Rossi is known for, among other things, its lever action Winchester 1892 replicas. Of course, they are modernized versions which include lawyer-recommended safety features and other newer construction techniques and materials. But they feel really great in your hand and come to your shoulder effortlessly. I know because I owned one for a long time.

Rio Bravo

The new Rio Bravo rifles from Rossi are named (or so I would imagine) after that famous river on the U.S./Mexico border. In Mexico, it is known as the Rio Bravo, while north of the border it is called the Rio Grande. Whatever you call it, the river has inspired legends, stories and a few movies. Perhaps the best known movie about that river is one of our favorite John Wayne movies. It is the aptly-named Rio Bravo. I need to claim, right up front, that I am a huge movie fan – especially older ones. This movie is a pipperino, a really great Howard Hawks production. Starring the Duke, Dean Martin, Walter Brennan, Ricky Nelson and Angie Dickinson, this 1958 movie is about a small-town sheriff, John T. Chance and his group of unlikely assistants as they try to keep the brother of the local bad guy in jail until the judge can come to town to conduct a trial. Without this turning into a movie review — it really is a classic — let’s look at one still from the film… John Wayne with his all-but-constant companion, his large-loop Winchester lever action rifle. I can think of no more fitting introduction about a rifle named the Rio Bravo than this.

I owned a Rossi .45 Colt lever gun for a few years, as I mentioned above. It accounted for deer, with my handload of a Lee home-cast 255-grain flat-nose bullet over a decent charge of a slow-burning powder. It was an accurate gun and was extremely handy. I’ve seen lever actions referred to as the tactical rifle of the 19th century, or words to that effect. I do know that the lever gun became popular because you could shoot a bunch of times without having to stop to reload. 

Without turning this review into a re-hash of the history of the lever action, let’s just say that between Henry, Winchester, Marlin and a few other manufacturers, the lever action earned its place in history. It was in demand during the late 19th century as we moved west, to settle ranches, farms and cities. Those were tough times which called for tough weapons and the levers were up to the task. 

Rossi has made modern lever guns for a good while. At last count, their website shows 18 different lever action rifles in calibers .22LR, .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, .45 Colt and 454 Casull. That’s quite a selection. The guns range from plain, ordinary guns to those with gold metal accents, highly polished finish and fine Brazilian hardwood stocks. Speaking of Brazil, that’s where Rossi is located. It is wholly owned by Taurus now, and shows a contact address at the Taurus headquarters in Bainbridge, Georgia.

A Bit of History

Rossi has been making guns since 1889, when Amadeo Rossi founded the company. Located now in Sao Leopoldo, Brazil, the company has been building guns for 132 years and is a large maker of lever action rifles. In 1997, BrazTech International was created in order to be the exclusive importer of Rossi guns in North America. Before that, their guns were distributed by Interarms, located in Alexandria, Virginia. Now owned by Taurus, distribution is handled by that company. The company is still run by family members and is dedicated to producing the best firearms it can.

The Guns

I was thrilled when my Rossi contact volunteered to send me two Rio Bravos — one in each “flavor” they make. One gun is traditional, with nicely-grained wood furniture and typical elevation-adjustable buckhorn rear sight and beaded post front. The other is not so traditional… it uses a black polymer stock and fiber optic sights, with the rear fully-adjustable for windage and elevation. 

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Let’s look at some photos I took. First, the wood-stocked rifle…

Very nice stock. Nothing fancy, but the wood was really well done.

Buckhorn rear sight. Easily adjusted for elevation…windage, not so easily done.

Front sight post with brass bead.

The actions on both guns were nice and “slick” – not much cocking effort needed. Note the cross-bolt safety over the trigger.

15-round tubular magazine

And now, the black gun…

Same overall length (well, 1/10th of an inch shorter), but it looks shorter due to the longer handguard.

Hand guard.

Stock with sling stud.

Front fiber-optic.-topped post and its guard.

Rear fiber optic sight, easily adjustable via two wheels that are clearly marked – no tools needed. Here’s a side view:

I used the flash so as to get the fiber optic sights to reflect the light. They positively glowed.

I didn’t take as many photos of the wooden-stocked gun, simply because we know what one of those looks like. The black one was different, for sure. I liked them both, but my eyes appreciated the black guns’ fiber optic sights, which practically glowed in the snowy light of my back yard range.

Shooting The Rio Bravos

Both guns shot well and were accurate, and had decent triggers. I am including one target that will give you an idea of what to expect from either gun in terms of accuracy – this target was representative of the breed. I enlisted the aid of one of our sons to do the shooting so I could shoot with my camera — lots of shooting going on. Here’s a quick 20-yard, 6-shot target he shot, using Winchester’s 36-grain HP bulk ammo…

Not too bad for off-hand! He started out with three shots on the bag, as in the photo above, but finished by standing up and just letting fly. I’d say these guns are more than accurate enough for whatever purpose you choose to put them to. Please note that the guns are set up with a milled-in scope base, so adding one wouldn’t be a big deal. Plus, with the lack of noise and recoil, they would be excellent trainers for a new shooter. Another use that Rossi really pushes on these guns’ web pages is hunting and pest reduction. You can read about the guns here for the black rifle and here for the wood-stocked model. Anyone who has ever even just held a lever-action rifle gets how handy they can be. I could see these guns going with you on any kind of trek, and maybe even adding to the campfire dinner pot at meal time with small game gathered with them. Another use I could see would be for a quick shot at that sneaky weasel or coyote skulking into your hen yard. These guns are so quickly brought into action that they are a natural, leaning up next to the back door. Of course with 9 grandkids about I can’t do that but if your situation allows it, the rifle can be brought to bear quickly. The accuracy potential of a lever action .22 cannot be overemphasized. My brother had one back in the early ’80s that he could shoot (to quote the fun phrase) the cojones off a gnat with…he was good with it. There is no reason why these guns cannot be in that same category.

Specifications

The guns are both obviously built on the same .22 LR action and fed by the same tubular magazine but a few things change after that… for instance, the stocks and sights are totally different. Other measurements that are close on both guns are their overall weight and their trigger pull weights (I measured both of those myself). Needless to say, they both functioned fine and were accurate.

Summing Up

So, you want to be like John Wayne? Well, pil-grim, you’ve got some pretty big boots to fill, as he might say. We can’t be like John T. Chance in Rio Bravo but we can surely have a rifle or two that are somewhat close to what he carried in that movie. 

Whether we act like the Duke or not, we can have fun with these rifles. If you are looking for a really accurate, handy .22 rifle that won’t break  the bank, check out these Rossis. Rossi has been making guns for a really long time and the company is pretty good at it. I do remember how my .45 Colt lever gun shot – it took at least one deer with its plain-stock iron sights. I think I mentioned above that I have a .357 lever on order to test – stay tuned for that one. A good lever-action .22 is certainly nothing new, but it is one of the most fun ways to launch .22-caliber bullets downrange. These Rossis are good at that, for sure.

If you own one of these, please chime in with a comment below. As always, keep ’em in the black and stay safe!