Picked up this Rossi Mod 68 at a Proxibid auction

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Bill Akins

New member
Many years ago back in the early '90's, I bought my dad a 2 inch barrel, stainless Rossi mod 68 in .38 special. It had won the "handgun of the year" award that year. It's basically a copy of the S&W.

I was looking for a small compact snubby to carry instead of my 1911 or snubby N frame S&W 1917 or my 7.62x25 Tokarev (which I also use to carry a lot being very powerful but light and slim). This Rossi came up on the Belcher McPherson auction on Proxibid a couple of months ago, and I threw a bid on it for $259.00 and got it. Of course by the time the auction house fees were paid plus the shipping, it was just under $300.00 Still a good deal since it came in its original box and didn't have a mark on it plus it appeared like someone just fired a cylinder or two out of it, cleaned it and put it away. Just a bare hint of a turn line on the cylinder. Seriously it looked brand new.

Unlike the stainless one I bought for my dad, this one is blue but like my dad's, it's also a 2 inch barrel. It's single action pull is nice, but the double action pull is a bit stiff. I'll fix that. But overall just as I was with the one I bought for my dad, I'm pretty impressed with the Rossi model 68 and would recommend it to anyone. It compares very favorably to my wife's pre hammer lock 2 inch barrel S&W "Airweight". Plus it doesn't have the awful looking hammer lock just above the cylinder release like the current S&W's have. (Hate the looks of that darn thing, won't own a Smith with it). Anyone else here have a Rossi mod 68? And what is your evaluation of yours? Here's the pics of mine.....

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Funny, I just bought a 3" model 68 at a LGS. I had wanted a model 36/60 3" for awhile, but the price was always too much for me. The 68 looked in good shape, an old interarms import.

However, when I got it home I found it had some issues. The double action was stiff (no surprise) but also had some roughness right at start. I have learned it is probably from sear click so need to stone a bit off the double action sear. I detail stripped it I found some problems.

* The hammer seat on the rebound slide was chipped and worn to metal, and also worn at an angle (worn more to the right side than left side).
* The hand is canted a bit to the left and is god awful rough.
* The rebound slide is rusty where the spring is kept.
* The cylinder release could not be removed; I think that the spring is rusty and will not fully compress to allow the slide to be backed out of the channel.
* Finally, the hand tension spring broke upon disassembly of the trigger group (this has happened to me before on on old S&W model 63 and I still have an extra spring around here somewhere).

I think all this is fixable, except maybe the cylinder release, which I will keep well lubricated and should not affect function. However, I am assuming that I will need to replace the rebound slide with a S&W J frame slide and fit it. The hand has me concerned as I don't think I can reshape it due to the poor quality of steel. I found a used replacement that should work, although I am going to try to straighten the original first, so I don't have to try to fit a new hand.
 
The 2" blued Rossi 461 was my first handgun. It was perfectly acceptable and perfectly unremarkable. I have since decided it's worth a little extra to get the fine craftsmanship of a good S&W. The Smith will likely be more enjoyable to own and will hold its value if you someday wish to sell. I'm speaking of course about older S&W's without the stupid lock.
 
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