Rossi 92SRC

     Notes:  This is an imported Argentine rifle, often seen in the "spaghetti westerns" of the 1950s and 60s. It is patterned after the 1892 Winchester, with top ejection.  This unfortunately makes it difficult to attach a sight. 

Rossi Circuit Judge

     Notes: This an interesting sort of rifle – it is one of those rare firearms that start as revolvers and are then built up into rifles.  And that’s what the Circuit Judge is – a Taurus “The Judge” revolver that has had a carbine-length barrel added, sights (fiberoptic on the front), a fore-end, and a recoil pad on the butt.  Barrels are short at 18.5 inches.

     The Circuit Judge Synthetic uses synthetic furniture, including a thumbhole stock instead of a solid stock. Atop the receiver is a flattop bar with an attached MIL-STD-1913 rail.  Under the front of the fore-end is a very short length of rail, just enough for the attachment of a bipod or laser pointer.  The Circuit Judge Synthetic fires any/all of three cartridges.  A second type of Circuit Judge Synthetic fires rimfire rounds and has a Mannlicher cheek swell.  Metalwork is blued.

     The Circuit Judge in .44 Magnum has a hardwood stock with polishing, a deep pistol grip wrist, and a high Mannlicher-style cheekpiece.  The fore-end is likewise hardwood.  There are sling swivels on the fore-end and under the stock. Atop the action is a MIL-STD-1913 rail. Sights are as on the Synthetic.  Another version of the Circuit Judge include a version which fires a variety of .410 shells as well as .45 Long Colt.  The finish on this version, however, is stainless steel and unblued. The third Circuit Judge is similar, but cannot fire 2.75” shells; otherwise, and this version has a 22” barrel. Yet another Circuit Judge uses the revolver base, but is operated by lever action. The Circuit Judge Tuffy has a skeletonized synthetic stock with a recoil pad, a fore-end with a short length of MIL-STD-1913 rail underneath, a split rail atop the cylinder strap, and a true pistol grip.

     The Trail Judge is a true lever action; it is in fact a pistol (legally, anyway), with an abbreviated wood stock and a 12-inch barrel.  It is included here for completeness, though to me it seems more like an SBR of sorts. Finish may be blued or stainless.  The barrel is rifled, but this does not affect range in T2K terms.

Rossi Puma

     Notes: Essentially a modification of John Browning’s Model 92 Winchester, the first Puma was introduced in 1976.  Though the first Pumas were given the designation of “Model 67,” they were often called the “Model 92” (whether mistakenly or otherwise) due their resemblance to John Browning’s rifle.  The Puma is essentially an old-style lever-action rifle, with a straight-wrist stock, a loading gate on the right side with a spring-loaded cover, and a half-length fore-end.  The exposed hammer used a half-cock safety as well as a conventional manual safety.  Construction was largely of steel with some brass touches, and polished walnut woodwork.  The barrels were 20 inches long, with a full-length tubular magazine underneath.

     The Model 65 was the first Puma to enter production in July 1976; the Model 67 could fire .357 Magnum and .38 Special ammunition interchangeably, even to the extent of mixing the different ammunition types in the magazine.  Though they had normal serial numbers until December of that year, a “K” was added at the beginning of the number string to differentiate it from the Model 77 (see later in this entry).  In July 1977, a lighter and less expensive version of the Model 67 was introduced; this was the Model 77, which could fire only .38 Special ammunition.  As with the Model 67, they started out with standard-type serial numbers, but in December of 1977 they had a “B” added to the front of their serial number string.

     Though variants of the Puma firing various .44 calibers had been experimented since the introduction of the Model 67, they were not produced commercially until the early 1980s.  This was the Model 65, which could chamber .44 Magnum or .44-40 Winchester interchangeably.  They were, unfortunately, never made in great quantities, though they were built until 1989.

     At this point, Rossi licensed the Puma name a design to the US firm of Legacy Arms.  In the mid-1990s, they began producing their own Pumas, calling them the Model 92 series; these versions use a longer 24-inch octagonal barrel.  Though they started out making the standard Puma chamberings (except for the .38 Special-only version), they quickly began producing versions with 20-inch and 16-inch round barrels (which they call carbine versions), as well as .44 Magnum, .480 Ruger and .454 Casull carbines with 18-inch round barrels.  Through the years have produced Pumas in some quite powerful chamberings, with the last being the .480 Ruger chambering introduced in 2004.

     The El Jefe goes to the other extreme, chambered in rimfire; it has a 20-inch round barrel and a wood stock with a blued finish.  The magazine is closed and fixed so that it may only be loaded and unloaded through the loading gate/ejection port.  Like the others, it is drilled and tapped for a scope mount.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: The Legacy Puma does not exist in the Twilight 2000 timeline.

Rossi Ranch Hand

     Notes: OK, the Ranch Hand – It’s not a rifle, and not really a pistol (though in the US it is legally a pistol).  What you have here is a type of firearm called a “mare’s leg” – a lever-action rifle based on the Model 92 with a much-abbreviated barrel and magazine and an equally-abbreviated stock.  It has a large lever loop to make it easier to cock with one hand, and it is meant to be fired with one hand (though two are better).  In addition, there is a saddle ring on the right side of the receiver.  It does have sights – a gold-bead front sight and a buckhorn rear. The butt of the stocklet (is that even a word?) has a steel plate, so theoretically could be fired from the shoulder, but the short LOP really prevents this in anyone bigger than a child.  In the end, the Ranch Hand seems to me to be a more personal last-ditch defensive weapon or something just for fun. Receiver finishes are color-case hardened or blued; even on the color-case hardened models, the barrels, magazines, butt plates, levers, and triggers are all blued.

Rossi Rio Grande

     Notes: The Rio Grande is one of Rossi’s newest lever-action offerings.  Stocks and pump slides are of walnut, with ventilated rubber recoil pads on the butt; one version of the .30-30 chambering is an exception, as it has synthetic camouflaged furniture.  The receivers are topped with a short length of MIL-STD-1913 rail; iron sights consists of a narrow, high blade front and an adjustable notch rear.  Barrels are uniformly 20 inches in length, but chamberings vary. Finishes also vary; the .45-70 exposed metalwork is blued or in stainless steel (a bow to customer demand), while some are either or.  All have exposed hammers; the .45-70 chambering has an enlarged loop lever.

     The Rio Grande Blue Rifle is one of “either or” Rio Grandes, at first finished only in blued metal work (though stainless steel came later).  The Blue Rifle has a large, loop lever of a style originally made for use from horseback. Like the rest of the Rio Grande line, the Blue Rifle tries to keep as much as possible to authentic Old West standards, even to having the capability to fire blackpowder rounds; however, the Rio Grande is an amalgam of old and new.  The sights are of the buckhorn type and the stock is finished in a hardwood-type finish (though the stock and slide are walnut.  The safety borrows from Taurus’s design for safeties for lever-action rifles.

     The Rio Grande Stainless in .410 Gauge fires smaller shotgun shells. It’s essentially a lever-action shotgun.  The “Stainless” moniker refers to the metalwork, which is stainless steel.  The Stainless .410 is also available in blued stainless steel for the external metalwork. The standard choke is Full, and there are no removable muzzle tubes.   The Rio Grande Black .410 has it’s internal metalwork finished in gloss black.

     The Rio Grande Stainless in .30-30 is similar to other stainless steel rifles in the series, including being able to get a blued finish over the stainless steel.

     The Rio Grande Synthetic has a synthetic stock, but is otherwise the same as other .30-30 Rio Grandes.  It is of course lighter, and finish is medium gray, except for the metalwork, which may be stainless or blued over stainless.

Rossi Gallery Rifle

     Notes: This pump-action small-caliber rifle was based on the Winchester Model 62.  Production of the first version, the Model 37, began in 1962, and is still in production.  The stock and grooved slide lever are of polished hardwood and the stock has a straight wrist.  Though the profile is noticeably compact and slim, it does have a slab-sided receiver with metalwork of steel and with brass touches on certain parts such as the trigger guard and the exposed hammer.  The hammer has a half-cock safety, with an interlock preventing firing until the action is securely locked.  Feed is from a long underbarrel magazine.

     In the US, the Rossi Gallery series is primarily sold through Interarms, though they usually still carry the Rossi name.

     As said, the Model 37 was the first version; it chambers .22 Short, .22 Long, and .22 Long Rifle interchangeably.  The barrel is 23 inches long, and the sights consist of a front blade and a rear spring-leaf and elevator adjustable sight.  In 1980, a version with stainless steel metalwork and a higher quality of brass was introduced.

     The Model 57 Gallery Junior was introduced in 1970.  Unlike other Gallery series rifles, the Model 57 was sold in the US by Harrington & Richardson (and called the Model 749 by H&R), and in the US primarily carried the H&R name.  The Model 57 was sold primarily sold in the US, and sales elsewhere were quite limited.  For that matter, sales in the US were never high.  The Model 57 was basically a Model 37 with a short 16.5-inch barrel, and the tubular magazine ended level with the muzzle.  The Model 57 is the only member of the Gallery series which is no longer manufactured, with production ending in 1972.  However, an improved version, the Model 73 Gallery Junior II, was introduced in 1975 (but not distributed in the US by H&R).  The Model 73 is still being manufactured.

     The Model 59 Gallery Magnum is also essentially a Model 37, but it is rechambered for the .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire cartridge, and the magazine is shortened somewhat.  Though slightly longer than the Model 37, this is primarily due to the longer action required to chamber the longer cartridges.