Yet, this Rossi seems to be a class act, a 5 shot 3" with a quality deep blue high polished finish- a finish of 60s S&W quality! not that cheap modern polished blue if you know what I mean...
I have one I bought for my step dad in 1981. It has a windage adjustable rear sight which later ones didn't have. But, it shoots dead on with my handloads. It is a 3" gun, very accurate, and the fit and finish are simply amazing, perfectly timed, very tight gun, and as with yours, the bluing is deep and lusterous.
I have owned late 80s, early 90s guns and the fit and finish seemed to vary a bit during those years. I had a stainless 88 that looked as if they rough cut the hammer and never bothered to polish it underneath. I mean, it didn't affect how it shot, great shooter, but just seems like finishing lacked in that time period.
My 68 is so good, if it had a S&W stamp on it, I'd take it for a 36. It's very smooth in DA, but a little stiffer than a good J frame will be, but very usable. I also have a little M511 .22 kit gun from the early 90s. that is a friggin' tack driver and AWESOME field carry. It has a 4" barrel, adjustable sights, well made gun. It's odd in that it seems to have been designed with some end shake, but that's my only criticism as to fit and finish, sure shoots like a target revolver, though. I can get 1" groups with RWS target and under 2" with cheap federal lightening. IMHO, the 68/88 is the second best revolver Rossi turned out, the best is the little M511.
The 971 isn't a bad gun, either. I had several thousand rounds mixed heavy and light loads through mine, carried it a lot as a trail gun, and killed game with it. I liked that gun a lot even though I did have an issue with it snapping firing pins which I finally resolved with a local gunsmith. I'd have kept it, but there was this Ruger .45 Blackhawk I wanted and didn't quite have the cash for without a trade.
Rossis are back to their former early 80s fit and finish now that Taurus has bought 'em out. I do prefer my little Taurus M85UL as a carry, but the little Rossi has its place in my collection, great little shooter. It makes a good trail gun, too, and I've carried it occasionally in an IWB. One thing, it won't take a HKS speed loader without grinding and edge on the cylinder release, so I carry it with speed strips. My old 88, I ground off the cylinder release so that I could get a speed loader past it.
That gun will last you a long time. You done good on the price, too. Be aware, I don't think Taurus will honor any claimed warrantees on Interarms era guns, but you shouldn't have that problem. If the firing pin were to snap, and my 971 ain't the only one I've heard that did that, a good gunsmith can fix you up a lot cheaper than mailing it off, anyway. My smith did mine for about 20 bucks and I never had a problem with it after that for a good thousand rounds before I traded it off.
) Yet, this Rossi seems to be a class act, a 5 shot 3" with a quality deep blue high polished finish- a finish of 60s S&W quality! not that cheap modern polished blue if you know what I mean...
