Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Lever action conversion.

Ohio has a three round limit in rifles and shotguns.

I have a Rossi Rio Grande 45-70. It has a full length magazine tube. It has a band around the forestock with a small screw the goes through a small notch in the magazine tube. Then it has a forward barrel band.

If I decided to convert it to a short magazine what would I need to do. I get cutting the tube and moving the cap, and shortening the spring, but am worried that the one small screw would not hold under recoil. Looking at pictures of short magazine rifles there seems to be some kind of attachment at the end of the magazine tube.

i would get a wooden dowel the rightsize and cut it up in 45-70 lengths put the proper number of dummy rounds in magezine. or just load up some rounds with no primer or powder and do the same

Ed.

Here is the exact wording from ODNR's website (See "Allowable Hunting Equipment"):

"Shotguns and straight-walled cartridge rifles can be loaded with no more than three shells in the chamber and magazine combined."

Don't cut the gun - just load only three rounds of ammo.

If you don't believe me, ask your county's Game Warden. It's his interpretation that matters.

You miss the point. I like the looks of a short mag lever. The comment "Ohio has a three round limit in rifles and shotguns." was not intended to say I need to limit my gun to that capacity.

The question is, How does a short magazine lever prevent the magazine from walking out under recoil. The pictures look like a pin goes through the magazine cap and into a hole in the bottom of the barrel. But they are just grainy pictures.

OK, I found some pictures that are better. It appears that the front of the magazine has a dovetailed in part and the magazine cap screw goes through and threads into that. The Rossi lacks this:



It also appears that the screw that goes through the stock cap goes through a tendon dovetailed into the barrel. The models that have a barrel band lack this.