Holy Crap, I will never shot a +P
from my Rossi .38 snub.
o
I do it all the time. I've owned 2 .38s and a .357 M971 and all were good shooting guns. I had some snapping firing pin issues with the M971, finally got it right. I wound up trading the gun off, but I didn't carry it, it was an outdoor gun. Shot some rabbits with it using wadcutter and took a Javelina with it, once. Was a neat, light weight carry and handled all my handloads which ain't mild.
At present, I have an old 3" .38 M68 and a M511 Sportsman .22 kit gun. These two are very nice revolvers. My old M88 and my 971 were not well finished, tooling marks here and there. The 511 and especially my 68 are pretty awesome. the 68 was bought in 1981. The others were late 80s, early 90s. I also have a REALLY neat M92 Rossi .357 magnum lever action carbine. That one's a gem and a lot of fun.
I do hear a lot about snapping firing pins on the Rossis, even new production ones. I know I had the problem on the 971. I never had a firing pin snap like that on a Smith and I've owned several, still have my M10, but then, Smiths are much more expensive guns. Still, they ought to fix that problem because it's been a problem since the late 80s. It really ruins your range trip when it happens and it'd really, really ruin your day if it happened when you really needed it. I carry my Taurus 85UL, though, when I carry a .38 for self defense. I still think about that firing pin on the Rossi and, well, the little Taurus is pocket sized and has a really sweet DA trigger. I really prefer floating firing pins and transfer bars, too, to a hammer mounted one just from that experience, though I don't have a problem with carrying my M10 which is in fantastic shape for a 45 year old revolver.