Rossi Rifleman

Guys if i chopped 2" off a rossi 357 24" octagonal to bring it down to 22", do you think it would improve handling and reduce weight much? Or not much material difference? I dont want to reduce to 20" or get a 20" carbine as 22 is my self imposed limit for aesthetics and hearing.

From Tom’s calculation in this thread, 2 inches of barrel would be about 3 oz.

https://www.rossi-rifleman.com/viewtopi ... lit=Weight

Only one way to find out if it provides a noticeable improvement in handling . . .

But wait . . . You have a 20” 357, yes? Stick a dowel in the barrel, and load it with washers to simulate 22” & 24”.

I don't think it is going to make a huge difference.
It will make a difference in balance and handling but I have my doubts the difference will be enough to warrant the effort. Of course if you are having problems holding the gun up and on target I might be wrong but in that case I'd say a 20" round barrel or some 'shooting sticks' would be a better compromise.

Deleted

trekker wrote:Guys if i chopped 2" off a rossi 357 24" octagonal to bring it down to 22", do you think it would improve handling and reduce weight much? Or not much material difference?I dont want to reduce to 20" or get a 20" carbine as 22 is my self imposed limit for aesthetics and hearing.

Don Henley of the Eagles sings in the song, 'Hotel California' ..."We are all just prisoners here of our own device."


COSteve quipped: The shooting sticks idea is a good one because you can use them as a walking stick as well. Shortening the barrel 2" isn't a trivial undertaking. There's the sight to move and the magazine support as well as wacking off 2" of the barrel. And don't forget, you'd also have to shorten the mag tube by 2" and that would be a bit of a pain too.

If I were seriously considering lightening my rifle, I'd take it to a gunsmith and ask him to remove the barrel and turn turn it down forward of the forestock to a round barrel configuration to save weight. After you have it reblued and reassembled, you have a really unique Rossi, half round and half octagon barrel much like they use to make for special order.


I think COSteve makes good points here. Lot of things need to be modified to just shorten the barrel on a tube fed lever action.

Modifying the octagonal barrel to half round/half octagonal is an aesthetically pleasing option, and as stated, results in some weight savings and a unique Rossi rifle. I don't know what modifications would be necessary for securing the magazine tube at front. New dovetail likely needed for front sight.

I am also suspecting that having a gunsmith remove the barrel & sights, turn down half the barrel, cut new dovetails, hot-blue the barrel and reinstall to proper clocking and headspace wouldn't be so cheap today either. Guess we do these things for the love of doing them, applying our own sort of rational and aesthetic, and the price then equates to the personally perceived value.

Seems that if one could release the prisoner within, and embrace a 20-inch carbine for handier field use, picking up a Rossi carbine might be more economical than the custom gun smithing option.


Good luck in your quest, trekker !

I've got a half round 1885 single shot .22 Miroku.

As with shortening the 24" to a 22" the half octagonal isn't trivial either but if you are going to put the time and effort and/or money into it then it might be a thing.

For the forward magazine support you'd probably need a forward barrel band as in the round barrel type rifles. Depending on the contour of the resulting round barrel this might need to be a custom part. As mentioned you'd need a new front sight dovetail and maybe a new taller front sight.

It's possible but less likely that you MIGHT be able to use a dovetail support a-la octagonal in the bottom of the barrel If the barrel was turned down to a constant diameter instead of tapering but you'd be loosing a lot of meat from the dovetail.