Henry Rifle Forums

And I had no idea how bad my eyes were until I did.

I broke down and put a little micro red dot on my Rossi 454casull and was amazed how well the rifle actually shoots, or can shoot. Ive always professed that optics of any sort have no place on any levergun and now I may have to reject that idea completely. I do have a Henry BB too though that I can shoot great, albeit with only a singular load but with that load I cant miss out to 200yds. It has a different type of sight but still not an optic of any kind and no this sight is not an option for an 1892 type.
With this little red dot mounted and some 45lc handloads (300gr SWC over 22.5gr of Vectan 6 1/2) at 50yds off of a bag and no rear rest of any kind this is 10shots


The sinker I called as soon as the trigger broke. Otherwise I was utterly shocked by the group given my experiences with the rifle so gar. Its not horrible but not anything that would impress anybody either.
The 22.5gr load was the best of the 3 I tried but 22 and 23 was bad either. Now, I really have to wonder which of the vast number of loads Ive tried in this rossi were actually decent or even really good loads but those crappy buckhorns and my obviously terrible eyesight didnt allow me to realize it?
The other two groups.

That’s some fine shooting. I too have given up on open sights on rifles for the last several years.

I don't like the look of optics an levers either. But my eyes are so far gone, I've put optics on mine anyway.
That's some good shootin' results you have there.

I've gotten used to the look of the scoped levergun, like Mags said they don't look right, especially on the straight stocked ones.
That being said my Henry bbs 41 mag is scoped.
I hunt with a lot of mine so I have scopes on most of those, my first Marlin 30-30 it's been scoped sine the early 80's.
I still have more that aren't than are though. I did rob the scope and mount from one of the 30-30s to put on the new Trapper I got last month.
It'll most likely get scoped again, but I'm in no hurry.

RP

I put this on my new.357 because I can’t see the results of my shots if I don’t have a scope.

To me it’s more fun with a little help…

Coach wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 02, 2025 4:05 pm

...
To me it’s more fun with a little help…
...

Yes it is.

Impressive work with that 454, Bill.68. I do understand about adding an optic to a lever gun, with the positive and negative.

Hey Gal, those above were 45LC loads. Thought Id test the mount and sight with those before I jump to the 454. Its seems to have done fine.
The sight is a little, old Burris FF3 that Ive had on all kinds of things, including a 12gauge. Its a tuff little bugger but 454casull, even in a rifle is a mule. Granted its a light rifle. I believe the FA revolvers are close to its weight.
All of this makes me wonder about the real accuracy potential of leverguns in general. I always heard that theyre just not that accurate but maybe, just maybe theres more meat on the bone than we know. I was amazed by how well it did. It may have just been my load that I tried, its was a new one. Im glad I have 4lbs of that Vectan 6.5. This is certainly the best use for it Ive found. Bought it many years ago (seems) when some online place had imported it. Its a french ppwder manufacturer and it very closely mimics Vhitavuori ppwders in it appearance and data. It was super cheap too. Dont think its still available. The other is Vectan 7.5 that is just fine for my 10mm 1911.
Yeah, scopes on a lever are just wrong and you know what, red dots are even more wrong.

Don't apoogize. Just shoot them thar fleas.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzCnDk21Kc

Well at spme point age catches up to us all.
I changed mounts on the new Trapper the other day, dropped the scope approximately a half inch.
I also bumped one of my test loads up a 10th of a grain, first shots with both. I could have never done this with open sights these days. I did adjust the scope after these 5 shots.

RP