# What I learned online about Rossi youth rifles



## Mako22

A summary of several post I read online about the Rossi .243 youth rifle. Each short paragraph is a blurb from an online discussion about the Rossi rifles.

From online forums and reviews:

Rossi 243 seems to like the lighter bullets and a cold barrel. Finally got mine shooting MODeer and even killed a buck with it.

Last year I bought the Rossi "trifecta" which had .22LR,20 gauge and .243WIN barrels.The .243 shot like a shotgun, all over the place. I sold it quickly without ever shooting the .22 or 20 gauge.

The .243 is problematic in both the Handi rifle and in the Rossi. Probably more so in the Rossi. I recently read a post about the chamber on the Rossi being too long. 

I've read other posts claiming the .243 was a problem in Handis and Rossis. Don't understand why that one caliber would cause more problems than any other. It works well in other action types.

My friend purchased a brand new Rossi .243 from Gander Mountain, took it out and had 8 misfires from three different brand bullets. I took the misfired shells then put them in my Savage .243 and all but one fired.

I read somewhere that the Rossi's published rate of twist, 1 in 10 inches, was not good for 90-100 grain bullets. Am I right or wrong?

That 1:10 twist should handle an 85 - 95gr bullet pretty well. Federal has two factory hunting loads that would be perfect. The 85gr Sierra Gameking and the 85gr Barnes X bullet.

Accuracy with the Rossi Trifecta was a mixed bag. The .22 LR barrel shot well while the .243 Winchester barrel shot less well than hoped. The Remington Yellow Jackets were the best shooter of the handful of rim fire ammo that I took to the range with 25 yard groups being consistently under an inch. The .243 Winchester with 100 grain Federal Power-Shok ammunition shot into about 3 inches at 100 yards which is of course not great accuracy. Playing around with other factory loads and reloading ammunition would probably improve accuracy of the Trifecta but then again if shots are kept to 200 yards or so that level of accuracy is good enough to kill deer. The Trifecta had no functioning issues and the trigger was pretty good.


From me:

Several post reported that the 20 gauge kicks like a mule.

Several post complained of a HEAVY trigger pull, I noticed this as well.

The accuracy problems seem to be mainly with the .243 barrel.

Lighter ammo (85 gr) and allowing the barrel to cool between shots may improve accuracy.

Accuracy of the .243 at 100 yrds is about 3-4 inch groups from what I read online.

Most likely barring any mechanical problems these are good "starter" guns for kids which is why I bought mine.

I got mine on paper and shot about a 6 inch group at 100 yrds but that was with a hot barrel (12 rounds to get it close). I will take it back out with some lighter ammo and let the barrel cool between each shot and see if I can tighten the group up some. I am not expecting a 2" shot group to be honest though.


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## Mako22

TTT, deer season is getting closer and some might find this review helpful.


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## CAL

Bought one years ago when first came out in 223.Shot everywhere except where I wanted it to.At 100 meters it shot about an 8 inch group.Too light to be a boat anchor,too short to be a tomato stake.A worthless piece of junk far as I am concerned.Some folks have good luck with them,not me!


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## Glassman

I have heard bad things about the Rossi single shots, so I have steered clear of them. I do have two Handi-Rifles in .243 and they are both great.
 H&R did have a problem with one model if I recall correctly, it was the superlight in .243. As luck would have it that is one of the rifles I own. A lot of time researching on Graybeards, and a little time tinkering and it is now a shooter.
Since they are the same basic design, you may be able to use some of the same fixes. Look at Graybeards Outdoors, they have a very extensive Handi-Rifle section full of mods and fixes to correct accuracy issues.


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## viper25963

Ive had 2 of the Handi rifles in .243 and both we're bad to the bone! Took many deer with both, maybe I was lucky, but I now own 4 Handi Rifles and ALL of them are as good as anything else for my hunting needs!


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## Mako22

UDATE: My Daughter killed a spike at 20 yards with this gun last season but we were never able to get it zeroed real well at 100 yards.


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## pottydoc

My step son has one in 308. Not a tack driver, but shoots a 2" group at a 100 yards consitantly.


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## sandhillmike

I bought the Rossi .243, back when Gander Mountain had them on sale with a scope package. I've had no misfire problems, and while it will never win a prize for it's accuracy or consistency, It does alright. I think it's a decent rifle for the price.


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## rabbithound

I bought one for my daughter (a tri-fecta).... all I can say is you get what you pay for I guess. It has killed 2 deer (last season) in my hands, since she didnt want to shoot them ...but did want to go home with deer.... go figure. 

At any rate, when I got mine (hers) I had to take it to a gunsmith to have the .243 and the 20 guage barrels fitted to the reciever. the shop I bought it from would not exchange the receiver, only the barrels.... and that didnt help much . Given the turn around time and costs to ship... I took the set over to Moss Pawn and their smith fixed me up. So in the end, I have 250.00 in the set up and I am sure it will get some use this season upcoming. But my advice is to stay away from it.... its a heck of a lure to buy 3 guns in one... but by gosh if I had it to do over... I'd just buy a quality .243, pump 20, and be done with it forever.... just my .02.  It would cost more... but you get what you pay for.


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## snake bite

I bought one used on swap n sell for my son and took it out to the range and the first 3 shots were all touching at 80 yds.  Maybe I got lucky and got a good one.  My son can shoot about a 6 in group at 80 yds with it and his marksmanship is improving.  I would not be afraid to take it myself.  The 20 gauge does kick like a mule but my 8 yr old loves to shoot it.  He burned up 2 boxes of shells shooting at dragon flies and wanted more! LOL


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## Bruz

I hand load Barnes TSXs for my cousins sons Trifecta...he can shoot 1.5 MOA with it and took his first deer last season. 

This rifle took a bunch of tweaking the COAL to get it to shoot. 

Robert


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## caw caw

I bought a used trifecta combo for my kids from a member of my hunt club last year.  I haven't shot the 22.  I shot skeet with the 20 ga and smoked 'em.  It felt easy.  I sighted in the .243 with a cheap Nikon Prostaff 2-7x32 scope and 100 gr rem core-lokts.  Not the best group, but good enough where I felt good hunting in areas where my shot would be under 150 yds.  I decided I wanted to shoot a deer with it at the end of the season.  I shot a doe in the shoulder at 60 yds and she dropped in her tracks!  Then she let out a "bwaaaaaah" a minute or 2 later, so just to put her out of any misery, I loaded another, took aim right between her eyes, and boom!  The bullet hit it's mark perfectly right where I was aiming.  I was stoked!!!

I have no problems with it and wouldn't hesitate to buy it again.  I can't wait for my kids to start hunting with this gun.  It's no high end gun, but it works great, hits what I aim at, and goes boom every time.  I have never had a misfire.


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## Mako22

Okay I sold it this summer as this gun is garbage (and I told the buyer that). I take back anything nice I may have said about it when I originally posted this thread. I'd get it down to a 4-5 inch shot group then shoot it the next day and it would shoot 12 inches off bulls eye. The last time I set the scope I waited 30 minutes between shots to adjust scope and fire another round, it took me over 8 hours to set the scope. I finaly got it down to a 3" group and felt good about it, the next day I shot it again and it was 12" off target!!! I have put three scopes on it and that didn't help. Avoid this rifle like the plaque!


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## chuckdog

No offense to anyone that has one of them and loves it, but I could never get past the looks of them myself.

If anything is going to be as homely looking as these things are, they'd need to be tack drivers!


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## Oldstick

Yeah, I have a .22/20 gage I picked up just to introduce some of my nephews/nieces and whatnot to the target range for the first time. 

Other than that it is usually just kept in the bag stored in the truck.  Never even tried the 20 gage  barrrel.  I don't know how those folks expected it to do anything other than "kick like a mule" with something the size/wt of a BB gun.

But now the 22 accuracy was not too bad for plinking.  My youngest daugter was hitting soda cans pretty good around 40 yards or so with the sights.


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## biggdogg

my son has the .22/.410 matched pair. the .22 barrel is incredibly accurate. he is 11 now and can hit those nasty "peeps" thingys that you can get for $.25 the day after Easter at 50-70 yards with scary consistency.


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## SCDieselDawg

I remember being in a Gunshop a few days after Christmas a couple of years ago and there were 4-5 guys there trying to return the guns they had bought for their kids.  They all happened to be Rossi. The quality was horrible on these guns.


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## Dub

snake bite said:


> The 20 gauge does kick like a mule but my 8 yr old loves to shoot it.  He burned up 2 boxes of shells shooting at dragon flies and wanted more! LOL



That made me laugh.  Well done, Dad.  Glad to hear he had fun!


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## dwhee87

Bought the 223 for my daughter a couple of years ago. It's more accurate than I am at 100 yds (2-3-inch groups). Never shot it beyond that.


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## Fenderbuilt27

LOL! "Rossi" isn't that a Brazilian word for "Crap"?


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## rosewood

Picked up a Mossberg Maverick rifle a couple of years back at 
Academy for $179 in .243.  Couldn't resist the price and since I didn't have a .243......  Anyway, I believe the Maverick was leftover older models of the 100ATR before the LBA trigger and fluted barrel.  This gun consistently shoots submoa and I have even had a couple of cloverleafs with it at 100 yards with 100gr Rem Core-Locks.  It didn't like the 80grain core-locks as well as the 100grains.  Needless to say, the bullet isn't the problem, must be issues with the manufacturing.


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## Mako22

TTT because in the next couple of days some will be wondering why the new rifle they just bought JR ain't shooting right. In fairness a poster on GON posted today that they are having great results in this rifle with 80 gr. bullets.


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## bigdawg25

I have this becuase I found one for cheap at the local shop here; I was in the market for a H&R topper 20 ga single shot, but I couldnt find that here and bought rossi combo. Whatever woodsman said is pretty accurate description of this gun. the 0.243 especially is a junk, and I had 3 misfires in it. the 20 ga barrel seems to be nice though, and for that itself I am not terribly upset at my purchase.


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## Mako22

UPDATE: I talked to the guy who bought this rifle from me last summer and he said that with 90 grain "hot" hand loads he is getting good accuracy out of this rifle. He did not load the bullets so he couldn't give me much more in specifics.


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