Rossi Rifleman

we were dating the older Rossi's by whom was importing them at the time.
LSI, Century, LSI, Navy arms,,, kinda in reverse order there but close, and I'm sure I missed at least 1-2 others.
I never much cared, and cared even less.
if it was pre safety and post Puma I was happy.
if it was a puma I was happy.
if it had a safety I was less happy, but it didn't slow me down.

I think Interarms was before Navy Arms. I would have to do some fact-checking on that. I remember being at the Interarms facility in Alexandra, Va (Old Town) in the mid-eights and seeing the Rossi's (El Tigre's) something like that. Most AKs I've seen in one place. A spooky space, semi-knowing what was really going on there.

Mine is 1987, it's Interarms but NOT a Puma or an El Tigre. Pretty sure the original ones came over here in the late 1970's.

Ranch Dog wrote:I think Interarms was before Navy Arms. I would have to do some fact-checking on that. I remember being at the Interarms facility in Alexandra, Va (Old Town) in the mid-eights and seeing the Rossi's (El Tigre's) something like that. Most AKs I've seen in one place. A spooky space, semi-knowing what was really going on there.

From some of the reading I've done I THINK the following to be true.

The El Tigre's were Spanish copies of the Winchester 92.
I think the Rossi copied the El Tigre.
Puma was an Interarms trademark if I recall correctly, possibly not 'technically' a Rossi marking although I wondered if Rossi (or Interarms) used it because of the El Tigre copies a lot of which were imported to Brazil.

I think I had a timeline at some point, I might have posted it earlier. I think the Spanish El Tigre copies were contemporary with the Winchester 92 production in the U.S.. It was the result of a patenting situation that was unique to Spain. Some of the weapons were used in the Spanish civil war. Some of those guns were eventually sent to Brazil and some were probably imported to the U.S. as well. I think Rossi imports may date back to 1968 or so, possibly even earlier, but that's not at all firm in my memory.

Navy Arms imported from several different sources including Rossi and had their own acceptance/inspection criteria that was more stringent than Interarms.

Exact dates are not exactly easy to come by.