been a long time since I've done something like this...

**0rion** · 11-28-2014, 03:46 PM

Been awhile since I did something really stupid so I was due up. My son's 45 cal rossi muzzle loader needed cleaned. We clean it after shooting it everytime but the lever that breaks down the barrel was getting hard to push so the action needed taken apart and cleaned. I drove out a couple of the pins and this thing shit springs and small parts all over the bar. I have no idea how this damn thing goes together now. I did find a pretty good website that explains how to get it back together so I'll get it together but for a while I really thought I had screwed the pooch. I've had a bunch of guns apart in my life but I was probably a teenager the last time I had one pop apart like that before I had a chance to see how it came apart.
This thing is a piece of shit. When we first bought it I thought it was a pretty slick gun but the longer we own it the more I start to hate it. It's a pain in the ass to take the receiver apart and put it back together. I have to make some slave pins so I can put parts together outside the gun, slide them into place in the gun, and then drive the slave pin out with the guns pin. I have to see if I have a screw the right size and I'll just cut that down to make my slave pin. Piece of shit.

This shows how to lighten the trigger pull but it also shows how to get it back together.

http://perkloafm.com/pdf/Handi_instr_twob.pdf

**2002ssslp** · 11-28-2014, 05:06 PM

Time to retire the gun over the fireplace and buy a new one for Christmas. What's wrong with that ?

**0rion** · 11-28-2014, 07:13 PM

it's kicking my ass....that's for sure. I can't figure out how to get all these parts in there working together. I got the barrel catch in place but the barrel release lever doesn't seem right to me. Then I started putting the hammer in to see if that would help and it doesn't. There's also a little striker plate that goes over the pin. When the hammer falls it hits that plate and that's what pushes the firing pin out. That plate seems all out of position. It's not up in front of the pin right now....it kinda hangs down below it. I'm not sure if once I get the hammer spring or one of the other 2 springs in the trigger assembly in if that'll push it up into place or not. Just having trouble figuring this piece of shit out. Hopefully something will click at some point and it'll make sense to me. I've given up for tonight though. I'll work on it some more tomorrow. Pretty much all I've accomplished so far is to just scratch the shit out of the gun.

**0rion** · 11-28-2014, 11:17 PM

got the piece of shit back together......what a pain in the ass. I couldn't go to sleep thinking about it so I had to get back up and tear back into it. That's the last rossi, H&R, or NEF gun I ever own. They all have the same trigger mechanism and what a bitch it is to put back together. Once I got rolling on it the parts kinda found their way home but it's a complicated retarded design to do a job other guns have been doing for 150 years without being that complicated. It's a single shot break barrel for crying out loud....how complicated do you need to make it?

**Zinergy** · 12-02-2014, 10:18 AM

Good job on getting it back together. You can thank Rossi for taking one of the most simple style of firearms and adding 120 parts to it lol.

I do think about buying a muzzle loader but I usually just bow hunt through the season.This year and last year though they just extend gun season in the metro units for 2 weeks instead of having a muzzle loader season. Metro units are made up of a couple counties in the south eastern part of the state. So I can just gun hunt through muzzle loader season this year.

**0rion** · 12-02-2014, 02:26 PM

I have had a completely shit hunting season. I mean I'm hunting so it's not terrible.....I've just had some of the worst damn luck I think I've ever had.

Warning: Rant to follow.

Started out with bow season. I passed on a shit load of deer the first part of the rut because I was only seeing small doe and small bucks. Never did see a mature buck from my bow stand. Towards the end of the week I did decide to start taking a doe or two. Missed 2 mature doe back to back days. Shot under both at 40 yards. That's pushing it for my old bow but I've made that shot a thousand times. I just screwed up both times.

I had a frigin honey hole picked out. I was seeing deer out of that stand every afternoon that I sat in it. I laid off of it and saved that spot so I could take Zach up there during the youth gun hunt and let him get his first deer. We could only go 1 day of the youth season so we had to make it count. It rained in the morning so we hunted a different spot because the honey hole was an evening spot. We sat in the rain all morning and come out for lunch. During lunch Zach starts whining about his stomach hurting and wanted to go home so we didn't get to hunt the spot. I was beyond pissed off at him. That was a long truck ride home......for him.

Yesterday I go out for gun season. For the youth season I swapped my 870 12 gauge to my nephew for his 870 20 gauge so Zach could handle it a little better. Last spring I worked on my old jc higgins 12 gauge and got it shooting again. I decided to take it out opening morning for old times sake instead of the 20 gauge or even my muzzle loader. I wanted to get a deer with it since it's been probably 15 years since I've shot a deer with it. Damn thing misfired 3 times and cost me 3 deer. One of them was a 130's eight point. The pin is denting the primer but not discharging the shell. It done that earlier this fall so I swapped the hammer spring with an extra I had from a trigger group I replaced. I shot 10-15 shells through it and it fired every one. I also ran a few slugs through it last week just to get used to shooting it again. I can drive tacks with that thing at 50 yards when it shoots. I'm going to order a new hammer spring and a new firing pin for it and see if that fixes it. It'll have to shoot 50 shells before I risk taking it hunting again.

Just a shit luck year. I've had them before. Most of the bad luck is self inflicted as usual. Been a while though since I've been down in the hole like this. Between the bad luck and the drama with Zach it's taken a ton of wind out of my sails as far as even wanting to go hunt. I'm going to go out this weekend against my better judgement and see if it turns around. In the past I've learned that it rarely gets any better and I'll most likely just have to wait until next year and start all over.

**Zinergy** · 12-03-2014, 05:43 AM

I have to say my hunting experience this year has been anything but good. Until this past Sunday... last day for true gun-deer and it was just luck of being in my position. First of all about 2 weeks before gun deer started I was asked to leave the property I have been hunting for 3 seasons. When I say asked I mean screamed at. Two brothers own the farm land. Mark gave us permission to hunt the land for the past two season. This season he told us not to call him every weekend and to hunt as we see fit. GREAT... NOPE. His brother Dennis has friends who trap on the land, I met them for the first time this year. They hadn't trapped for the past two years which is why I never saw them before as I have hundreds of hours on that land over the past 3 seasons. They seemed ok.... until Dennis(the brother I never spoke to) called up and the first words out of his mouth GET THE FUCK OFF MY LAND. When I tried to explain we had Mark gave us permission he shouted MARK DOESN'T MAKE ALL THE RULES. So after a few minutes I calmed him down and said is there anyway we can work anything out. NOPE.. NO CHANCE, GET YOUR STUFF OFF THE LAND TODAY was his response in a somewhat clamer voice. I had chances to shoot doe and small buck on this land during bow but passed thinking to myself I will wait until late gun to start taking whatever I can. Take down my blind and tree stands. Move to another farmers land... saw an eight pointer first day but no shot with the bow. Then no deer sign in the area of the land that wasn't being hunted by others for the rest of bow and throughout gun season. I was pretty much giving up until I saw a decent doe and took her. Then when we were doing a drive this past sunday we pushed out 3 deer. My buddy shot one while it was running full clip across a field at 80-100 yards with his 30-06. The other ran into a tree line between two fields. I walked to the front of the tree line to close of their exits. A buck jumped out behind me, I turned and swung and shot. Hitting its back left knee with a 12 gauge slug. It sat down and I shot again... saw the steam... lung shot. It had a good size body but it was only a 5 pointer and the rack was somewhat narrow. I will probably go out again either this weekend or during late bow. At the very least to scout out the new land some more.

Good luck with your hunts. I hope they work out.

**0rion** · 12-03-2014, 09:02 AM

Wow....that sucks. I've had people in the past offer to let me hunt their land and I always say thanks but decline. We actually have some pretty good public land here that has some nice deer on it so there's no need to hunt private. Granted....private offers the biggest bucks and way less pressure but I'm always concerned that about the time I get settled in something like what happened to you will happen to me. I'm happier not knowing what I'm missing and just dedicating my time to public. I normally do fine on public here......just having a bad year.

I think once he told me to get off his land and I had reserved myself to the fact I wasn't going to hunt it anymore he had better pick his words wisely when talking to me after that. I would pack my stuff up and give him a call back and tell him I was off his land and if he ever raised his voice to me again he would get an ass whipping to remember. No reason for him to be a dick about it before even hearing the whole story and even after he heard the whole story he needs to take it up with his brother and not you. Screaming like that at someone on the phone is a quick way to get an ass beating.

**Zinergy** · 12-03-2014, 10:15 AM

I was pretty pissed off but I was trying my best to disfuse the situation as I really wanted to stay on that land. A lot of time and work went into that place. It was only a 45-50minute drive from my house. I was out there almost every weekend of bow/gun, and the week or two I would take off of work every year and in the off seasons scouting, watching, preparing. I even called Mark when I took the first deer from the property and offered some meat... he laughed and said I own a farm I have plenty of meat but thanks. I did call the farm house and left a message. Haven't gotten a response from Dennis or Mark since that day. It seems as though Mark has washed his hands of the situation as he is the one who actually lives at the farm house.... unless Dennis was there and deleted the message without letting Mark hear it. I have no idea where Dennis lives and neither brother lives on that property. I never actually saw them on the property either(met Mark at his house) as they rent it out to another farmer, Robert. Robert is cool as hell though and I gave him rides twice to pick up his dump truck when he was taking corn down. He lets me hunt the land that his actual house is on and that is where I shot that doe. He also gives me deals on crops now lol. Like I need 200lbs of corn.

WI has some good public too, only problem is it is hours away. The public land within an hour is over hunted. I took a drive on opening day of gun around the public land spots and saw dozens upon dozens of vehicles. On division road alone in a 2-3 mile stretch I counted over 30 vehicles. I have really enjoyed hunting private that is less than an hour away. Means I can go out more often, leave my stands up and can still come home at night. I do go to a deer camp most years up north but skipped it this year as my daughters birthday is 11-23. But I go for the social experience mainly as I shoot more deer down here.

Hopefully next year I will have my own private land as I too am worried about being kicked off again or the owners seilling it etc.

***SMWS6TA*** · 12-03-2014, 10:43 AM

wow..John.

The place my Dad hunts in TX, going on 14 yrs now, had a situation like yours 5 yrs ago but not as bad. The land is owned by an elderly couple but watched over by another guy that also hunts on the land. The same 5 guys since my Dad started. About 5 1/2 yrs ago the man past away and one of the kids took over. Someone got into his head to make money off of it by having a logging company cherry pick the timber. He didn't clear it with momma and boy was she pissed. Told him to immediately stop or get wrote out of her will. Seems her husband's wishes were to keep it remain as is, no timber removed and to let my Dad's group hunt on it as long as they wanted to. They take care of the place and maintain it for her and always offer meat from the hunt to her.

In the south, not much of Public land. Almost all is lease and boy they want a pretty penny for it.

**0rion** · 12-03-2014, 10:54 AM

it's a battle for sure.....Ohio is starting to get the lease disease. It's tough for guys to get permission to hunt private land because the farmers can make a ton from the leases. Worst thing to ever happen to hunting and it'll eventually kill it for everyday kinda people. There's no fighting it.....it's only a matter of time before you have 2 options.....lease or public and the public will get over run making it shitty hunting so leasing will be the only way to go. Texas has pretty much provided the road map to what the other big deer states will someday face. There's too much money in it for the landowners and there's too much upside for the hunters that are willing to pay. I have a buddy that leases land up north with some guys. I think there's 5 of them on the lease at $2000 per person. I forget the acreage but it's fairly good sized.....100+ if I recall correctly. Either way....the landowner gets $10k a year to do absolutely nothing. Never going to convince him it's not a good idea.
The public land I hunt is about 30 minutes from my house. It's also one of the lesser known public spots in the state. You never see it listed anywhere. During bow season I think there's about 10 of us that hunt it regularly and we're talking probably 3000 acres. During gun it gets a little crowded but by Wed. there's no one down there. I'll go back down tomorrow afternoon and then hunt the weekend. I'll be lucky to see a dozen people down there all weekend I bet. I don't mind a few people tracking around....helps keep the deer moving. Supposed to rain all day Friday and Saturday so it'll be some shitty hunting. Probably spend some time still hunting which I hate doing.....majority of those shots are running shots unless you just get lucky.

**Zinergy** · 12-03-2014, 11:02 AM

I like hunting in the rain. Means I can make more noise and stink a little more lol. Plus deer are often calmer. And being on private land I would just go in my blind or in my ladder stand with the tree stand blind on it.

***SMWS6TA*** · 12-03-2014, 11:10 AM

Agree with TX making a blueprint, also land owners can pocket that 10k and never report it as income unless they advertise.

Last public hunting I did was when I was still in HS living in PA, southeast of Erie. There's two huge state lands.

**Zinergy** · 12-03-2014, 12:30 PM

Thank god WI still has a crap ton of public. And the State buys more land all the time. The state also leases private land from owners. They do 5 year contracts, put up signs stating this is private leased land and post it online. There are some good hidden secret spots that people never go to that are private leased by the DNR. Because they are hard to find on the maps. There are 4 properties like this that are only accessable by water within an hour of me. And you need a shallow hull boat to get to them. How many guys you think go there? I plan on scouting them this spring/summer with my canoe just to see what they are all about. Maybe find some public that isn't crowded.

**2002ssslp** · 12-05-2014, 05:25 AM

Originally Posted by 0rion

got the piece of shit back together......what a pain in the ass. I couldn't go to sleep thinking about it so I had to get back up and tear back into it. That's the last rossi, H&R, or NEF gun I ever own. They all have the same trigger mechanism and what a bitch it is to put back together. Once I got rolling on it the parts kinda found their way home but it's a complicated retarded design to do a job other guns have been doing for 150 years without being that complicated. It's a single shot break barrel for crying out loud....how complicated do you need to make it?

No pain, no gain. lol

***SMWS6TA*** · 12-05-2014, 06:52 AM

My dad just text me he got a 7point Buck at my Aunt's house this morning in IL.

**0rion** · 12-07-2014, 04:17 PM

I managed to miss another frigin deer Friday evening. Just flat ass missed her. It's what I get for not using my own gun. I was using my nephew's 20 gauge since I had swapped him so zach could use the 20 gauge. I went that night and picked up my gun but the damage was done....didn't see another deer all weekend. Saturday it rained heavy almost all day. I had zach with me and about noon I decided we'd both had enough and came home. It stopped raining about 4 and my buddy managed to get a doe.....we probably should've stayed but we were both soaked to the bone and it's just been a long tough season to begin with. Deer-6....me-0.
Never had a year like this before. Setting new lows this year. I still have a lot of bow season left and a muzzle loader season so I'm holding out hope but history has shown that when I have a bad year like this (although this has been the worst I've ever had) it doesn't get better. It'll probably be next year before I get out of this funk. I'm possibly looking at the first time in 14 years that I haven't gotten at least 1 deer. Most years I get at least 2. I've had the opportunity....just haven't made the most of it and have definitely been off my game. I'm missing chip shots at deer.....that doe Friday was broadside at 40 yards.

**Zinergy** · 12-08-2014, 05:40 AM

That sucks balls.

I haven't had a chance to go out again since I shot that bucks. Probably won't get out again until it is back to bow.

**0rion** · 12-08-2014, 06:20 AM

my next trip out will be the weekend after xmas.....which works out...gives the woods time to settle back down after gun season and the deer to get back on a pattern. Those doe are a bitch to find late in the year but when you find 1 you find 30 because they'll be grouped up. They're also much harder to kill with a bow after gun season. It doesn't take much to send them packing. My best chance will come during muzzle loader but I'm hoping the weather is nice enough to go sit with my bow a time or two. Nothing like being in a tree stand with a bow when the temps are in the teens......being where you are though that's probably a warm snap this time of year.

I don't see how you guys do it up there. I can handle 20's and even high teens but when you get down in those low teens shit just starts hurting and I have on so many damn clothes it's hard to move around in the stand. Right now I'm still wearing uninsulated bibs with thermals under, a couple of shirts, and a jacket. It was 28 yesterday morning when I went out and although I started to get a little chilly it warmed up to 40 by 1pm so I was able to wait it out. Much colder though and I'll go to my heavy coveralls.....just sucks hunting in those.

**Zinergy** · 12-08-2014, 06:38 AM

I never really notice the cold unless it is -20 in my normal day to day life. But when it comes to hunting and sitting up in a tree for hours upon hours with nothing but my thoughts and nature I feel that shit lol even when it is in the teens. But the good news is when you have multiple days in a row of that temp it keeps the deer moving.