The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

BTW most of this pistol calibre nonsense seems to have originated from the NSRA, I have seen their muddle on a few range certificates of theirs.

They should stick to small bore and airgun NSRA competition target shooting, anything else shooting related they are not fit for purpose on.

LDC1982 wrote:I have no experience of under lever type rifles and have an itch and an empty slot for a .38/.357 rifle.

Can anyone offer some input on what i should be looking out for and what a budget of £700-£800 will get me.

The rifle will be used as a range fun gun so no competitions just plinking steels and paper.

I was in much the same position as you - I wanted a fun underlever and didn't care about competing at anything other than club level with my mates. So to that end I ended up with a Rossie M92 with a 24" Octagonal barrel - because I liked the way it looked. Bought it off a chap on here - for £360 including the RFD transfer.

When the gun arrived I was impressed with the quality of the blueing on the barrel and the frame finish. The wood was good (it's not exhibition grade for sure) and it shot just fine.

Now, there was a problem - typical Rossi ejection - uber fierce on all cases, but the additional lenght on a 357 case meant that it was chewing the brass up(.38 were just fine and what the original owner shot).

For the sake of about 40 quid and bits from http://store.stevesgunz.com/index.php?m ... page&id=14 (springs and a metal follower cos I is a tart) I cured this ejection problem - such that 357 brass is no longer marred, and neither 357 nor 38 brass is spat 15 yards down range. Whilst I had the action disassembled I slicked it up a bit (as per the info in Steves Gunz dvd) and I'm very happy with it.

So - for the princely sum of 400 quid I have a gun that looks just fine to me and shoots just fine. It'd have been nice if it was fine out of the box (As I'm sure Marlin / Winchester / Henry / Uberti owners will attest) but you pays your money you takes your choice.

My take would be - if your budget is £700-800 go buy whatever fits into that budget that's a decent genuine gun, if you're happy with a little fettling then a Rossi M92 is worth a look at half the price.

Nick

dromia wrote:BTW most of this pistol calibre nonsense seems to have originated from the NSRA, I have seen their muddle on a few range certificates of theirs.

They should stick to small bore and airgun NSRA competition target shooting, anything else shooting related they are not fit for purpose on.

FWIW - you don't need the NSRA nor NRA to certify your range anymore to keep on the right side of the law, probably for the NSRA insurance you do - but legally no you don't.

You certify your own range, to whatever limits you deem safe and have agreed with your insurance provider and job done. Strictly speaking you could do without the insurance - but better to have it and not need it than the other way around IMHO.

There isn't even a legally stipulated mechanism for testing your range is safe to the limits you've agreed; it's whatever process you follow that you agree is robust enough and satisfactory and insurable and job done.

My club has been looking into changing the range design (backstop specifically) so we've been giving this a good coat of looking at.

nickb834 wrote:

dromia wrote:BTW most of this pistol calibre nonsense seems to have originated from the NSRA, I have seen their muddle on a few range certificates of theirs.

They should stick to small bore and airgun NSRA competition target shooting, anything else shooting related they are not fit for purpose on.

FWIW - you don't need the NSRA nor NRA to certify your range anymore to keep on the right side of the law, probably for the NSRA insurance you do - but legally no you don't.

You certify your own range, to whatever limits you deem safe and have agreed with your insurance provider and job done. Strictly speaking you could do without the insurance - but better to have it and not need it than the other way around IMHO.

There isn't even a legally stipulated mechanism for testing your range is safe to the limits you've agreed; it's whatever process you follow that you agree is robust enough and satisfactory and insurable and job done.

My club has been looking into changing the range design (backstop specifically) so we've been giving this a good coat of looking at.

Correct.

nickb834 wrote:

dromia wrote:BTW most of this pistol calibre nonsense seems to have originated from the NSRA, I have seen their muddle on a few range certificates of theirs.

They should stick to small bore and airgun NSRA competition target shooting, anything else shooting related they are not fit for purpose on.

FWIW - you don't need the NSRA nor NRA to certify your range anymore to keep on the right side of the law, probably for the NSRA insurance you do - but legally no you don't.

You certify your own range, to whatever limits you deem safe and have agreed with your insurance provider and job done. Strictly speaking you could do without the insurance - but better to have it and not need it than the other way around IMHO.

There isn't even a legally stipulated mechanism for testing your range is safe to the limits you've agreed; it's whatever process you follow that you agree is robust enough and satisfactory and insurable and job done.

My club has been looking into changing the range design (backstop specifically) so we've been giving this a good coat of looking at.

That depends on the conditions on your FAC. Most certificates granted for target shooting will stipulate that adequate insurance provision must be made. Then the insurance company won't provide insurance for a club unless the range is constructed in accordance with recognised. The only really satisfactory means of satisfying them of this is if a statement of compliance is provided by someone suitably qualified, but as you say there is no need to go through the NRA or NSRA for any of this.

Quite a nice Winchester 94, set up in target rifle spec., for £499: http://www.aaronwheelergunsmith.co.uk/p ... odel-94ae/

To my earlier post, and having now seen one in the flesh and worked the action, the Chiappa is a very nice looking carbine. Well finished and will be as accurate as the Winchester, Rossi etc.

I'm going to go with a chiappa leveraction I have read on the forums that getting replacment parts for winchesters is extremely difficult

Hunter87 wrote:I'm going to go with a chiappa leveraction

If you *do* get one, I'd appreciate it if you kept the forum updated on how you get on with it.

I'm in the process of getting a FAC renewal and I thought it about time that I had rifles as well as shotguns. :)

For the last three years, I've been using a Chiappa 1887 lever-action shotgun to do PSG:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy-26BV-LVE

I've had a *shed-load* of fun out of it and the case-hardening is *very* pretty.

So, a Chiappa lever-action *rifle* could be on the books for me...

Regards,

Mark.