Rossi Wizard

Anyone have one yet? After looking over endless reviews and debating for a while about whether to give one a shot or not, I decided what the heck and asked for one for xmas. I guess I was a good boy this year because santa came through with a nice new rossi wizard in 45/70 ! Thank you santa!

Initial thoughts, I am impressed to say the least and had prepared myself for the fact that this Rossi is not going to be a Ruger or Model 70....it is a brazilian made rossi/taurus and one should not expect the same level of quality and attention to detail as you would with a $1000 model from an american made company. With that being said I will say again that I am very impressed with this gun, it seems that the poor fit/finish issues I read about in 2010 when they first released the wizard seem to be addressed, atleast on the gun I received I was actually suprised at just how clean and nice this gun really looked for the price not a single flaw in blueing or nick/dent/scratch in stock! Although it looks a little weird, like the T/C, I was quite suprised at just how comfortable this gun is to shoulder off hand or on the bench, it just feels..."right" for a lack of a better descriptor. The fiber optic sights, while not the greatest are definitely useable and are on par with most stock plastic fiber optic sights on muzzleloaders so useable but most will choose to upgrade; I mounted a 2.5-7x32 cabelas scope and it fits quite nice plus the scope base is already included you just need rings/scope. The trigger is nice as well, much nicer than I was expecting and it should make for a very nice trigger regardless of caliber used. I really like how easy it is to change barrels as well, truly tool less and done in under a minute! I also thought the 45/70 was really going to thump me out of this hand rifle sized gun, but to my surprise that was not the case...the generous recoil pad and build of the gun really took the bulk of the recoild out of it, made it more of a "push" rather than the typical "punch" associated with big guns...I know my 1917 30-06 with no recoil pad and my model 70 .300 win mag punch you and recoild is noticeably worse. Although I only shot it once with factory fiber optic sights on, I was about 2" high and 1.5" to right off hand at 30yds with sights fresh outta the box not to shabby. I did not have the right mounts to mount scope xmas morning, so I had to wait til the 26th to do that or I would have shot more, I cannot wait to take this thing to the range and see how she does at 50,100,150 and 200! I also receieved and will be shooting HSM 430gr. Bear Loads, yep I will keep an eye for signs of too much pressure, they seem to be the best "bang for your buck" in 45/70 factory ammo as a remington core lokt 405 is only going around 1300fps advertised speed whereas these 430's are going 1850 and this speed has been pretty spot on in many online tests...I will do my own during a future range session.

Overall I was impressed by the little rossi wizard and it is definitely an option for those of us who like single shot rifles, but either do not have the money to buy a TC or do not want a TC made by S&W. I was a member of the former, I just could not ever bring myself to pay $600+ for a TC just to pay $250 per barrel; as others have stated you could get several savage axis or similar for the price of a TC! My parents, i mean santa, got the rossi from buds guns for $235 shipped to our local FFL and it came in xmas eve, thank you UPS your the greatest lol! Barrels are between $100-$170 depending on where you look online, 23 muzzleloader, rimfire, shotgun, and centerfire calibers available and my next barrel purchase will be 223 or 22-250 for predators.

I will be taking it to the range later this week, maybe after the new year, I will post pics at that time to see how the accuracy of this beast is. I can also take pictures of my new "toy" if anyone wants to see....what am I talking about, is there anyone around here who doesnt wanna see a new gun....even if it is a brazilian rossi