and eye-relief are not at all critical. I had a B-Square 'no-gunsmithing' mount I wasn't using, which has the added 'advantage' that you can take it off quickly and make the gun look all 'normal' again (I'm not sure why I would particularly want to do that, mind you, but it is important to some folks).

For the light-mount, I wanted either something quick-detachable (because the light is something I may want to remove sometimes, for instance hunting with a light is illegal where I live). So, I thought about a 'scalloped' version of the PVC-mount I used on the Marlin, but found an unused 'weaver scope base' that just happened to have the same radius concavity on the underside as the radius of the .45 Colt magazine tube. After considering sweat-soldering, I realized that wasn't a good idea since the base was aluminum, and I considered 'dimpling' the magazine tube and putting flat-head screws in it, but that would require drilling holes in the tube, and risking cartridge-hang-up even if I polished and filled afterwards. So, I turned to J-B Weld, and just 'glued' it. The LIGHT comes off just as fast as you can turn the two knurled 30mm scope-ring screws..!

The forend already bears scars from my previous Bubba-smithing of the forarm band when I mounted a sling swivel stud in it. Every time I do that I have two problems - I seem never to get the stud centered, so it cants off to the right or left, and I never can get the darned thing on without opening up the hole in the wood a bit. This particular one was worse, in that the wood was swollen so tight I had to rasp it down to even get the band off and gun apart. For some reason now, the forend won't absorb any stain (or at least the stain I had). Anyway, it looks light on the tip due to that, but it's important to note that I would NOT have had to do any reshaping of it to do this particular magazine-tube 'rail' project. Other forearms could be even thicker, and might hit it and thus need slimming on the tip part.

Anyway, Here's the Pics:

The Rossi with just the rail:


Rail Close-ups:




The Coast (link) LED-Lenser (Model P-7) 190-lumen light

(One nice thing about the LED-Lenser is that the first button-push gives you bright 190-lumen light, then the next button-push gives you a dim, battery-saving, non-blinding, light option. The scope rings hold the 'focus' ring in 'spotlight' mode.)
(One thing - I should have got the black one):

Sights:

• Burris Fastfire-II - http://www.burrisoptics.com/fastfire.html
  LaserMax UniMax Rail-mount Pistol Laser - http://www.lasermax.com/product.php?id=104
  B-Square Rossi Puma quick-detach mount - http://secure.armorholdings.com/b-squar ... ifles.html

I switched the Burris mount screw so the knob was on the left, keeping the ejection (& iron-sight) area uncluttered:



View through Sights (laser dot is brighter center part, co-incident with Holo-dot):


Gun with only the Sights:


Gun with Sights & Light:


Here's the Marlin for comparison:



The three-shot group which follows was shot at 50 yards - nothing all that exciting, even for a 'levergun' - - - BUT WAS SHOT IN PITCH BLACK CONDITIONS AT MIDNIGHT... Sure, a gizmo-equipped $2,000 AR-15 Shorty with night-vision CAN do that or better - but with blinding muzzle flash, deafening muzzle blast (unless you actually want to wear hearing protectors whenever you go out to check your livestock), and four or five times the cost. Hopefully, I can 'hit the quarter' next time I shoot in the dark...


The one modification I've made since the project was to put on one of StevesGunz "safety delete" buttons (http://store.stevesgunz.com/index.php?m ... ducts_id=4); only took about 5 minutes to install.

[klr]

Why did I click on this thread? It's going to cost me a bunch of money.

Awesome!

I too have an arsenal of guns for various situations and have been thinking about consolidation and developing one go-to gun. The blast and noise are big considerations. What velocity are you getting from those cowboy loads?

[AJMD429]

The loads I've been using are store-bought (commercial reloads) and I've not chrony'd them out of the 16 Rossi, but from my 20" Marlin they were right around 1100 fps, so they are pretty quiet. I still use hearing protectors when I intend to shoot, but otherwise I don't when I'm just out doing chores.

I've been tempted to add an integrally-suppressed barrel to one of my leverguns, or get my 357 Mag one threaded for a suppressor (I have a LibertyCans Mystic that handles 357 Mag subsonic loads, that I've already thought about putting on my 32-20), but unless it is an integral design, it adds too much length, and is a pricey way to only suppress one firearm vs. several with matching threads, so I think I'll just stick with 'subsonic' loads. Besides, even with a suppressor, once you step up to super-sonic loads, there seems to be about as much noise as a subsonic load without a suppressor, once you are in the larger-than-30-caliber size range.

For the under-100-yard shooting I'd generally be doing at night for sure, and most likely in the daytime, the 'rainbow' trajectory isn't all that much of an issue. I tried zeroing the loads at 100 yards, but found I had to aim 4" low at 50-60 yards, and 6" high at 125 yards, but if I wanted to sacrifice the past-100-yard shots (or was willing to aim 12" high at 125 yards), I could zero at 75 yards, only aim 2" low at 40-50 yards, and only 4" high at 100 yards. That seemed more appropriate for my situations:

• Possum in chicken-yard - typically 20-50 yards, aim just a 'hair' low.
  Feral dog in goat-pen - typically 50-100 yards is all I can see at night - aim 'dead-on' and it will do.

Out past 100 yards, I'd rarely shoot anyway, and my range-estimation isn't accurate enough to tell 125 yards from 145 yards, which would put me another foot off in elevation, so unless it were something shooting back at me, I'd not take the shot. As for the potential '2-leg' situations, I suppose 99% of the time just having 'a firearm' sets the standard for discourse at "let's be polite, gentlemen", and if it becomes otherwise, they do present a more 'vertical' vital zone. If I knew that the loiterers-by-the-barn were truly up to something, I'd just stay inside the house and call the police, or if for whatever reason I had to engage them in the impolite context, I'd grab the Ruger Ranch Rifle or 30-30 levergun instead.

Otherwise, the little 'Night Scout' has been very useful and practical. Enough-so that I've made four of them...! Here's links:

• Three in pistol-caliber leverguns (link is partway down this thread), and
  One using a Ruger 10/22 and Tapco Stock (the light is bigger, but way brighter)

As far as a sling for 'while doing chores', I'm still trying to decide if I like a single-point setup off either a saddle-ring, or one of those Mag-Pul attachments that goes on a scope-rail, vs. a conventional sling, when it comes to use while out doing things like hauling stuff in a wheelbarrow, whacking tree limbs, or other farmstead activities. (There definitely are times that a handgun is clearly superior for daytime chores.)

As far as 'saddle rings', lest anyone say that they are a silly decorative frill (like one of my AR-15-accessory-loving friends told me ), I found putting one on my primary 'Night Scout' chore rifles I use around our little farm to be very practical when combined with a single-point sling.


Here's another option for guns with a Weaver or picatinny scope rail.

• http://levergunscommunity.com/viewtopic ... ng#p451251

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?p ... ber=459295

[Les Staley]

Doc, thanks for telling me about this site..see you around the neighborhood..Les

[pricedo]

Second choice: any of my Rossi 92 trappers (16" bbl)

Ultimate GO-TO rifle: Winchester model 94 Trails End (taked down) in 450 Marlin - slick, fast, flawless, accurate lever action, the most powerful 94 ever made that weighs a mere 6 1/2 pounds & will knock down anything in North America. Takes down/reassembles in seconds. When taken down it can be stored in a suitcase, packsack or even a brief case and be totally inconspicuous in the car/truck or in a cadre of luggage to avoid the dumbutt "Whudya got a gun fer?" questions from John & Jane Q. Public.
If there is another gun which combines take down portability, knockdown firepower, slickness & speed to the same degree I'd like to know about it.
I've checked into hotels & motels with this gun (taken down) in it's inconspicuous carry case (a Toshiba computer bag) & have never been questioned as I would with an encased conventional long gun.
Even assembled the gun is non threatening (unlike an AR)......who hasn't watched a JW duster movie and isn't familiar with the appearance of Winchester leverguns?

[akuser47]

good work with good results i like what I see

[Ranch Dog]

I live on a ranch and always have a ranch rifle at my back door. The reasons are pretty much as you state with your list. I do like to see a bit more terminal energy available at the back door so max 357 Mag loads are a minimum. The feral hog problem dictates the need, that is the critter of main concern. I do real good with my scout scopes on my R92s and Bushnells on my Rio Grandes and Marlins. These forum pages have documented the effectiveness of my go to guns.

There is also a scoped Marlin 39A at the back door and it takes care of the smaller critters quite well. I've killed a couple of coyotes with it but it only works well on raccoon sized feral hogs and not very well. I took on a very large hog with it one night. About a 250 boar hog had crawled under one of my picnic tables to get at something so I slipped out quietly and at 20 yards placed a bullet perfectly in its ear. It went down like a sack of rocks and started to growl, very loudly. I put 18 more bullets into that ear and then it attacked me. I managed to beat it off with the butt stock by cracking it in the eye and the damaged ear with the very aft edge of the stock. I'm a big fellow and can deliver a good blow. I think I had more effect on that hog than the 22 did.

[4kdave]

Can you explain a little more about mounting the front sling swivel to the barrel band. Do you mount just to the band or through the forearm & band? Also the parts needed.

Thanks
Dave

[AJMD429]

I remove the band AFTER carefully marking a center-line on it, and marking which in faces the buttstock. (they are not as 'symmetric' as you'd think).
I use a threaded Uncle-Mike's swivel stud.
I drill and tap the hole.
I shorten the swivel-stud bolt part so there won't be much sticking out inside the barrel band.
I prepare the stud and band with brake-cleaner.
I mix up some epoxy or J-B Weld.
I dip the bolt-thread part of the swivel-stud in the glue, and assemble them turning until the hole is perpendicular to the barrel axis.
I wipe off any excess glue.
I let it dry overnight.
I use a round-file, then a Dremel sanding drum to remove any 'burrs' from the inside of the barrel band.

The silver swivel studs may be a 'generic' brand from Brownell's vs. actual 'Uncle Mikes' - I don't remember.

Hope that helps.

[akuser47]

Thanks for the great walk through it helps us all.