Rossi underlevers

[ovenpaa]

Does anyone have any views on the Rossi range of underlever rifles, good or bad?

[dromia]

Rossi's are good value for money and I like them.

All that I have noticed about them over the years is that they seem to wear a bit quicker than the older Marlins if shot with a diet of full stoke magnum loads.

The main issue I have with Rossi's is the poor availability of spare parts if something does go ping.

[Dangermouse]

I believe the Rossi underlevers eject from the top. This is not to everyones taste as it can be distracting and prevents the fitting of a scope.

DM

[dromia]

They are based on the Winchester design, being a lefty I prefer the top eject to the R/H side eject.

[shugie]

The production quality of my .357 Puma is not that special, a lot of rough edges on the innards, and evidence of parts being filed to fit. I suspect that spare parts are not only hard to get, but may not always fit without some work. If you get the StevesGunz DVD on improving the way the mechanism works, you can get them to cycle really smoothly. Mine is quite accurate at 50m, but sometimes the hammer does not hit the firing pin hard enough to ignite the primer when cycling the action, thumbing the hammer back always gets it to go though.

The top ejection is quite amusing, a trait shared with my K31, and with rapid work you can get the empties to land in your hood!

[Sim G]

As far as I'm concerned, I believe they are fantastic bits of kit. My own personal experience is;

Bought one in 1998 with the 30 pieces of silver given by the government for our handguns. Wanted a .44 mag version with a 24" octagonal barrel. The importers at the time (Wednesbury JSL if memory serves) wouldn't bring that version in. Got a grey import via the Sportsmans. Paid my money and the first one they rought in went "bang" at the proof house! I thought "brilliant"....

Anyway, second one came and immediately I thought, "Ohhhh, lovely...!!" (There weren't many stainless lever guns at that time...)

In the time I had it, I shot everything from light "special" loads of 200gn lead bullets at 800fps to 325gn jacketed at 1400fps! It handled everything I fed it. Action was smooth, slick and strong. After five or six years, I siold it to another bloke in the club who shot it exactly as I did. Then, he "sold" it to the club where it was used as a club gun shooting Magtech cowboy loads. There, it probably hadn't been cleaned in years. Then, another bloke in the club buys it! Some nitromorse on the wood work and an oil and some emery paper and a flat edge on the stainless, it looks brand new!!

For old time sake, I shot it six months ago or so. I don't think I've ever cycled a smoother lever gun and trust me, I've had one or two! He's changed the sights to some fibre light gathering type, but that's it. It's still ticking after some 16 years of almost constant use/abuse.....

[Sim G]

The top ejection is quite amusing, a trait shared with my K31, and with rapid work you can get the empties to land in your hood!

Work the lever of a Rossi positive enough and you can get the cases on the top of the cover over the 100m point on Short Siberia. There's five on there belonging me....!!

[UKYankee]

Love mine. It's got the 20" stainless steel octagonal barrel which is great and adds just a touch more weight over the round barrel rifle my wife's Rossi has; really helps with muzzle flip and quicker targeting in comps. Out of the box it's as smooth as you like, my friends 20 year old Marlin is not as slick. I don't intend on fitting a scope as it just seems wrong to me but, a couple of guys / girls at my club have off-set mounts and they work well.

Work the lever of a Rossi positive enough and you can get the cases on the top of the cover over the 100m point on Short Siberia. There's five on there belonging me....!!

During an under lever comp one of my ejected brass went up over my head and straight down the back of my jacket, plenty of wiggling around and girlie squeals as I tried to get it off my neck :lol:

[toffe wrapper]

They are good value and have just put in a variation so can get one in .44
Shot the BRPC buffalo comp with one and got 49 out of 50.

TW

[25Pdr]

Bought a well used 38/357 a few years ago and it gave me nothing but trouble.

Main problems were letting more than one round escape from the magazine when operating the lever and throwing a live round out the top some times,all well documented faults.

Tried all the recommended fixes and replaced all the relevant parts to no avail.

Also hard to re assemble.

So fed up with it that I gave it away free of charge, would have felt guilty charging anyone for it.

Bought a Marlin, > 20k rounds up to now with just a broken firing pin and extractor.