Sock Monkey
New member
OK so, a huge bias in the title here but I got a Rossi RS22 Magnum. I've wanted a semi-automatic .22 magnum for yonks but after you watch 3,000 videos you see the jury is still fighting about which one is the best. CZ SEEMS to be topping the charts. Savage A22 has fallen off the map (can't find one for under a thousand or $1,500). There are some older European rifles which I will always be watching for but they don't come up to often. Frankly I can't even bring one to mind. Voere?? Anyway I'm not a fan of plastic. Firstly it's a cost saving measure which is pushed upon us as TACTICAL. Let's face it, if you're crouch crawling around like a JTF2 member anywhere with your .22 rimfire, you have problems larger than bad taste in guns. TACTICAL????? I bought a Savage A22 because it looked OK. It arrived, I took it out in the bush, shot it and it was on my table at the next gun show. Cheap, cheap, cheap cheap. Anyway, one of the Canadian companies who deals online was selling a Rossi .22 mag and it piqued my interest. It's an old company, they are well experienced in making many different firearms and the reviews weren't too bad. I bit. Oh, it came with a lovely wooden stock.
I unwrapped it and everything looked fine. #### it and wow, the springs/hammer/sears, etc. that aide this function made it quite difficult to do. Really stiff and stiff in two stages! Crunch crunch to the halfway point and then stiffer, grindy crunchy to the #### position. I made allowances for it being a brand new gun and it being a magnum of course. That's the issue with these. How to utilize the added recoil the magnum provides while still making a blowback rifle. I thought I had better strip this thing and see if there were any obvious issues. Oh, the wood was extremely nice. Nice contour, reasonable finish. I dropped the action, removed the trigger mech and didn't notice anything odd. I pulled the bolt out. Everything was quite oily. Having a look at the bolt I noticed the firing pin looked odd. It's a flat blade style as many are. The tip, however was oddly ground and very sharp. I removed the FP and though it should have been slightly hollow ground on each side with a flat striking surface it was fully hollow ground on only one side, way too deeply and leaving a virtual knife edge for a striking surface. Holy Moley, this didn't look good. This thing had to be capable of piercing brass. As I wiped out the action I noticed tiny tan specks that were scattered within the receiver. Cleaned them out. When I started putting 2 and 2 together I began to wonder if they had been unburnt powder, perhaps indicating case rupture. Too late, they were gone. Then I turned to the trigger mech. and started wiping out the heavy oiling with a white swab and it was quite dirty/black. New rifle?
There were some of the tan particles in the TM as well so I picked one up with a pin head, as oily as it was, presented it to a flame and POOF!, unburnt powder. This rifle was truly fecked. It had been piercing brass rims with it's sharp firing pin which I like to call "The Craw" [with a nod to Get Smart]. It had been test fired in Brazil, ruptured a few cases, the tech there hadn't noticed, threw it in a box and Voila, some time later some sap gets his broken gun at full price.
I thought about what to do, returning it to the merchant was lower on the list because they are going to say "Sure you had nothing to do with it". I thought I could simply make another pin. Flat stock, shape it, harden it. I could yes, but, why on earth should I? Anyway after much deliberation I emailed the merchant, spoke to someone on the phone eventually and they kindly took it back. I can't say enough about those guys and I'm not going to name them because I don't want them flooded with attempted returns by people who just have buyer's remorse and I've told them the merchant is a soft touch.
While I had this thing apart I noticed what a cheaply made rifle it is. Plastic trigger made even weaker by that stupid G.D. "can't pull the trigger unless you pull the trigger" device. I can't tell you how much I hate those effing things. The springs in and around the trigger are a mess of thin wire, confusing, convoluted parts which cannot be assembled by simply lining them up and pushing the pin back in. Oh no. You have to line up the springs, under tension with a pin of some sort, then feed the proper roll pin back into place while pushing out the lining device. What a mammoth pain. So, the rifle went back for a perfectly good reason and am I ever glad they took it.
In the future, no old guy is going to be saying to his grandchildren "Kids, if you can get ahold of one of those old Rossi RS22M's you're going to get a rifle that's well worth waiting for." It ain't gonna happen. They look OK, the heft (in wood) is nice but,,,,,, what a piece of junk. They are very poorly engineered.
I unwrapped it and everything looked fine. #### it and wow, the springs/hammer/sears, etc. that aide this function made it quite difficult to do. Really stiff and stiff in two stages! Crunch crunch to the halfway point and then stiffer, grindy crunchy to the #### position. I made allowances for it being a brand new gun and it being a magnum of course. That's the issue with these. How to utilize the added recoil the magnum provides while still making a blowback rifle. I thought I had better strip this thing and see if there were any obvious issues. Oh, the wood was extremely nice. Nice contour, reasonable finish. I dropped the action, removed the trigger mech and didn't notice anything odd. I pulled the bolt out. Everything was quite oily. Having a look at the bolt I noticed the firing pin looked odd. It's a flat blade style as many are. The tip, however was oddly ground and very sharp. I removed the FP and though it should have been slightly hollow ground on each side with a flat striking surface it was fully hollow ground on only one side, way too deeply and leaving a virtual knife edge for a striking surface. Holy Moley, this didn't look good. This thing had to be capable of piercing brass. As I wiped out the action I noticed tiny tan specks that were scattered within the receiver. Cleaned them out. When I started putting 2 and 2 together I began to wonder if they had been unburnt powder, perhaps indicating case rupture. Too late, they were gone. Then I turned to the trigger mech. and started wiping out the heavy oiling with a white swab and it was quite dirty/black. New rifle?
There were some of the tan particles in the TM as well so I picked one up with a pin head, as oily as it was, presented it to a flame and POOF!, unburnt powder. This rifle was truly fecked. It had been piercing brass rims with it's sharp firing pin which I like to call "The Craw" [with a nod to Get Smart]. It had been test fired in Brazil, ruptured a few cases, the tech there hadn't noticed, threw it in a box and Voila, some time later some sap gets his broken gun at full price.
I thought about what to do, returning it to the merchant was lower on the list because they are going to say "Sure you had nothing to do with it". I thought I could simply make another pin. Flat stock, shape it, harden it. I could yes, but, why on earth should I? Anyway after much deliberation I emailed the merchant, spoke to someone on the phone eventually and they kindly took it back. I can't say enough about those guys and I'm not going to name them because I don't want them flooded with attempted returns by people who just have buyer's remorse and I've told them the merchant is a soft touch.
While I had this thing apart I noticed what a cheaply made rifle it is. Plastic trigger made even weaker by that stupid G.D. "can't pull the trigger unless you pull the trigger" device. I can't tell you how much I hate those effing things. The springs in and around the trigger are a mess of thin wire, confusing, convoluted parts which cannot be assembled by simply lining them up and pushing the pin back in. Oh no. You have to line up the springs, under tension with a pin of some sort, then feed the proper roll pin back into place while pushing out the lining device. What a mammoth pain. So, the rifle went back for a perfectly good reason and am I ever glad they took it.
In the future, no old guy is going to be saying to his grandchildren "Kids, if you can get ahold of one of those old Rossi RS22M's you're going to get a rifle that's well worth waiting for." It ain't gonna happen. They look OK, the heft (in wood) is nice but,,,,,, what a piece of junk. They are very poorly engineered.
