Rossi Gallery Review: Rossi’s Take on a Classic Design

Introduction

The Rossi Gallery is a .22LR rifle that seeks to take the shooter back to a bygone era. The steel, aluminum, and wood of the gallery are designed to make you remember a simpler time when you could go to the fair, ride the Ferris wheel, drink a coke, and win your girl a prize at the shooting gallery.

When you look at the Gallery, you can see the inspiration in the design. Styled after the gallery guns of the 1890s, the Rossi gallery is chambered in .22LR and features a smooth sliding pump action.

Is this modern take on the classic gallery gun a faulty shooter that takes your money and leaves you without a prize, or is it a straight shooter that helps you impress everyone with your shooting prowess?

Check out our review of the Rossi Gallery below and find out.

Rossi Gallery Review

Rossi Gallery For Sale

Any firearm that wants to call back to an earlier age of firearms manufacturing needs to have wood and metal. The review version of the Gallery I received from Rossi has both.

This rifle features a polished, matte black barrel and receiver. The stock and forend are a gorgeous hardwood that not only looks good but feels good in the hand. For those who want a more modern-looking and feeling rifle, a synthetic stocked version is also available.

Sights

The sights on the Rossi Gallery feature a drift adjustable front sight and a buckhorn-style adjustable rear sight. I found the sights to be, while nothing special, perfectly adequate. The synthetic version features a fiber optic front sight.

There is also a dovetail rail on the top of the Gallery. This allows the mounting of an optic or other accessories.

Magazine

The Rossi Gallery features a tubular magazine located underneath the barrel. The magazine holds 15-rounds. To load the Gallery, the inner magazine is removed, and the cartridges are loaded into a loading port.

Once 15-rounds have been loaded, the removable portion of the magazine is reinserted into the tube under the barrel, and a follower pushes the rounds down to the action.

Action

The pump action on the Rossi Gallery was very smooth. Operating the action feels natural, and it was easy and very satisfying to put 15 rounds down range. The smooth action was one of my favorite parts of the Rossi Gallery.

An action release control on the front of the trigger guard allows you to cycle or open the action when the rifle is cocked. After firing a shot, depressing this control is unnecessary, but if you need to cycle the action when the rifle is cocked, this is necessary.

I did have one issue with the action on the Gallery.

When cycling the action, if you are not careful, you stand a good chance of giving the web of your hand a good snakebite. I came very close to doing this my first time cycling the action and learned to keep my thumb down and out of the way to avoid an unfortunate accident.

Specifications

Pros & Cons

Range Report

Reliability

The reliability of the Rossi Gallery was very good. It digested every ammo type I tried in it. I never once had a failure to feed or failure to extract. Overall I was very pleased with my results.

Accuracy

For plinking, the Rossi Gallery was fine. The sights were nothing special, but they didn’t need to be. I was able to shoot moderately accurately, and the more I shot the rifle, the more accurate I became with it.

The trigger pull on the rifle I tested was just over 4 pounds for a five shot average. I didn’t have any complaints about the trigger.

Adjusting the sights was very easy, and I was pleased with my ability to adjust the impact point by making adjustments to the rear sights. I had little need to use the sights at more than the lowest elevation setting during my time with the rifle, but trying different settings and seeing the results was informative.

Overall Feel

I really liked the feel of the Rossi Gallery. The rifle just felt right in my hands. I carried it around my farm, took it for a ride on my UTV, and tried to get a feel for the rifle.

I did some moving and shooting drills with it, and the action was smooth and quick. Combined with the compact size of the Rossi Gallery and its light weight, it was a rifle that felt at home on my farm.

Features

Smooth Pump-Action

The pump action on the Rossi Gallery was really a cool feature. Keeping my finger on the trigger and the smooth cycling of the action really allowed me to have quick follow-up shots.

I especially liked the pump-action when I was doing moving and shooting drills where I wanted to keep my eyes looking down the sights and at the target.

15-Round Magazine Capacity

The 15-round magazine capacity of the Gallery was great. More rounds in the magazine means more time shooting and less time reloading. The 15-round magazine was also quick to reload. I was able to reload and shoot very quickly every time the rifle ran dry.

Lightweight & Handy Design

Tipping the scales at just over 5 pounds, the Gallery is a really great package that is easy to carry and fun to shoot. .22LR isn’t a powerful enough cartridge to punish the shooter for carrying such a light rifle.

The small size and lightweight of the Rossi Gallery made it handle well.

How We Tested

I tested the rifle by carrying it around my farm. It drove around with me on my UTV, sat it out nearby when I was mowing my pasture, and treated it like a working rifle and not a safe queen.

I shot the Rossi Gallery freehand, braced against a fence post, and from a shooting rest. Of these, shooting freehand was the most fun.

I didn’t take it to a formal range to shoot but let it shoot the same shots my other .22LR rifles would be expected to make. I didn’t get a chance to take it hunting small game, but I have zero doubts it would have handled that well.

Ammo Used

I shot a collection of the .22LR ammunition types I had sitting around my house. The two types of ammo I shot the most out of it were Federal 36 grain copper plated hollow points and CCI Quiet.

Both shot equally well. Of the two, I shot the CCI Quiet the most since it disturbs life on my farm less than other .22LR loadings.

Score Card

Reliability (10/10)

The Rossi Gallery was one hundred percent reliable. I have no issues using this as an everyday .22LR rifle on my farm.

Ergonomics (10/10)

Here is where the Gallery shined. I liked this rifle. It was a nifty gun that felt right in the hands and was a blast to shoot.

Customization (3/10)

Customization is where the Rossi Gallery is lacking. I was not able to find much in the way of aftermarket support.

Appearance (7/10)

The Rossi Gallery’s looks are classic wood and metal. I don’t think it has the same level of sexy that a lever action rifle brings to the table, but it isn’t a bad-looking rifle by any means, either.

Value (8/10)

Value is a tough category to judge. Value really comes down to the person buying the rifle. The versions of the Gallery with wood furniture come in at a higher price point than those with a synthetic stock and forend. That being said, the wood version, in my opinion, is a better-looking rifle.

Overall, the value for the Gallery I think, is on par with the 2023 firearms market.

Accessories

The availability of accessories for the Gallery is limited. Here are a few that are listed on the Rossi website.

Viridian EON 3-9×40 Scope w/ Weaver & 3/8 Dovetail Rings

Putting an optic on your Rossi Gallery is a great way to increase your accuracy when shooting at longer distances.

Rossi Plastic Dovetail Picatinny Rail Adapter

Many people prefer Picatinny rails to dovetail. This Rossi adaptor lets you convert the dovetail on the Rossi Gallery to a Picatinny rail.

Alternatives

Ruger 10/22

Seen by some as the gold standard for .22LR rifles, the Ruger 10/22 is one of if not the best selling .22LR rifles available. Incredibly popular, the 10/22 is a semi-automatic rifle with vast amounts of aftermarket support and parts. The 10/22 is known for its versatility, customizability, and accuracy.

Savage Arms Mark II

The Savage Arms Mark II is a bolt-action .22LR rifle. Bolt action rifles are known for their accuracy and reliability, and the Savage Arms Mark II is no different. A robust aftermarket for parts also sets this rifle apart from the Rossi Gallery. If a bolt-action .22LR is what you are looking for, the Savage Arms Mark II should be on your list of rifles to check out.

Henry Golden Boy

The Henry Golden Boy is a lever-action .22LR rifle and looks most similar to the Rossi Gallery of the alternative rifles listed. While the Henry Golden Boy comes in at a slightly higher price point than the Rossi it has a well earned reputation for being an outstanding rifle. It also provides the classic metal and wood look of the Gallery with the classic lever action.

Conclusion

The Gallery is Rossi’s take on the classic “gallery gun.” Its wood and metal design is a welcome break from cookie-cutter firearms that dominate modern gun culture. Rossi even made a Gallery that fits the black and plastic motif if that is your thing.

As a firearm, the Rossi Gallery is lightweight, handy, and fun to shoot. For a .22LR rifle, you can’t ask for much more. The 15-round magazine makes it practical, the sights are functional, and the rifle is reliable.

You did your job if you are designing a gun, and the above sentence is how your gun is described. If you are looking to grab a Rossi Gallery, head here for the wood version or check out the synthetic stocked variant, and have a blast.