Rossi Rifleman

I have always been a fan of military bolt actions growing with my dad's 98 Mauser, 99 Arisaka, and 03 Springfield. Also been a fan of the 45/70 since I was a kid helping dad reload for his 2 Trapdoor Springfields. Several years back when I discovered the existence on the Gibbs Arms Frontier Summit rifle basically a Lee Enfield SMLE rebarreled in 45/70 I had to have one. I found one online back in 2005 for a tad under $300 delivered which I thought was a very fair price. When I received it the action was stilled covered in cosmoline so unfired since conversion. These guns from what I gather were a brain child of Val Forgett's (Navy Arms fame) son who ran Gibb's arms a subsidiary of Navy Arms. Navy Arms had Enfield actions and Brazilian 45 caliber barrels so the two were combined along with a sporterized stock and the Frontier Summit rifle was born.
I have a buddy in Australia who was kind enough to gift me a Australian designed and manufactured target sight designed for the SMLE. This rifle is a tack-driver with this sight and my handloads using 400 grain cast plain base bullets at 1400 FPS using IMR-3031 powder. I'm very happy with my unique rifle. Now to find some wild cattle to try her out on.
Here's an interesting article on this rifle: http://www.chuckhawks.com/gibbs_summit.htm

I call her "Smelly (SMLE) Nelly


With my gun loving kitty Misha (RIP)


Awesome Aussie Peep Sight

Very nice. I have been watching for a Frontier or Summit Carbine for some time now. They sure do not surface often. I would also go for a Quest Extreme Carbine in 303 British if I ran across one. Good to hear that they are shooters. Boy that is a complicated sight system!

Very cool!

I was going to say "mighty big gun for house cat hunting!"

AhnkoChee wrote:

i thought a 45/70 would tear one of these to pieces, but the carcass looks remarkably intact.

44WCF wrote:i thought a 45/70 would tear one of these to pieces, but the carcass looks remarkably intact.

Hey, the beauty of the cast bullet. You can eat right up to the edge of the bullet hole~

Awesome Aussie Peep Sight

Looks like a "Quigley down under" gun for sure with all that fancy sighting hardware.

For some reason I've wanted a Summit for a long time. One finally popped up on GunBroker and it is the last version offered. The BuyNow is rather high... to bad or it would have already been mine. I'd rather by two more Rossi's for that kind of money.

Gibbs Rifle Enfield Summit Carbine 45-70 - Beauty!

It looked like a beautifully upgraded & well cared for rifle but $950 is too much for a Lee Enfield.
I bought my first 303 BR LE in the early 60's for $12 and it was handpicked from a big bin of them.
No license, no NICS, no nothing back those days........you could order them through the mail......no FFL required.
Not many of us have shot Presidents but we all paid for the fact that the Carcano rifle Oswald purportedly shot JFK with was mail ordered by being saddled with the FFL BS.
NICS, FFLs, registration in some states haven't stopped a single crook from getting a gun.........not a single one .......just ostensible justifiers of useless infrastructure to keep politically connected bureaucrats in high paid, pensionable jobs!