Wheel Gun Wednesday: The Rossi Model 971 .357 Magnum Revolver

Travel back in time with me if you will, to a time before the internet, mobile phones, 24-hour government surveillance…you know, the good ol’ days. We’re going back to a time when there were as many — and sometimes more — double-action revolvers on display in your local gun shop as there were semi-automatics. 

These were the times when Smith & Wesson and Colt were still competing with one another for DA revolver supremacy. If you think the online debates like GLOCK vs SIG get heated, you should have been standing in the gun shop when a Colt guy started sparring with a S&W dude. 

Of course, Colt and Smith weren’t the only games in town. There were the Ruger nerds (I’m kidding, save your letters) and then there were the “other guys.” Iver Johnson was still around in the late 1980s, and we had Charter Arms and Taurus and Rossi which were still separate companies. When it came to importing foreign made firearms into the United States, Interarms Imports was one of the biggies. It was Interarms who brought Rossi guns to the US market back then. 

Rossi M971 .357 Magnum  

When Colt and S&W were duking it out for the crown, their prices reflected it. Not everyone had Colt money or Smith money, particularly when it came to their Magnum offerings. Interarms filled the gap by importing the Brazilian-made Rossi handguns. Consumers could get a quality double-action revolver in stainless steel for a very decent price. 

Regarding the Rossi Model 971, if you do your research, you’ll find that several barrel lengths and configurations were made. The version on display for your consideration here has a most unique profile; a 2.5-inch barrel with a vented compensator added to the muzzle out ahead of the front sight. This barrel profile definitely stands out. 

A true double-action revolver, the Model 971 has an exposed hammer which holds the firing-pin. The trigger is a smooth-faced, curved design. Construction is all steel; frame, cylinder, and barrel. The only non-steel parts are the black rubber grips and the red polymer insert in the front sight blade. Speaking of sights, the rear sight is fully adjustable for windage and elevation using a thin flathead screwdriver. The cylinder release mimics that of the S&W DA wheelguns and, like Smith, the cylinder on the Rossi rotates counter-clockwise. Colt revolvers, as well as those made by Dan Wesson, have cylinders that rotate clockwise. 

Being all stainless steel, the M971 comes in just under two pounds at 30 ounces. For comparison, a GLOCK 19 is 21 ounces empty and 30 ounces with a full 15-round magazine of 9mm inserted.

As far as revolver comparison goes, the Model 971 is similar to a Smith & Wesson K-frame, but the grip is more compact, leaning toward J-frame. Also, having a 2.5 inch barrel allows for the use of a full-length ejector rod, which comes in handy when kicking out the fire-formed .357 Magnum brass cases. 

From the lens of 21st century America, you might be wondering if this gun was a popular EDC piece back then. Kids, in the early to mid 1980s, there was no EDC. Before Florida broke the mold with “Shall Issue” concealed carry in 1987, the only people legally carrying concealed in the USA were cops and the privileged few who were able to convince their Sheriff to issue them a special permission slip. There were “licensed investigators” and “licensed armed security” personnel out there, but getting those permission slips was costly and restrictive. 

I’ll give you an example. In the early 1990s in Florida, you could get an “Armed Security Guard” permit, but it was forbidden for you to carry that gun concealed. You could get an “Armed Investigator” permit and conceal your pistol, but it was forbidden to carry “off-duty” or on your own time.

When I was working as a bodyguard in Florida during that time, in my wallet was my Florida drivers License, an Armed Investigator permit, an Armed Security Guard permit, and my Florida concealed carry permit which covered me when I wasn’t on the clock. If you live in a constitutional carry state, be grateful and appreciative. If you don’t, it sucks to be you.

 

My best guess was that the vast majority of gun owners who purchased a Rossi Model 971, like the one here, did so for home defense as well as enjoying the truly American feeling of firing genuine .357 Magnum ammunition.

Of course, the honest truth was that most guys would shoot a cylinder or two of true Magnum ammunition and then switch to the less expensive and milder recoiling .38 Special. That was one of the selling points of .357 Magnum guns, you could load everything from full-power 158 grain JHP .357 Mag down to the wimpy 148 grain full wadcutters which made perfect circles on cardboard and moved out at an anemic 700 FPS. When I attended the police academy in 1992, about half, perhaps a bit more, of the cadets were carrying .357 Mag DA revolvers. The academy instructor corps put out a notice that “Only full-powered ammunition will be used for training”, that meant no powder-puff wadcutter loads. 

Feeding Revolvers

If owning a double-action revolver is foreign to you or you have little experience, there is a good book which was recently published called. “A Pipe Hitters Guide to Fighting Revolvers” by Nicholas Orr. Mr. Orr does a fine job considering the history of the fighting revolver and where we are today as well as revolver specific considerations. There is a great section on the history of the .357 Magnum cartridge and how it came to be.

Step one, unless you enjoy keeping rounds loose in your pockets and loading the cylinder one cartridge at a time, you need to secure some type of loading devices, there are two basic categories; round speedloaders and straight speed strips or “quick strips” Both designs have their merits. Those who concealed carry tend to gravitate toward the quick strips, as speedloaders carry like a rock in your pocket. The speedloaders I used for this review came from HKS Products and they are the Model 10 version.

As for ammunition, I had an ammo can of loose .38 Special for training and fresh boxes of Black Hills .357 Magnum in the 125 grain JHP at 1500 FPS and their Honeybadger 127 grain FTM bullet at 1365 FPS.  

Range Work

With a can full of .357 Magnum and .38 Special, I hit the range on a bright sunny day in early June. From around ten yards, I engaged a cardboard silhouette firing the M971 from a double-action mode, standing (all rounds would be fired DA for training).  After a few cylinders worth of ammunition, I confirmed that the gun was printing to the left and it was not just me pulling shots. I have the super-handy “Fix-It Sticks” in my range bag that include a small flathead bit with which I made the rear sight adjustments to the right. 

Paper and cardboard are nice, but for more dynamic drills I use steel. Moving forward, backward, laterally, etc, I banged away on my steel ½ size silhouette. From a distance of 20 yards, firing DA, rounds impacted on steel with regularity. 

While the felt recoil from the Black Hills .357 Magnum loads was indeed “stout,” it was not painful or punishing. There was plenty of weight to tame the relatively mild .38 Special loads, even the +P variety. The DA trigger press was not “light” but was smooth and consistent and certainly manageable for a person with a skilled hand. I don’t spend a lot of time with wheelguns lately and this review of the Rossi Model 971 was a welcome change.  

 

 

Paul G. Markel is a combat decorated United States Marine veteran. He is also the founder of Student the Gun University and has been teaching Small Arms & Tactics to military personnel, police officers, and citizens for over three decades.