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Bowhunter from Iowa

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 09:54
by mattscarm
Hi. New to the forum. My name is Matt and up until this deer season I have been strictly bowhunting deer. Last year Iowa opened up gun season to certain straight walled cartridge rifles. I borrowed a friend's Rossi 92 in 357 and got it all sighted in for my son's first year of deer hunting. He didn't end up getting a deer last year due to not having much time to go hunting. That friend bought a Marlin and wanted to sell the Rossi so I bought the rifle from him since I'd had so much fun shooting it. I really like that rifle and it gets smoother with every shot. It's one of those, I could shoot this all day guns. Well, as long as I don't run out of ammo.

I didn't care for the buckhorn at all so started looking for other options. Took the buckhorn off, added the NOE rail and then a TRS-25 red dot I had handy. Killed my first gun deer in 12 years with that rifle at 40 yards but found out while sighting in that a 3 MOA red dot is not going to cut it for deer hunting out to 100 yards. I did enjoy it though and I think I just added another 11 days to my deer season each year. I'll be upgrading to a scope for next year.

After reading a lot of Ranch Dog's posts on other forums, I found this forum and joined. Can't wait to see what all I can learn from here. It's pretty hit and miss elsewhere on the internet forums finding good info on the Rossi 92. This place is exactly what I was looking for to ring out the best options and accuracy without having to buy and try them all.

Re: Bowhunter from Iowa

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 18:35
by akuser47
Welcome to the Leverloution +guns

Re: Bowhunter from Iowa

Posted: 19 Dec 2018 19:41
by Mashuga
Welcome to the forum from another Iowan. I'm in the C.R./I.C. area. I have the 92 in .357 also. It's one of my favorite range guns shooting .38sp with powder coated bullets. I just had it out to the range yesterday. I've thought about using it for deer but have stayed with my Taurus .44 mag pistol. If I can find a deal on a Rossi 92 in .44 mag I'll probably pick it up as a deer gun too. I wish they'd make a lever action in .460 s&w.

Re: Bowhunter from Iowa

Posted: 20 Dec 2018 22:22
by mattscarm
Thanks. I'm on the other side of Iowa in Council Bluffs. I used Remington HTP 158gr SJHP because I've never done any reloading. It got the job done at 40 yds dead in the chest facing me. The deer only went twenty yards into the woods but I had zero blood trail until the last few yards. Most of that came from the nose and mouth as the bullet fragmented and trashed the lungs shortly after entry. It was easy enough to find but I'll be looking to get a new bullet recipe as well as place my shots better in order to have a trail to follow.
I have a friend who doesn't hunt but is an avid reloaded and loves to shoot. He has a 44mag and a 45-70 he wants me to take hunting sometime. I'm happy to oblige. He also likes to experiment with different hand loads to wring out the most performance he can get. I plan to dig thru this forum and see what everyone has come up with for the 357.

Re: Bowhunter from Iowa

Posted: 21 Dec 2018 00:05
by 9x80Drilling
Welcome to the forum, and to lever rifle hunting. Hope you stick with us and share your trials and results.
I load for a friend with a .357 Marlin. He's been happy with the Hornady 158 gr FP XTP propelled by Lil Gun powder. Many hunters recommend this bullet. Hornady's number for it is 35780. Check their website.
Midway sells them: https://www.midwayusa.com/product/10108 ... box-of-100
Many of this forum followers shoot cast bullets effectively. There's an incredible wealth of knowledge here, and on Ranch Dog's Lee Loader forum. Join in there, too. https://www.lee-loader.com/search.php?s ... ive_topics
Good shooting to you.
Roger

Re: Bowhunter from Iowa

Posted: 21 Dec 2018 07:09
by Ranch Dog
Welcome to the forum mattscarm and Mashuga! I'm looking forward to your hunting stories!

In the Rossi lineup, the 357 Mag is kind of my last choice for deer, but I'm looking at them all up through the 480 Ruger. With it, I started shooting a 175-grain cast bullet of my design but ended up switching to a 190-grain bullet that I designed for the 35 Remington.

The reason I say "my last choice" above is that I limit my deer & hog shooting to 100-yards where the others I consider 200-yard rifles (I'm using a scout scope). I have killed a deer at 125-yards with the cast bullet, and it died within about 5 seconds, but I could tell it wasn't punched very hard. Since I've had youth hunters use the 357 Mag, but I make sure the setups are all limited to about 60 to 70 yards of visibility and the cartridge & bullets have all had successful outcomes.

With cast bullets, I depend on a hard alloy and a flat metplat (at least 72% of diameter), along with velocity to "cookie cutter" a large hole completely through the animal.

Re: Bowhunter from Iowa

Posted: 02 Jan 2019 10:54
by mattscarm
Thanks for the welcomes. And thanks for the information. I have a lot to learn.
Most of my hunting setups are for bowhunting which I pretty much limit myself to 35 yards but there are many times I have a deer at 40 to 75 yards and if I can't coax them closer, all I can do is watch. I could hunt those same setups with the rifle during gun season and increase my range. I also have a couple places I could shoot out to 200 yards but I'd be looking for a different rifle for that. My thoughts have been limit it to 100 yards for the 357 mag.
I'm seriously considering the Weaver for my Scout set up on the NOE rail I have mounted. The red dot I have is just too big for my ability to have the kind of accuracy I prefer out past 50 yards. A scope is definitely going on it and I believe I'll go with Ranch Dog's tried and true Weaver but the price has gone up slightly lately so waiting for it to settle back down post Christmas.
I'm going to pass this bullet advice on to my friend that does the reloading. I know he already told me he had batched up 25 each of multiple bullet weights to try out. Previously he had given me some 357 hand loads he had made but they were soft and after about 20 shots I started having bullets keyholing. Brushed the barrel and evidently the soft lead isn't well liked by Rossi.
Do either of you know if the Rossi 92 handle more than the 35k SAAMI spec? Oh, I should probably be posting that as question in another area.

Thanks again for the advice.

Re: Bowhunter from Iowa

Posted: 03 Jan 2019 04:44
by GasGuzzler
It can probably handle more but it doesn't need to...with the proper bullet and powder load you can get all the power you need below max.

Re: Bowhunter from Iowa

Posted: 04 Jan 2019 06:48
by Ranch Dog
mattscarm wrote:Do either of you know if the Rossi 92 handle more than the 35k SAAMI spec? Oh, I should probably be posting that as question in another area.
As GG noted, it could probably handle a little more but the problem with pistol powders is that a little more can get you in trouble real quick. At a max, a couple of tenths of a grain can ruin your day.

Re: Bowhunter from Iowa

Posted: 04 Jan 2019 09:02
by mattscarm
OK. Thanks for the advice. We'll just stay within the specs.

Matt