Rossi Rifleman

i have a memory of being shown a rossi 92 carbine in the mid 1980's that was stamped .38 special and had brazilian police markings on the stock. can anyone verify that some rossi's were indeed issued to local police, or is my (aging) memory at fault.

I have seen indications of this before when researching the history of the Rossi 92 rifles on the net.
I have not bothered to track down any pictures or other evidence of it however.

thanks archer, so i am not going mad then, proof would be nice, but i would imagine nearly impossible to get.

eljay,

I don't know what you have been able to find. The Winchester rifles were apparently very popular with Spain. But since Winchester didn't manufacture them in Spain a loophole in Spanish law allowed them to be copied with impunity since their patent law only allowed for enforcement if the patent holder manufactured the guns in Spain.

The most successful copy of the 92s was the El Tigre was manufactured by Garate Anitua y Cia in .44-40 (aka .44 largo) and many of them were apparently seen in some of the pictures of the revolution in the lead up to WWII. The guns were never officially adopted by the military but were used by both civilians and police. After the civil war many of the guns became surplus and were exported to the U.S. among other places. Earlier production before the civil war and probably surplus guns were also shipped to Latin America and Brazil may have been one of those countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigre_(rifle)

Puma was apparently a trademark of the importing company for early Rossi imports to the U.S.. I have wondered it that was something sparked by the 'Tigre' rifles.

So it is possible that the Rossi guns were used in Latin America to replace or augment the El Tigre rifles for agencies used to them or it is possible that there is some confusion between the El Tigre and the Rossi both as a result of them being essentially the same model AND the Puma/Tigre big cat motif.

Archer wrote:I don't know what you have been able to find. The Winchester rifles were apparently very popular with Spain. But since Winchester didn't manufacture them in Spain a loophole in Spanish law allowed them to be copied with impunity since their patent law only allowed for enforcement if the patent holder manufactured the guns in Spain.

That reminds me when they first started copying the CZ75. "It's a commie gun, so it is ok because commies have no patents or copyrights."

I knew the CZ-75s were copied but I wasn't sure of all the details.

I do recall reading there was apparently a collaboration or some sort of agreement between CZ and Tanfoglio when it came to the .45 ACP CZ-97 vs. the Tanfoglio version to use the same magazine dimensions.

I own the CZ-75B, the CZ-97B a couple CZ-52s and a couple CZ550 bolt action rifles.
I have never owned the EAA Witness/Tanfoglio although I have handled a few. IMO the Tanfoglio tends to be heavier, bulkier and looses some of the feel the CZ has that makes it great. I have seen a couple Canik copies but haven't really handled them. I have not seen several of the other clones that have been produced but I am aware of them.

https://www.guns.com/news/review/the-cz ... arsaw-pact
https://www.guns.com/news/review/review ... aa-witness