S&W knock-off?

[shrew]

I was in one of my favorite gun shops (kill'in time cause thats all I can afford right now) & I saw what looked almost identical to a j frame type revolver. (38special) I am NOT an expert on all the different types but I do know it was a small frame & had a 2 or 3" barrel. It looked alot like the smaller S&W 's from this era, but I don't think it was. First tip to me was the price, under $200. Second was the factory type grips, they looked alot like factory, but the finish of the checker carving looked not quite as "clean" & the medallion said russi or rossi. Is this a cheap copy of a S&W gun or another brand with some quality or did it just have crappy aftermarket grips?

 

[Sgt 127]

There is a manufacturer named Rossi. Decent little guns, early ones were far cruder than S&W. Currently, they are, again, decent little guns but still, in my opinion, not in the same ballpark as Smith, Ruger or Colt. Perhaps closer to Taurus. At $200 I think it was overpriced. They have made many guns in J frame and K frame sizes. I'm sure thats what you saw.

http://www.rossiusa.com/

 

[shrew]

I agree SGT the "lines" of the gun looked like a Smith, but to me it seemed like it was not all the way finished. Thanks for the input.

 

[Indycar]

Taurus is also a S&W knockoff. Originally they made licensed copies of S&W for the Brazilian army. When the license expired, they changed from leaf springs to coil springs and started exporting them.

 

[snkhalltx]

Back in my early days of gun buying I bought what I thought was a S&W J frame. Good price and all. Only after getting it home and really looking at it did I discover it was a Rossi. But it shot good and I carried it as a backup to my Md 19 on duty while I was working in a little town named Converse in Texas. Got my money out of it when I sold it.