Rossi to Chiappa and back to Rossi

[trooper joe]

Several months ago I sold a “Trapper” style, blued, .357 Rossi at a gun show. It was a nice gun but I wanted better wood. After that I bought a Chiappa SRC case hardened .357 “Trapper”. The Chiappa was a beautiful gun but I was disappointed that it did not feed .38 spc ammo. My model 94 Marlin, Winchester/Miroku model 73, and original Rossi all fed .38 ammo as well as .357.

So today, I was in my friends gun shop and saw that he had 3 new “Trapper” style, SRC, .357 Rossi carbines. He gave me one of these new Rossi carbines plus $300 for that gorgeous Chiappa. The Rossi has great wood and blueing (and that goofy safety) and feeds 38 Special cartridges without a hiccup.

My new Rossi seems to have a great trigger pull. Will try to get out to the range ASAP.

Trooper Joe

[Old Savage]

A picture would be in order.

[Ysabel Kid]

A picture would be in order.

+1

[COSteve]

I know that some here have nothing but disdain for the Rossis but I've had my 2 .357mag versions since 2009 and both have been excellent.

Yes, I did Steve's slick-up on both (as well as my neighbor's) and yes, I removed that stupid bolt safety on both and yes, I added some WATCO Danish Oil stain to the stocks to bring out the colors.

I've run thousands of rds of .357mag through both and they are wonderful examples of a levergun. Also, I take one or both of them to the range with me every time I go.

[trooper joe]

A picture would be in order.

I borrowed these from the net.

[Old Savage]

I have a Rossi 357 Trapper. Looks like the bottom with plainer wood.

[oldebear1950]

Hey old TRAPPER,
Where u at in the high desert. across the mountains of Tehatchapi, when to high school and brother was at the old George AFB, outside of Victorville, where the ROY ROGERS mueseum was for a while.

[oldebear1950]

California was a different kind of place back then

[oldebear1950]

that was in the 1960s and 1970s

[COSteve]

California was a different kind of place back then

I moved to California in 1956 when I was 9 and yes, it was a completely different place back then. Truly the 'Golden State.' However, that was back then and it was changing fast. By the late 70's the congestion was terrible as everywhere you went you went with 400,000 of your closest friends!

The Bay Area was already a parking lot and driving from Fremont to South Lake Tahoe to visit the MIL on a weekend was a 4-5 hr ordeal each way so that's when I packed up the family and moved to Colorado SW of the Denver Metro Area where today, it's still a bit rural (but getting a bit more crowded every day).

I find it funny that most now consider the 80's in Nor Cal 'the good ole days' now as it's so much worse than back then. I visited a friend in Tracey who works in Oakland in 2019. His commute is on I-580 over Altamount Pass, 38 miles to Oakland and on a good day only takes 1 1/2 - 2 hrs each way!!

[trooper joe]

Well, after 3 days I decided I could not live with the saddle ring or large loop of the Rossi. My friend said he would trade back if I wanted to.

I just ordered and received 5 boxes of NEW REPUBLIC TRAINING AND RANGE 357 MAGNUM AMMO 158 GRAIN FMJ FP at $21 a bix. That will take of my urge to shoot .38 Special ammo.

I now want go remove (but save) the saddle ring. I discovered that the saddle ring “staple” (the part that holds the saddle ring to the gun) is “U” shaped and threaded on one side. I would like to put a slotted thread plug in the hole in the receiver but I can not seem to determine if it is metric or SAE. Chiappa said it was probably M4 x 7 but that was not correct. The threaded staple screws into the 6 x 4 SAE thread checker from Brownells. So my next step is to find that at my friendly hardware store. I figured I would have to make my own slotted plug since most of them available seem to have allen fastener systems.

Right now I reinstalled just the staple back into the receiver with a drop of blue locktite. That actually doesn’t look too bad and at least I don’t have a saddle ring rattling around.

Any advise would be appreciated.

[Griff]

leverporn2-1.jpg

Here's what I did with my two saddle ring Trappers. Just took a small strip of deerhide, cut a slot in it, thru the ring, thru the slot, pull up tight and it keeps the metal on metal sound to next to nothing. Looks like it's get tangled up with the lever, but... it doesn't seem to in actual use.

[COSteve]

I just took a piece of leather and wrapped it around the saddle ring as shown. It's never made a sound and better yet, the ring doesn't mar the receiver. In addition, I also wrapped the lever as shown too.

DSCN2837.JPG

[oldebear1950]

we moved to California back in 1958, that summer, rode a grey hound bus from Oklahoma City, to San Francisco, on old 66. Is Interstate 40 now, and not as much to see. I can remember my granddad told my brother and I to go get his gun out of the car, about 1959, and I was almost 9 years old, and my brother almost 7, course we did not point it at anyone, and it was loaded, no one said anything, and no cops stopped us, and that was San Francisco. I grad from high school 1969, and we ran around the southern San Juaquin valley with 22 and other rifles all the time, and no problem

[JB]

The previous Rossi 357 I owned wouldn't fee 38 specials, so I sold it. I know they can be worked on, but I didn't wasn't happy enough with the rifle to do it. A few months ago in a moment of weakness, I bought another new one, but I haven't gotten around to seeing if it will feed 38's or not. I'm keeping my finger crossed.