One of my hunting buddys bought a single shot Rossi in .243 Win for his son. I have done all the usual, checked the bases, mounts, changed scopes, etc. and all is OK in those areas.

Despite best efforts and several (5) different loads, the damn thing won't shoot any kind of a pattern, it's all over the place! I haven't ever experienced anything like it, and normally have a plan of attack at this point. The only thing I could come up with, is sanding the channel out on the fore-end to float the barrel, although this rifle is the type where the sling swivel screws through the fore-end into a 'lug' that is integrally welded to the barrel, and holds the fore-end on that way.....

It has one of those barrels that will detach if you remove the fore-end, and I have heard that the 'ears' of the fore-end can impair accuracy if they are binding on the receiver, but we arent' talking about going from 1 1/2 MOA to 1 MOA, were just trying to get a pattern! 2" at 100 would seem like an accomplishment with this thing at this point.

One last thing, the rifling looks to be polygonal rifling, but I'm definitely not sure about that, it looks kind of odd to be honest, but long story short we have given the barrel a good scrub, and that didn't help either!

Looking for help!!!
Thanks--Don

how about the crown?I have had good things happen with a simple recrown.

I did the crown thing on my similar acting NEF223.

Didn't make it worse. Didn't make it better.

Kind of hard to have "one shot" confidence with a rifle that frankly won't do it.

I'd like to see some comments how to accurize these guns too. If this was a bolt gun by now it would be a shooter and I'd no longer be scratching my head. The experience has left a bad taste in my mouth for break action single shots. From now on I'll stick with bolt guns I know I can make shoot.

I bought my wife a 243 Handi rifle, which is very similar. I was shooting patterns, which I never resolved completely. One bit of advise I got helped a good bit. Do not use a "suprise" trigger pull, but pull it completely and deliberately. Something about the transfer bar. If the Rossi does not have a transfer bar, disregard that.

An O-ring around the barrel stud may help.

With our Handi, the solution was get a bolt rifle.

A fair bit more time and effort invested, and the official determination is that this rifle is a POS!
We floated the barrel, cleaned the barrel beyond pristine, lapped the barrel, put O-ring on the swivel stud, loosened the swivel stud, shot it without the fore-end, no joy!

I assume that there is something in the lock up of the action that prevents even passable accuracy. I told my friend that he should take it back to the store, and regardless of outcome, should tell them it was a POS, don't sell it to someone else, and if Rossi replaced it, take whatever credit and buy some ammo for his grandpa's .270 that we re-stocked for him.

It is shooting 1/2 minute with the kid at the helm!!

quote:

Originally posted by Fish30114:
A fair bit more time and effort invested, and the official determination is that this rifle is a POS!
We floated the barrel, cleaned the barrel beyond pristine, lapped the barrel, put O-ring on the swivel stud, loosened the swivel stud, shot it without the fore-end, no joy!

I assume that there is something in the lock up of the action that prevents even passable accuracy.

I agree with your assessment. Did the same to mine plus a recrown. Same results. No joy.

Unfortunately, I can't return mine as the gun shop I purchased it from went out of business while I was hospitalized.

I have also focused in on the lock up mechanism. I'm suspicious it's not consistent nor tight enough. If that avenue fails I'll get a shotgun barrel for it and forget it was ever supposed to be a rifle. At least then I'll expect it to shoot patterns.

quote:

Originally posted by TheBigGuy:
If that avenue fails I'll get a shotgun barrel for it and forget it was ever supposed to be a rifle. At least then I'll expect it to shoot patterns.

That's probably the right plan