Rossi Rifleman

Several months ago, I purchased a Rio Grande in .45-70. The fit and finish were quite nice, especially compared to the later model Marlins I've been seeing. I've seen comments here and elsewhere on the stock finish, I may change it at some point but for the time being it will be left as is. I kind of like it, the color is OK for me, though it may not be all that durable. Rossi saw fit to mount their included sight base, and loctite the screws. Some of us prefer to use a lever action with the issue buckhorn sights. I'd prefer the mount to be shipped loose, or as least forego the loctite and let the buyer decide whether he needs it or not.

I was able to shoot it here at home just to make sure it went bang, but can only get about 15 yards back. At that distance the rounds were hitting a foot high. The .410 high front sight was replaced with .570 high piece from Williams. At the 25 yard range this weekend, elevation was OK now, but still need to tweak the windage some. Whenever I brew up some more loads for it, it will go to the bench to be sighted in properly.

Overall I like the rifle, but will probably tweak things a little here and there to iron out the typical Rossi kinks. I think the info on this site will help a lot.

Welcome to the family Daryl!!!
Most do shoot high. I had to modify the scope mount to allow for shooting high. The 45-70 is one heck of a gun!!. Keep us updated on what you find that works for you with the 45-70.

Welcome to the forum!

I was shooting some 300 grain handloads that were shown in the Hornady manual I have that were at the top of the trapdoor loads. The same load was shown as a starting charge for lever guns. I won't ever really push it with the powder charges, and will most likely stay in this range since I don't hunt with it, and don't think my aging shoulder will tolerate much more anyway.

After reading here a while, the first change will probably be the stainless magazine follower and spring. I'll have to do something with that meat slicer of a loading gate as well. Starting the round in and then pushing it the rest of the way with another cartridge seems to work pretty well until I get around to working on it.