Vintage Rossi 685 ?

[357smallbore]

Just bought a mint Rossi 685. It's blued, 2in 38 Special. Barrel is pinned, has firing pin on the hammer. I never heard of this model Rossi, I'm finding very little info on them. It seems this was made in the early 90s.
I have a Rossi 720 from 1994. It's a hell of a shooter and ccw.
They look similar,and the markings look the same.This will be a very good ccw. Anyone have one? Or knowledge about them?

 

[MedWheeler]

Probably a spin from the 68. The 68 was based on the S&W 36. Decent guns, though my old 68 has a barrel-to-cylinder gap that is too small; can't even see light through it. It causes bindup after only a few shots. I haven't bothered to mess with it because it's just an old beater purchased on a whim. Even if I carried it for defense, I'd never get off enough rounds for a lockup.

EDIT: I cannot find out much, either, but I have read that the trigger blade and the thumb-release for the cylinder are both a tick larger on the 685 than on the 68. Other than that, they appear to be identical guns that quite probably overlapped in production and importation.

The same precautions noted for the 68 seem to apply as well: No +P ammunition, and no dry-fire without a dummy round or Snap-Cap in place (this applies pretty much to all revolvers with hammer-mounted firing pins, as repeated inertia applied to the pin upon hammer impact can weaken it, causing it to break.)

 

[wcwhitey]

It doesn’t exist without pictures

 

[Tallball]

I got a beater Model 68 recently, just to see how I liked shooting and handling a 3" j-frame.

It goes bang every time.

It looks like this:

Rossi Model 68 38 Special

• Tallball
• Sep 11, 2021