Rossi Trifecta Anyone?

[flmason]

Hi All,
    I realize this is an H&R/NEF forum, but thought I'd ask about the Rossi Trifecta anyway, under the theory that folks interested in break action guns may have tried one. If a 3 barrel matched set from NEF were out that that I knew of, that'd be under consideration too. (Was having a hard time this weekend deciding between just purchasing a Pardner and some .22 or Trifecta at the local gun shop to be honest.)

Anyone have any real experience or knowledge about them. I was considering the .22/.243/20 gauge set. Have found many comments of poor accuracy, but have not found any really good data.

On the surface, looks like a great idea. 3 barrels, can legally hunt with one of those barrels, just about anything in North America.

But if the rifle barrel is *really* as consistently bad as a little Google search seems to show, could be a waste of time, energy and money.

Can't see anything inherently poor about the design or workmanship, so I'm hard pressed to decide where/if poor accuracy if coming from.

[flmason]

Hey Brett,
    Sorry I posted this to the wrong forum initially. Somehow I scrolled right past this forum.

[Slackdaddy]

Bret,
I live in a shot gun only state (deer)
I picked up a Youth Trifecta (20ga field, 20ga hvy rifled slug, and .22) at D!ck's for 179.00 after season.
It is a sweet gun, came with the scope bases for the .22 and 20 slug.
I put a 4x on the slug barrel and that is my goto gun in deer season, over my Rem 1100 SPS deer gun.
It is a tack driver, 1 ragged hole at 50 yards with lightfields or Rems.
I'll have to say, the quality is neck and neck with all my H$R guns.
Give it a go,,
Slack

[tacklebury]

My buddy has the .243/.22/20 trifecta for his boy.  Says the .243 will shoot 3/4" groups at 100 with a decent scope.  His boy has shot thousands of .22 lr through it too with no issue.  I think the 20 ga. was the last they were going to test as the boy is a little recoil shy.  The .243 was good enough for him to get an 8 point during the youth hunt earlier. 

[mdwest]

Ive got a friend down in central florida that has the .22/.243/.410ga combo that he bought for his 10 year old boy.. they have had very good success with it..
 
to my knowlege they havent taken the .243 barrel hunting yet..
 
but they did spend quite a bit of time putting .22's through it and used it as a "trainer" for his son.. as soon as he thought the boy was ready to hunt, they started working with the .410.. he took about a 60lb florida hog his first time out in the woods with a .410 slug (last year) at about 25 yards..
 
I spoke with Bill (dad) about a month ago and he said they were probably going to try to step up to the .243 this year and go for something a little bigger..
 
He is extremely pleased with his Trifecta..
 
He has spoken highly enough about it that I have been considering picking one up for my girls to train/learn on.. (right now they all have chipmunk .22's.. but thats it.. )

[flmason]

Interesting. No one here seems to have any problems. Google seems to find lots of complaints about guns popping open, misfires and apparently the .243 barrel shooting patterns like a shotgun.

Think it's just a case of a few folks having problems being more vocal?

Was considering going with just an H&R 20 gauge instead. It fits me a lot better, being an adult sized gun. But the thought of having 3 barrels handy, that cover almost all game types is rather compelling.

Thoughts?

[tacklebury]

I think you'll find that the gun snobs talk often and downgrade many firearms which have basically good track histories.  Like Hi-points having thousands of positive reviews, but people still won't consider one.  Rossi had some QC issues at different times, so maybe some have a bad taste and continue to bad mouth them.  The first groups of Wizards I held were pretty shoddy in my opinion, but I held one yesterday that was super tight, clean and almost begging for me to give it a home.  8(  As with many companies, including H&R etc, there are lemons and bad runs.  I have had a bad handgun from Ruger also with rather poor CS at first.  Once they knew it was their problem, they fixed it quick with no specifics and sent it back.  Some of it is just luck of the draw.  I like ordering from Davidson's (Gallery of Guns) because of their no-questions ask lifetime guarantee and they are only slightly more expensive.  They replaced my bad H&R .45 LC Classic Carbine 2 times.  I know they didn't make anything on it, because it was a sale special at $265, and 2 of them couldn't be sold as new, but they followed through and honored their guarantee.  It was worth it too, because the last was perfect. 

[SteveHawaii]

I've had a trifecta for about three years now.  You can look at my other comments on this forum.  I haven't had much luck with the .243.  It tends to pattern rather than group.  I haven't tinkered with it for over a year now, but here's a target from my last session:





As you can see it's all over the place.  Here's a photo of the gun itself with the .243 barrel installed:





I've had better luck with the .22 barrel.  It's pretty much a tack driver.  My wife enjoys shooting it too.  Just something about a break-open action.  Broken down it fits into my brief case.


The 20 gauge is OK, except that the recoil is brutal.  I have the Limbsaver slip-on recoil pad installed because of that.  If I were left alone with one gun it would be this and a box of shot shells.  It's quite compact broken down and I can always cut the shells for slugs.


Hope this helps,


Steve

[Duke0313]

Have had mine a couple of years, no barrel-popping. The .22 and the 20 gauge are accurate enough, but the .243 won't hit the broad side of a barn!

[manini]

I bought a Rossi Trifecta .22/243 Win/20 gauge combo  & have had no unforeseen accuracy problems with it.  The .243 Winchester cal. bbl generated 4""-10" groups at 100 yds as other folks have noted previously which is nothing new with me in breaking in & accurizing any new rifle in my 48 years of shooting, hunting & gun collecting.  I initially use factory ammo which is factory-loaded to the max, generating inpredictably large groups while sighting in the rifle...then reload handloads to carefully tailor ammo which results in tighter groups at 100 yds-200 yds at the range.  This accurizing process has worked for me for the past 48 years on my gun collection of .22cal LR, .22cal WMR, 22-250, 223 Remington, 25-06, 30-06, 7mm Remington Mag, 7mm Weatherby Mag, 7.62 NATO (.308 Winchester), 300 Winchester Mag, 375 H&H Mag, 416 RIGBY, .416 Weatherby Mag, 458 Winchester Mag, 45/70, 30-30 & .50 Cal BMG...& now a .243 cal Winchester.
I usually start with loads 2-3 grains above minimum with lower muzzle velocity (100 fps-200 fps less than max for the bullet size recommended in the reloading manual) fire 3-shot cold-barrel groups at 100 yds until a have a very tight 3-shot group.  Every rifle has a "sweet_spot" load where maximum accuracy + optimal
muzzle velocity is reached which then becomes my hunting load.  On my Rossi Trifecta .243 Winchester, I'll be starting out using 43.0 grains of RL-19 powder using large rifle CCI primers, Winchester .243 caliber brass + 100 grain Sierra BTSP bullets.  I feel very confident on getting my .243 Winchester cal 3-shot 100 yd groups down to a MOA (Minute-of-an Angle) or less, as I have successfully done with all my other hunting rifles.  The only exception has been my .375 H&H Magnum O/U Double Rifle, 470 Nitro Express Side-by-Side Double Rifle & miscellaneous semi-auto military rifles...My double rifles are "regulated" to shoot 1-3" 2-shot groups at 100 yds for dangerous African big-game & my military semiauto rifles lack the inherent accuracy of my bolt-action/single shot hunting rifles to group sub-MOA at 100 yds.
---by a retired Nam U.S. Navy Hospitalcorpsman FMF 1st Marine Division + U.S. Army OCS Field Arty Forward Observer/Battery CO vet.

[06shooter]

Please share the results from your testing.  I have been looking at the 243/20/22 combo for my son and plan on loading some "lighter" loads for him.