Located a deal on one of the Rossi RP63 357 revolvers that are listed as a factory blem.
Called to see what that was all about and the response is the revolvers came in for some kind of repair, possibly mechanical, got repaired but are cosmetically now blems also. One yr mechanical warrantee but nothing is guaranteed in the looks depart. No big woop for me personally if it's got some marks.

@Miami_JBT you posted about this model earlier, answered a question for me at that time, so I've been watching for a deal.

What is group POV on this?
Buy/don't?
Would you buy at under $320?

As always thank you so much for your POV either way.

I'd be tempted to try one at around $300, provided that you are buying it from a dealer like Buds Gun Shop that would allow you to easily send it back as long as you don't complete the transfer or fill out a 4473.

In that particular scenario there would be very little risk to you. When the gun arrives, just inspect it very closely before filling out any paperwork. Make sure it dry fires okay, check barrel to cylinder gap, check cylinder timing, make sure rifling looks good, barrel not canted, etc.

On a more general note, I too have been curious about these new Rossi revolvers. I've had a snubby Rossi 22lr revolver for 5-6 years now that I've been really happy with. I'll probably try out one of these new 357 Magnums when I find a good deal on one.

The above mirrors my thoughts on it- they seem to be getting good reviews and I'd like to find one for a good price and try it.  While I prefer Smiths, I used to buy most of the cheap Taurus and Rossis I could back when they were cheap, mostly just as project guns.  A Rossi five shot .38 was my first "pocket/small" gun back when I was a broke college kid; I would have carried that thing lots of places had it been legal for me to do so at the time.  I always wish I hadn't sold it, more nostalgia than anything, but it was a good shooting little gun that never gave me any problems. Taurus seems to be trying to improve the company's reputation so I'm willing to give them a try.

@sandboxmedic

Somehow I bet that little Rossi 38 still made plenty of trips with you over the years.

I honestly never thought I would say this, but most new Taurus/Rossi revolvers that I inspect these days have far fewer obvious manufacturing defects than new S&W revolvers do.

Nearly every new S&W revolver I look at has some combination of canted barrel, uneven or excessive barrel to cylinder gap, peened cylinder stop notches, poorly machined barrel crown, or major finish issues/ tooling marks. The one exception to this observation is J-frame's where the quality appears to be more consistent for some strange reason.

It's as if Taurus/Rossi quality is improving and S&W continues to decline.

What, me?  No way man, I'm a law abiding citizen.  Always have been.  

THX everyone,
I decided to give the Rossi a try Sunday but the KYGUNCO.com system wouldn't let me complete the order.  Did it over the phone this AM. Nice folks. I ordered a rifle from them on the website a while back and the transaction went fine and they have good ratings. Should have it by the end of the week or a little after. Total cost + free shipping + ins was $316.

https://www.kygunco.com/product/rossi-2-rp639-blem-rp63-357-mag-3-6rd-ss-blem-refur

@fisherman

Thanks for the update. If everything checks out and you complete the xfer, please post an update here with your thoughts and some pictures if possible.

If they still have any in stock by then I might order one.

I am becoming more and more interested in the RP63 as well.

@fisherman

Did you ever receive this revolver?

Rossi guns are much better than their price level, IMO.

@pctech and one and all,

Sure did. Sorry to be slow but the ME thing.

My report so far:
It arrived Thursday and I took it to the range for a test drive on Friday/yesterday.
Honestly I cannot see anything cosmetically that seems to be an issue. No scratches, scrapes or damage of any kind on the metal or grips.
Smooth function with lock up and end shake tolerances a little better that my old battle wagon S&W Model 15. Based on the amount of discoloration on the front of the cylinder doesn't seem to have been fired a lot. It was clean otherwise.

At the range:
Started off with several cylinders of basic 38 loads. Pretty accurate. Hits at the POA. Nice single action trigger pull. Double action is OK but heavish. Double action not as light as the Model 15. The front sight ended up with some WhiteOut on it. It's hard to pick up the front sight IMO on a black target without a color change. Next I loaded up a cylinder of Remington 125 gr 357 and LHM what recoil. I mean stop-after-three-shots-and-let's-think-this-whole-thing-over recoil. The only gloves I had with me were a pair of Thinsulate knit winter cloves from the pickup that did no good. (I shoot this same ammo in my Smith Model 19 and it's great. Target grips however.) I shot all 6 357s in the Rossi but dang!

So next I did the smart thing and gave my son a chance to show me how it ran for him with 357s.

Single action first shot. Click.
Light primer strike.
Second shot single action. Click.
Another light primer strike.

What the heck!
So it tried to break my hand and committed mechanical suicide at the same time??? What the heck Rossi?!

So...I said let's see if they will fire double action. Every shot fired perfectly and my son agreed it kicked like a dang mule. No more 357 rounds were requested but now we have the dependability question. I noted my son stopped half way through the cylinder too..

So we looked it over and talked it over and decided to try and replicate the misfire problem with 38s. Whether single action and double action it fired every single round we put in it perfectly and we ran through all the 38 spl I brought (130-ish assorted rounds) in just a few minutes.  Very consistent primer strikes on every primer.  Did I say it was pretty accurate? It's pretty accurate.

So what the heck was that hick-up?
Bit of crap in the action?
Not enough lube?
Something mechanical that requires a trip back to the mother ship?

Need to try and replicate the problem with the 357 Remington ammo but that grip is murder, at least for me.  Could not find after aftermarket grips of any kind so far but I would love to have a wider option as a possible fix on that recoil.  Email to Rossi on the possibility of cross compatibility with wider grips from some other revolver. No response yet.

What I came up with instead for my next range trip is to wrap the grip with padded self adhesive tennis racket handle replacement tape (Wally World less than $6). It feels much better in the hand and it also gives it a kind of Michael Corleone BBQ gun vibe...or maybe a mullet hair cut.

So am I disappointed? Let me answer that by saying as the owner of 2 KelTec P3ATs and every model of Ruger LCP 380 ever made I do not get flustered easily at least in regard to firearms. I really like this little revo so far, hick-up or not.

If I have time I may run back out to the range tomorrow and try to determine if this is a genuine mechanical issue and if so I'll send it back to Rossi for a fix.

More to come. [/i]

Sounds like the gun ran into a batch of hard primers on the .357mag rds?

Better grips (rubber?) will help with the felt recoil.

Maybe hard primers. That would be an easy problem to deal with.
The grips that come from the factory are not soft rubber. Either hard rubber or plastic.
I think they need to be wider/bigger to distribute the recoil.

Rossi makes a good bunch of guns. I have had older models and they were gtg. Any small gun like that is going to be punishing with magnum rounds, as you know. Remington is not known for quality ammo but it is cheaper. I would try some different ammo types prior to sending it back. As far as for carrying/ccw, home defense, etc., I would stick with .38 ammo JHP but try a few types out first in order to check accuracy,reliability and quality. Each gun type likes a certain brand and you just have to figure out what it is.