Lab4Us
Professional
Figured I’d put this here instead of skills since it was my first time EVER firing a lever rifle of any type or manufacturer and I was really just familiarizing myself with the platform (aside from previously disassembling this gun and having to ask LGS armorer to put it back together for me - at least he didn’t charge me 
).
Couple of pictures I took after firing since I forgot at the range (really busy early on a Monday for some reason). The Vertex Crossfire is the one that came with my Hellion. I just changed high mount to low mount.
I only fired 70 rounds, but now my side gate looks like this?
Bolt is all dinged up too, though I used liberal lubing on bolt and rails, among other things, before shooting anything. Obviously Rossi must not be known for their stellar rifle finishes? 
First up was zeroing the Vertex. Since I have 250 rounds of Freedom Munitions 158g .357 Magnum inbound, figured I’d zero with .357 Magnum. Unfortunately all I had was 125g Barnes TAC-XPD pistol .357 Magnum, but since I know for a fact I will never shoot that out of my Kimber K6s and screw my thumb joint again, figured what the heck!
Set up at 7 yards as I figure this splits the difference between the different ranges I have available at the indoor range; 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, and I have to kind of estimate 5 and 10 - no lines.
First few shots were a bit high and right, but got it zeroed in quickly and finished the 20 round box into the green.
Next up was 50 rounds of Speer Lawman 158g .38 Speical +P TMJ. Since I knew I’d be zeroing again with the inbound .357 ammo (* see end of report), I did not mess with any zero adjustments for the .38 Special.
20 rounds into the orange at 10 yards, 20 rounds into the purple at 15 yards, and the final 10 rounds into the yellow at 7 yards. While I did all of the zeroing and shooting off hand, it seemed like I finally got used to shooting the rifle with the final 10. While a bit low - I’ll take that 10 round group any day, especially off hand!
So this was my first time ever shooting a lever (and light) rifle - and I had a blast. I did have several episodes of forgetting to use the lever in between rounds, but I’m sure I’ll work that out with time and practice. With both types of ammo, there was ZERO feeding issues, and ZERO extraction issues - the type of range experience everyone loves with a new gun! I was disappointed with the finish wear after one range trip, but it wasn’t a very expensive rifle, relatively speaking.
* I enjoyed shooting this rifle enough I fully intend to purchase a better sample of a .357/.38 lever rifle, especially one I’m comfortable removing the bolt and lever assembly for thorough cleaning AND where the finish might hold up after shooting only 70 rounds of ammo. ATM, I’m leaning towards a Marlin SBL. I thought I had cracked the code on a Henry Explorer in .357 - Tombstone sent me a back in stock notice, ordered at 0351 and received a confirmation. Then about 6 hours later got a cancelled and refunded notice on my purchase - yeah, that sucked! Starting to think Henry is trying to do the “perceived scarcity” nonsense.
BUT, all in all, had a pretty good time shooting this rifle. And that’s before even trying it with my suppressor!
).Couple of pictures I took after firing since I forgot at the range (really busy early on a Monday for some reason). The Vertex Crossfire is the one that came with my Hellion. I just changed high mount to low mount.
I only fired 70 rounds, but now my side gate looks like this?
Bolt is all dinged up too, though I used liberal lubing on bolt and rails, among other things, before shooting anything. Obviously Rossi must not be known for their stellar rifle finishes? First up was zeroing the Vertex. Since I have 250 rounds of Freedom Munitions 158g .357 Magnum inbound, figured I’d zero with .357 Magnum. Unfortunately all I had was 125g Barnes TAC-XPD pistol .357 Magnum, but since I know for a fact I will never shoot that out of my Kimber K6s and screw my thumb joint again, figured what the heck!
Set up at 7 yards as I figure this splits the difference between the different ranges I have available at the indoor range; 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, and I have to kind of estimate 5 and 10 - no lines.
First few shots were a bit high and right, but got it zeroed in quickly and finished the 20 round box into the green.
Next up was 50 rounds of Speer Lawman 158g .38 Speical +P TMJ. Since I knew I’d be zeroing again with the inbound .357 ammo (* see end of report), I did not mess with any zero adjustments for the .38 Special.
20 rounds into the orange at 10 yards, 20 rounds into the purple at 15 yards, and the final 10 rounds into the yellow at 7 yards. While I did all of the zeroing and shooting off hand, it seemed like I finally got used to shooting the rifle with the final 10. While a bit low - I’ll take that 10 round group any day, especially off hand!
So this was my first time ever shooting a lever (and light) rifle - and I had a blast. I did have several episodes of forgetting to use the lever in between rounds, but I’m sure I’ll work that out with time and practice. With both types of ammo, there was ZERO feeding issues, and ZERO extraction issues - the type of range experience everyone loves with a new gun! I was disappointed with the finish wear after one range trip, but it wasn’t a very expensive rifle, relatively speaking.
* I enjoyed shooting this rifle enough I fully intend to purchase a better sample of a .357/.38 lever rifle, especially one I’m comfortable removing the bolt and lever assembly for thorough cleaning AND where the finish might hold up after shooting only 70 rounds of ammo. ATM, I’m leaning towards a Marlin SBL. I thought I had cracked the code on a Henry Explorer in .357 - Tombstone sent me a back in stock notice, ordered at 0351 and received a confirmation. Then about 6 hours later got a cancelled and refunded notice on my purchase - yeah, that sucked! Starting to think Henry is trying to do the “perceived scarcity” nonsense.
BUT, all in all, had a pretty good time shooting this rifle. And that’s before even trying it with my suppressor!
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