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NEF/ROSSI

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5.4K views 24 replies 13 participants last post by  ruppster  
#1 ·
OK, I admit it, I bought a Rossi youth .410 .22lr matched pair, with the rebate it was $97.00 with a fitted case to carry the whole lot. I am going to make a very light weight .22 Hornet stub with the shotgun barrel and ream the 22 LR to .22 Mag. Now for the H&R part. The pins in the frame are in the exact same locations as on a H&R, not just close, but as close as I can measure without taking the Rossi apart and matching the holes up. I am now wondering if the internal parts are also the same, they could not be that much different with having the holes drilled in the same place. The youth .410/22 is on a narrowed frame, the entire .22 with the fire sights is under 4 pounds and the .410 is lighter. The .410 feels like a toy and I will tell you that a .410 that light would hammer some pour little kid shooting it. I am going to take it apart and compare the internals, but my guess it they are going to be real close, the transfer bar looks the same, fireing pin looks the same. I can say the casting is excellent and the underlug appears to be forged. Anyone else ever take the guts out and compart them to a H&R? The narrowed frame appears to have the same width inside for the trigger and hammer parts as the full size frame, Just looking, I would say that they just did a direct copy of H&R with some slight mods to the ejector and front pivot/underlug to make it cheaper to build. Although I have not taken it apart it looks like the shotgun barrel is pressed into a stub in some way. Anyone try swaping internal parts? Larry
 
#3 ·
Here is a picture of the barrel ejector parts, top H&R bottom Rossi. H&R parts are definately better made, Rossi does have a bigger ejector spring. H&R has nice roll pins, rossi has solid pins. Larry

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#4 ·
I have a youth 22/20ga Rossi combo I picked up new awhile back for $88. The .22 shoots pretty well, the 20ga is brutal with Federal hevi loads, I could not imagine letting a "youth" shoot it. Both youth barrels also fit my Rossi 12ga slug gun frame (also brutal with sabotted slugs). I originally hoped the barrels would fit NEF frames, but the lugs are off very far. The fit and finish on the Rossi is very poor compared to a Handi. How much work is involved with making a 22LR a 22Mag?
 
#5 ·
would the Rossi barrel fit a Sidekick frame? It's lug is shorter than a regular Handi isn't it? Just a shot in the dark....<><>...:)
 
#6 ·
I have the Rossi 22/20 (100 dollars on black friday). The 22 shoots terrible with every thing but Remington high velocity ammo, which for some reason it is a tack driver with. Don't know if yours shoots the same or not. The 20 gauge kicks pretty bad, which defeats my purpose for having bought it which was to have for my neices to shoot as a first gun.
 
#8 ·
Also, the 22 barrel has micro-groove rifleing which I find kind of odd, I thought that was kind of a made in USA thing. Larry
 
#16 ·
An update on the difference in working with Rossi and H&R stub projects. Today I bored out the .410 stub to get ready to put a barrel for a .22 Hornet in it. When I put it in the lathe it was so bent I had to straighten it out before I could start working on it. Good thing was it is dead easy to bend it, just chucked up between centers, all I had to do was pull on the middle of it by hand to straighten it out. Made things easy for me, but kind of disturbing you can bend them by hand. Got it mostly done, I am waiting to get a proper size drill because the little hole I need to put through it is too long to use a boring bar. Next, just for fun, I slugged the bore of the .22lr barrel, guess I won't be chambering it to 22 Mag, it is a bore of .220 and the grooves are at about .215 or so. Guess I will see how it shoots with the .22 Quik Shok for Coyotes in a RF only area. Not much else to tell, the frame looks good to me, but the barrels are total junk as far as I can see, H&R has nothing to fear so far. Larry
 
#17 ·
I may be slugging the bore on my .22, perhaps I now know why so little ammo works in it well.

It shoots sub sonics of all three makes I tried more in patterns than groups.....Standard velocities about the same.
 
#18 ·
I finished the latest project off today. Sort of exploring the differences in the Rossi and H&R's. Below is a picture of the finished off ultra-light 22 Hornet with the narrow youth Rossi frame. As pictured it weighs 3.8 pounds, so with a scope and rings it will probably be well under 5 pounds. Second picture is the side by side of the Rossi Youth frame and a H&R frame, I think all the parts inside the narrowed frame will probably fit the wide Rossi frame, H&R should think about this to lighten up some of the small cal's they sell. I will shoot it later. I don't think I would do another, just too small to have enough metal to work with without a lot of pain and suffering. Larry

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#19 ·
Handi- rossi compairson today

A friend stopped by and had just picked up a rossi 223 and 12 combo. 190 which isn't a bad price.It was the first chance I had to look over and compare both at leisure. the rossi had walnut furniture always a plus in my book. fit and finish were good. lock up was tight less than a thousands side clearance barrel lug to frame nice full contact on the latch shelf. although they appear the same the rossi's pivot pin was a lot closer to the breech than a handi and the inside of the receiver was a lot narrower. neat thing they did was the sling swivel is the forearm attaching screw. barrel was thinner profile than the handi barrels. Seemed to be a good deal and well built for the price. He said they could fit new barrels like the handi and i had to tell him that i had not heard of rossi doing this and thought maybe the guy at the store was wrong. He is off for 5 days for Christmas so we'll have a scope on it and see how it shoots and will let you know later.
 
#21 ·
Quick is right, there is no barrel program at Rossi. Plus, if you ever call them for anything, they are totally clueless, so what you have is what you got, they will be of no help to you at all. They are cheap to buy however, wish there was more knowledge about how they are made and what of, but H&R has the track record and the following. I did do an experment with the Rossi Youth 22/410 because it is very light, this is the results, total weight is 4.4 pounds as you see it, either barrel, 22 Hornet or 22 LR. now. I will stick with the H&R for future projects, but this one was fun. Larry

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#25 ·
mechanic said:
Larry, how close are the stocks to H&R? I've got a nephew with a Rossi who needs a longer stock..........
The shape of the stock where it matches the frame is quite a bit different. It could be made to match with some tools & a little time, but definitely not a "bolt-on". Tried it on the youth Rossi I have.