A good friend has owned a Rossi model 88 stainless steel small-frame .38 special (5 round cylinder) since around 1990. He got it new for something like $129 at a gun shop here in the Atlanta area.
We all like this gun. Everybody who shoots it likes it. Although I must say, the trigger pull in double action mode is rather heavy. It was heavy when it was new and 30 years later and at least a couple thousand rounds later, it is still heavy for double action shooting. I fired this gun on dozens of occasions over the last 30 years. No matter what type of shooting we're doing, he almost always takes this revolver out and fires at least a few cylinders full of ammo through it because it's one of his favorite guns.
Being inexpensive and all stainless steel, it is a great camping gun and hikers companion. If it gets wet with sweat or rain or morning dew at the campsite, it's no big deal. Although it is possible for stainless steel to rust (and I've had that happen with North American Arms mini revolvers) it has not happened with my friend's Rossi or my own Rossi M88 that I owned for several years.
My friend's Rossi has a 3 inch barrel. The one I bought several years later had a 2 inch barrel. I wanted a 3 inch but I could not find one, so I bought the first good deal that came along ---which happened to be a 2-inch bbl. version.
These guns have always been reliable, are dead on accurate ( especially if you shoot them from a bench rest in single action mode ) and the fixed sights are correctly aligned with where the bullets will impact --at any distance we've ever used them, from 10 feet to 25 yards.
I do wish that the sights were colored with a red ramp in the front and some type of green, yellow, or white dot or underline bar for the rear sight. But these sights are just like almost every other small frame revolver's. their standard, but I think they had all small frame revolvers have a disadvantage compared to small and medium size semi autos in that the small revolver sights are harder to acquire a sight picture in a hurry and usually lack contrasting colors.
These Rossi small frame revolvers do not accept the same grips (or stocks) as Smith & Wesson J frames. there is nothing wrong with the wooden grips they come standard with this gun, but the left side grip panel is not relieved or scalloped out to allow clearance for speedloader. I tried using an HKS speedloader on it one time and it jammed and took some time to get it unstuck.
I hear that Pachmayer did make, or is still making, a rubber grip for Rossi small frame revolvers. However I have never tried it, nor has my friend.
These Rossi small frame revolvers were never advertised or marketed as approved for use for +P ammunition. That being said, both my friend and I normally carry +P rounds in them for defense, and we shoot our carry ammo once a year and replace it with five fresh rounds from the box at home. So over the years these guns have seen probably 50 to 100 shots of full power plus P, and thousands of standard pressure rounds. And they've held up fine.
The only reason I sold my 2 inch barreled stainless steel Rossi M 88 was because I wanted to use Crimson Trace laser grips on my small frame .38 snubby carry gun. Crimson Trace does not make grips for the Rossi, but they do for Smith & Wesson, Charter Arms and Taurus. So I sold the Rossi and got a S&W, and then I bought laser grips for it. That's my S&W 637 in the same photo with my buddy's 3" barreled Rossi.
