So, naturally I had to make me a Rossi .45 Colt "Night Scout"...!
The scope-mount options for the Rossi are limited, vs. the Marlin, but since I was using a Holographic sight, position and eye-relief are not at all critical. I had a B-Square 'no-gunsmithing' mount I wasn't using, which has the added 'advantage' that you can take it off quickly and make the gun look all 'normal' again (I'm not sure why I would particularly want to do that, mind you, but it is important to some folks).
For the light-mount, I wanted either something quick-detachable (because the light is something I may want to remove sometimes, for instance hunting with a light is illegal where I live). So, I thought about a 'scalloped' version of the PVC-mount I used on the Marlin, but found an unused 'weaver scope base' that just happened to have the same radius concavity on the underside as the radius of the .45 Colt magazine tube. After considering sweat-soldering (thanks for the edjumication on that, guys ) I realized that wasn't a good idea since the base was aluminum, and I considered 'dimpling' the magazine tube and putting flat-head screws in it, but that would require drilling holes in the tube, and risking cartridge-hang-up even if I polished and filled afterwards. So, I turned to J-B Weld, and just 'glued' it. The LIGHT comes off just as fast as you can turn the two knurled 30mm scope-ring screws..!
The forend already bears scars from my previous Bubba-smithing of the forarm band when I mounted a sling swivel stud in it. Every time I do that I have two problems - I seem never to get the stud centered, so it cants off to the right or left, and I never can get the darned thing on without opening up the hole in the wood a bit. This particular one was worse, in that the wood was swollen so tight I had to rasp it down to even get the band off and gun apart. For some reason now, the forend won't absorb any stain (or at least the stain I had). Anyway, it looks light on the tip due to that, but it's important to note that I would NOT have had to do any reshaping of it to do this particular magazine-tube 'rail' project. Other forearms could be even thicker, and might hit it and thus need slimming on the tip part.
Anyway, Here's the Pics:
The Rossi with just the rail:
Rail Close-ups:
The Coast (link) LED-Lenser (Model P-7) 190-lumen light
(One nice thing about the LED-Lenser is that the first button-push gives you bright 190-lumen light, then the next button-push gives you a dim, battery-saving, non-blinding, light option. The scope rings hold the 'focus' ring in 'spotlight' mode.)
(One thing - I should have got the black one):
Sights:
- Burris Fastfire-II - http://www.burrisoptics.com/fastfire.html
LaserMax UniMax Rail-mount Pistol Laser - http://www.lasermax.com/product.php?id=104
B-Square Rossi Puma quick-detach mount - http://secure.armorholdings.com/b-squar ... ifles.html
I switched the Burris mount screw so the knob was on the left, keeping the ejection (& iron-sight) area uncluttered:
View through Sights (laser dot is brighter center part, co-incident with Holo-dot):
Gun with only the Sights:
Gun with Sights & Light:
Here's the Marlin for comparison:
The three-shot group which follows was shot at 50 yards - nothing all that exciting, even for a 'levergun' - - - BUT WAS SHOT IN PITCH BLACK CONDITIONS AT MIDNIGHT... Sure, a gizmo-equipped $2,000 AR-15 Shorty with night-vision CAN do that or better - but with blinding muzzle flash, deafening muzzle blast (unless you actually want to wear hearing protectors whenever you go out to check your livestock), and four or five times the cost. Hopefully, I can 'hit the quarter' next time I shoot in the dark...