The I LOVE THIS GUN Thread

Has anyone here had experience with the Browning 'A' bolt with the BOSS system? Trying to convince my buddy to sell me his (its never been shot) since its one of the only threaded 300wm I can find.

My brother has the A bolt with BOSS in .223. It's a real shooter.

I had an A bolt in 338wm w/ BOSS and it shot great. In a weak moment I sold it to a friend who uses it in Alaska. Wish I had it back.

So does any one have any long term experience with a Rossi 971 in .357 with a 4" barrel? My wife has been bugging me to go shopping for a smaller/lighter handgun for the night stand. She really has a hard time handling the Ruger P85, the P90 is hopeless for her.

So we went shopping today, selection was thin as expected. But still a fair selection of revolvers. Most were the short barrelled lightweights which I am not a big fan of. After trying a lot of different revolvers and some small semi auto's, she took a real liking to the Rossi. So it followed us home.

After getting it home and playing with it for a while...I am even warming up to it. Sits decent in the hand. She does better with the Rossi and 38 Specials than she ever did wresting the P85. Not bad trigger pull for an out of the box inexpensive gun.

So any long term experience?

I too have finally joined the 45 70 club. It took awhile but one finally came up in my area at a decent price. It came with a Wild West trigger, sear and follower. Also the XS rail and sights and a few other little goodies. I'm on an ammo search now and can't wait to get out and punish the hell out of my shoulder.

I got one in a trade a while back. It had never been fired. The trigger was crap in double action out of the box, single action was good though. I loaded it up with snap caps and spent a couple nights pulling while watching tv. At about 500 pulls, I could feel it start to get smoother. At about 1000 it was darn near perfect. I can readily get .38 where I'm at, so the 691 gets a lot of range time. I've probably put about 5k rounds through it without an issue now.

Nice looking Marlin!

As far as ammo, learn to reload. Commercial stuff is expensive and unless you buy high end you will not find any that approaches the capabilities of the 1895.

^^ agreed.
Honardy 325gr 45-70 are GREAT! they also make them in 250gr.
BUT EXPENSIVE to plink.

Thanks guys. I packed my reloading stuff away years ago when I wasn't shooting all that much. 45 70 for sure will demand me to dig my stuff out of storage and set up a proper bench again. Seems to be a very versatile caliber for a reloader.

Somehow "nice wood, dude" sounds just wrong?
Lyle

Good one.

Just be careful if you end up with Hornady brass. They make it shorter for the Leverevolution ammoe for some reason. I just loaded it to the correct length without being able to crimp and will shoot one at a time until I can find some brass of the proper length. YMMV.

I load a lot for the 45 70. It is a hoot to reload; almost as much or more fun than it is shooting this caliber. I have played a bit with the higher velocity loads, but doing so is silly for the kind of shooting I do. A 330 grain cast bullet with 15 grains of Unique is just what the doctor ordered, and it is quite accurate.

finally after owning this gun for few weeks this weekend got to shot it!!
Also took my single shot H&R and with the same ammo the kick is so much lesser, or the H&R kick like a psycho mule..
Got a sham once with some cheap reloaded low brass I bought at a garage sale, but with factory low brass cycle just fine.
That's with some Low brass Remington target load.
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Thanks for the Hornady brass tip. The only factory ammo I could find in my local area was Winchester Super X, 300 grain. And only 2 boxes left so I grabbed them both.

I can't even find 30 30 ammo around here anymore. 30 40 Krag is still available though, not a run on it yet. Geez!

Find myself shopping for second handgun. I'd like to pair it with a Marlin in the same calibre. That puts me in the .357 or .44 mag area. I'm buying it primarily as a "toy", cheap to feed gravel pit gun (the Marlin) and thinking SA for the hand gun. Ruger (again)? The Marlin is first on the list....any problems feeding it .38? Figure the .357 will get the nod....except, .357 isn't a very "traditional" SA round. The shopping is half the fun of the thing..
Lyle

I have a Marlin 1894 in .44M and Ruger Blackhawk in .44M. Both of them go bang every time and put a smile on my face.

It should function just fine with the 38's. The only real issue is that the shorter rounds will leave a carbon ring that will interfere with chambering the longer 357's. You'll have to scrub it out before it will feed the magnums smoothly. If you handload using magnum cases with a 38 load recipe will keep you shooting as cheaply without having to scrub the chamber out.

I have a Marlin 1894 in 357......actually, my girlfriend now has it, she loves it more than I do.....and it seems to feed 38s just fine. I wasn't all that thrilled with the accuracy I could get from it, I'm an old bolt-action guy since the 1960s, and find I get irritated when a rifle won't produce at least 2" groups at 100 yards, which the Marlins generally will not do. In fact, I couldn't get that level of accuracy at 50 yards out of the 357. I have handguns that I can shoot that well from a rested position, so am perplexed why I cannot do at least that well with a rifle, but there it is.

My favorite plinker is a Marlin 1894 in .357. When I go out in the desert it sits in the truck while a Ruger .357 1st gen Vacquero rides on my hip. Both are fed .38 specials at the range, but carry max load .357's when out and about. The only thing is that lead semi wadcutters will make the Marlin hiccup on feeding- any round nosed loadings feed just fine. The cool thing about that combo is that the Vacquero is one of the few .357's around that is strong enough to deal with a steady diet of heavy .357 loadings (same cylinder as the .44mag with more steel around it) and the Marlin is stronger still (same frame and barrle as a .44mag with more steel around it). My Marlin is accurate enough for me- I can hit a mini-popper at 100 yds every time if I do my part.