Rossi single shot break over rifles... Your experiences?

[Partychief67]

I swapped my son an old beater Lee Enfield for a Rossi single shot break over. The rifle is chambered for 7.62x39 and has an Academy Simmons scope on it sitting on Leopold rings.

I've seen these mass produced Rossi's everywhere at bottom dollar prices. Is there anything I need to know about them? The rifle looks and feels to be real solid and the fit and finish looks somewhat decent.

What kind of groups could I expect to get out of it with good quality Remington ammo? I got a bunch of that in the trade and also a crap ton of Silver Bear steel cases ammo too.

Would I hesitate to take this hunting this fall?

 

[Texas42]

No personal experience with them. But I wouldn't worry about hunting with it. Just be careful about the bullet selection. I'd avoid using FMJs. I don't thing rossi is a very popular brand. But you've got the rifle right? Tell us how it shoots! Don't let us stop you.

 

[dobarker]

Groups of 1.5" at 100yds shouldnt be very hard to get, 2-3" would be a bit more realistic.
They're just a good ole boy type rifle, economically priced and mass produced. If you get them sighted in good they are easily capable of hitting the kill zone of deer/hog sized game at modest ranges.
I had one in .223 that I fed 62gr SS109 rounds that was one of the best back up/hog guns i've owned.
I wouldn't hesitate at all to take one hunting in the fall. There's not much selection of soft point hunting loads for the 7.62x39 at the usual ammo getting places (Academy, wal-mart) but if you don't mind going online, Hornady, Remington, Federal and several others do make it.

 

[Leper]

I saw a Rossi today at the Plano gun show that had a .22 and a .410 barrel with it. I thought it was neat. Never used one personally, but I was interested.

 

[Dawico]

The Rossi Trifecta I bought for my boys is a decent gun. It is a good gun for the price. My boys haven't destroyed it yet, so that says alot for it.

The 7.62x39 has about the same ballistics as the 30-30. With good bullet selection, it should be very capable.

 

[Partychief67]

Thanks for the input! I will definitely take it as my backup rifle!

 

[Texas1911]

I've shot 20 different Rossi's and would not recommend them. Of the 20 about 8 of them would not shoot, one required 3 different barrels from the factory to shoot a 3" group, and the rest were a ballpark at best rifle.

Personally I'd rather buy a Mosin-Nagant, and spend a little time cleaning it up and accurizing it.

 

[Partychief67]

Shot this afternoon with the Rossi... Shot about 35 rounds of the Wolf steel cased and 5 out of 35 rounds mis-fired.. If that particular lot/batch was representative of modern Russian manufacturing techniques then we have nothing to fear from Russia in any kind of a gun battle... LOL And besides the mis-fires, the groups were horrible too. I felt lucky to nick the edge of a clay pigeon at 100 yards.

Switched over to some good looking, shiny brass, American Eagle soft points and I regained my faith in this little Rossi. Was getting 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 inch 150 yard groups with that ammo, standing, braced up with a wide width sling.

 

[dobarker]

Shot this afternoon with the Rossi... Shot about 35 rounds of the Wolf steel cased and 5 out of 35 rounds mis-fired.. If that particular lot/batch was representative of modern Russian manufacturing techniques then we have nothing to fear from Russia in any kind of a gun battle... LOL And besides the mis-fires, the groups were horrible too. I felt lucky to nick the edge of a clay pigeon at 100 yards.
.

The misfires come from very hard primers. Military rifles are really brutal on ammo, but that's what makes them so trustworthy. An AK-47 will bend, scrape, dent and brutalize the heck out of a round, as will the soldier carrying it, that's why they have hard primers.
But with good ammo, comes good results.
Glad to hear that all eventually went well. Let us know how it fares over deer season.