Rossi’s New R95 Lever Action Rifles

1. They blew it not threading the barrel…

   • Eww, no.

     • Yes. People have been screwing silencers on to leverguns since Teddy took one on Safari. Silencers on leverguns aren’t common, but they ARE traditional.

       • And they’ve looked like shit ever since then.

   • This was my thought too!

2. so it’s a rebadged r92 that finally supports one of the oldest medium game rifle cartridges and its biggest competition is a nearly 150 year old winchester, got it.

   • “…so it’s a rebadged r92…”

     Not sure your “r92” reference but in the not-so-derailed pic in the announcement this appears to be a Marlin copy, not Winchester. Obvious long side bolt/ejection and extension flange where lever pivots.

     Specs also claim “hammer forged barrel” but no mention of the material the receiver/frame is made from. I’m not a fan of the alloys used by Henry, among other makers. OK in ARs but I would rather have machined steel or in the least, a decent, machined investment casting.

     When I saw the title in my in box I was thinking a Win 95 clone. That, this thing ain’t. Anyway- good luck to Rossi. My first 94 Win cost me $69 at Target in 1974, came with a canvas case and one box of bullets.

     • Craig the R92 is their “clone” or the win 1892 . in pistol calibers

       • Tired-

         I know that. The pics of this lever gun are NOT of a Win 92 clone. I have several real ones and have had the Italian ones as well when they were then under $200. The pics of the Rossi in question appear similar to a Marlin 336. If nothing else, 92s (73s, 94s/variants and 86s/variants) are top eject- this is obviously out the side, ala Marlin.

         “This must be “a failure to communicate”… that was Paul Newman IIRC. :-/

     • My parents bought their first house around that time for about $12,000. House prices have risen faster than gun prices. 🤔

3. If you need a rifle with a threaded barrel you are shopping on the wrong floor…This floor is Antiquities.

   As for the rifle it is not too bad, nice recoil pad, last 30-30 I shot certainly needed one.

   • “This floor is Antiquities.”

     That rifle is new manufacture.

     The reality is, silencers exist, and they could have expanded the market considerably had they offered that as an option.

     (You are welcome to disagree, *politely*…)

     • 30/30 is a good candidate for a suppressor. Ammo can be hard/impossible to find.

       • Great. caliber for the reloader though. Wide range of bullets and loads to do most anything especially if you cast your own.

     • oldshthead…So the Rifle is new…duh. The design is way over a hundred years old. Instead of wanting to drive a square peg into a round hole find something that warrants the cost, paperwork and time it takes to acquire a can…you can do it.

       • “oldshthead…”

         So much for polite.

         You don’t learn, do you?

     • People have been suppressing leverguns for a century now.

       • I believe during the interim when USRA “quit” making M94s, Mossberg (perhaps) marketed a shorty 94 copy with picatinny rails all 4 sides, threaded muzzle, ugly black stocks and even uglier black metal finish. Some sort of survival, scout, or do-all carbine. They seemed to sell quite well up here in the MN north woods.

         Jeff Cooper was also an advocate of the Win lever guns, primarily 30-30, for urban dwellers needing serious protection from the normal predators and n’er-do-wells. Even ran a course on them at Gunsite, IIRC.

4. ANOTHER lever .30-30?? Well it’s good to have choices.. meanwhile my old Cowboy Marlin .30-30 will have to do.

   • “If it weren’t for the .30-30 cartridge and lever action rifle, white tailed deer would be extinct in north America”- Elmer Keith
     😉

     • I associate the gun/caliber with an abundance of 3-legged deer. Buy your resident old guy (if any) a rangefinder.

       • It’s not the gun/cartridge that’s at fault, that’s operator error. I’ve personally never had a problem with 30 30 putting a deer down. I do limit it to 150yd ish. I’ve seen more wounded deer from 12ga. slugs. Not the guns/guage at fault there either.

       • It may have been a few years, but I remember knocking the snow off a telephone pole at 1/4 mile on a bet – 1st shot(open sights/no scope). A .30-30 is adequate for small stuff like coyotes, deer, humans, etc. although I prefer a .30-06.

     • Elmer Keith never said that. I have seen many people say that more deer have been killed by the combination of a lever gun and the 30-30 than any other combination of action cartridge.

5. They almost got it right. It looks good, but… The stock on the 16.5 ” should have a straight stock with the appropriate lever. Loose the recoil pad. They snag on clothing when it matters most. Loose the checkering too. I think it takes away from a handsome piece of wood. As does the recoil pad. Anyone who can’t handle the recoil of a 30-30 should probably stick to rimfire. I’ll reserve judgement on the finish on the steel until I see one live and in person. At least it looks like they didn’t stick a fiber optic sight on it. That’s a plus. Do a real review instead of posting a press release.

   • I have only examined 2 Rossi’s closely in my time. Both were junk.

     I wish them well, but pass.

     That said, good points, especially about the stock/recoil pad. Why put a pistol grip on a 16.5″ lever gun? Don’t they have horses? And a recoil pad on a 30/30 is ludicrous.

6. I’m stunned!!
   I have a pre 64 Winchester 1894 that is in very nice condition, so like others here, pass.

   • Armbrace, congrats on your pre-64 Winchester 1894. Don’t sell it. Unless you sell it to me. LOL A very good friend gave me his dad’s pre-64 not too long ago. Mr. Randy knew his firearms. He had done a couple of modifications to it, but we’ll thought out modifications. Might have hurt the collector value, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Except one. He put a solid Pachmayer recoil pad on it. Which is no recoil pad at all. I think he did it to extend length of pull. Mr. Randy was primarily a shotgunner. To him stock fit was everything. Shame really. The wood on this carbine is exceptional. It’s either a Winchester upgrade or a complete restock.

     • Mine is 100% original. I ran the numbers quite a while ago and I think it was a 1962. It’s not mint-unused but it’s in Very Good condition, not abused or modified. It’s been a closet queen for at least 50 years now.

7. Pirate, we have a plethora of whitetail cartridges that out perform the 30-30 and there are more of them now than when the pilgrims landed. The thing that nearly wiped out whitetails was called the Great Depression. BTW, I used to read Elmer Keith when he was alive.

   • “The thing that nearly wiped out whitetails was called the Great Depression.”

     That’s what my grandfather pretty much told me in the mid-1970s.

     I asked him if he hunted during the depression, he told me there was no game in the Massachusetts woods near Franklin…

   • “The thing that nearly wiped out whitetails was called the Great Depression. ”

     Absolutely correct. It was recreational hunters that brought them back.

     • Wow! That is a story that needs to be told more often. And to the non hunting population.

     • Deer, along with turkey, quail and about every other wild species.

   • That, and in the SE, screw-worm flies…

     They wiped out the fly in the early ’60s (iirc), mainly to aid the stock producers, and the deer in the Panhandle rebounded vigorously.

     Screw-worm eradication was a huge success for govt-led ag science (one of many).

8. I wouldn’t trust this gun and pitching an oxide finish as something special is a joke to fool newbs.
   I’ve only ever had 3 Rossi’s and 2 failed catastrophically. When sent to the factory they could not be fixed so they offered me a 20% discount off of a new gun. The remaining Rossi is. 38/357 lever gun that bulges cases on standard 38 loads.

9. This one sounds great but I’ve had a Rossi and don’t trust Rossi’s quality control.

10. “Increased capacity”
    From what?

    • that other one that holds 4 + 1.
      seriously, the longer barrel should hold more.

11. .30-30 has near identical ballistics to the AK’s 7.62×39 and .300 blackout. Why not chamber it in those eaiser to get and cheaper calibers? I feel like the .30-30 is extremely overrated.

    • That requires a gun maker to think outside the box. And not many do that. Except KelTec.

    • Pointed bullets in a tube magazine=BOOM

      • Also nice, or more simple, to have a rim on most lever gun casings.

12. I’d like a 26 or 28 inch barrel with a nine round magazine capacity.

13. Renowned? Since when?

14. This appears to be an answer to a question nobody asked.

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