I have been very impressed with the pre safety Rossi I have in .357. I seem to have a hankering to play with one of those in .480 Ruger. Has anyone seen one for sale in their favorite shop here or there?
There are not many floating around, as they were made in very limited numbers for just 2 years, however I do have one 1/2 paid off at a shop in Alabama that I purchased about 3 weeks ago. I might be persuaded to sell it. PM me if interested. If not I will let you know how it shoots/handles if you want to know.
Posts: 4115 | Location: Pa. | Registered: 21 April 2006
No personal experiece. But I was considering buying one. Heard lots of stories of feeding issues. Dismissed them as just one or two guns that started a internet rumor fire.
Well then I was at Sportsmen's warehouse one day. They had two of them on the counter that they were playing with. Neither one would cycle with snap caps. Would not feed from the mag at all. Would not extract from the chamber. That was the end of my thoughts of buying one.
There was a guy that was offering guns that were "fixed" or he would "fix" yours. Seems that nearly all of them needed a very serious action tuning to have any hope of working.
Thats interesting Mike. What few things I could find on-line, were the opposite. they couldnt belive it fed such blunt bullets of any type so smoothly. I wonder if the snapcaps themselves were part of the problem?
Hard to say anything is possible. I have a Ruger SRH in 480. I got six snapcaps for ti so I can practice dryfiring. I measured them and they are as close as I can possible measure to all saami specs. Again anything is possible and there could be something wrong with the snap caps they were using. But I was not going to take the chance and find out the same problem occurs with live rounds.
If you find one I hope it works for you. I satisfied my desire for a 480 rifle with a Ruger #1 in 475 linebaugh.
It is here are some pics. Got lucky and found some with nice wood. Hell of a thumper. 410 grain hardcast at around 1600 fps. I can get a 275 grain golddot to a fuzz over 2000fps. Need to find a critter to test it out on.
Replaced the front sight with a NECG fiber optic and went with a NECG peep on the rib. Could not find a scope that I could get eye relief right and the Ruger extension rings are just to damn ugly for me.
At fifty I can get around two tothree inch groups which is very good for me with anything open sights.
Everything I read about the Rossi pointed towards zero feeding issues and the rifles were rated quite good on the quality spectrum as well. I know my way around all manner of rifles and handguns and research stuff I am not familiar with before a purchase...and the one I have lined up has no issues whatsoever according to the seller, which I have no reason to disbelieve at this point. I will let you know how it shoots in a few weeks when I get it paid off. I, like back40 am just curious to see how it shoots and handles. I have literally hunderds of guns so if I happen to get a lemon...I will make lemon juice....meaning if it don't feed I will send it to an expert levergun smith and get it feeding a smooth as a babies ass. Even if it is perfect, maybe I won't like it..who knows? As for #1'S...I already have a gaggle of them and wouldn't want one in a pistol cartridge...it just ain't the right platform for a handgun cartridge. Just my opinion.
Posts: 4115 | Location: Pa. | Registered: 21 April 2006
Besides all of what I already stated..... If they had issues and were always jamming or not feeding there would be a whole lot more for sale that what you see. As it is, you very rarely find one for sale and I am on all of the gunsites on a daily basis looking for x-number of different and/or hard to find weapons. Lately, I have been on a Dan Wesson Supermag and rarer Dan Wesson revolver (SS .22's and SS 41 Rem Mag) buying spree making some real good scores. I have a few more I need yet and will pick them up as opportunities arise. More to come on the 480 Levergun.
Posts: 4115 | Location: Pa. | Registered: 21 April 2006
I have a stainless Rossi .480 Ruger to go with my 9" Super Red Hawk .480 I have shot 200 factory Hornady rounds with the 325gr XTP and around 300 reloads with same bullet. I have had no feeding issues at all. The gun shows good accuracy. I removed the rear buckhorn sight, and replaced that stupid safety with a ghost ring sight from "Steves Guns dot com". These work great. I sighted it in to center at 50yds, and with the front bead against the inside top of the ghost ring, it is dead on at 100yds. I installed a scout scope mount on the barrel(don't try this at home... There is not much meat to work with, when you get far enough forward to clear scope with ejected brass. The stainless is real brittle, so tapping threads is difficult when you can only ger 1.5 turns. Must have a sharp tap!) I mounted a Burris 2X scout scope with a #4 reticle in Leupold QRW rings, for quick on/off. Sweet/light set up for long hikes, when slung on my back. I carry it barrel down, so it is real fast to bring to shoulder. ND
Stephen Grant 500BPE Joseph Harkom 450BPE
Posts: 625 | Location: Oklahoma | Registered: 21 October 2008
