Rossi M885, Limited +P Okay?

[Snowdog]

I bought a lightly used Rossi M855 last month from a coworker for a decent price. Due to his wife being diagnosed with a psychological condition, he doesn't want it in his house.

According to him, he just received the revolver back from the PD (his wife killed his neighbor's dog with it, long story) and simply wanted to get rid of it (his last firearm). He sold it to me for $150, which I thought was a deal.

I reload for the .38 Special and much of my reloads are (Eastwood) powder coated 135gr lead hp at approximately 900-950 fps. This isn't exactly hot ammo, but it's heading in that direction. Would this or off-the-shelf +P ammunition be okay for this small revolver in limited amounts or do they have a history for shooting loose with such fodder?

I'm under the impression that they are on par with Taurus.

Thanks in advance.

 

[armoredman]

I have an 885, and my limited research said they are not rated for +P ammo. I would hazard a guess that a VERY limited diet, like 5 rounds to test and the five you keep for SD use would be OK, but the consensus was no on any kind of regular use. Shame, since it's such a well built little wheelgun. I also handload for mine as well, and I was very pleasantly surprised by the accuracy and good trigger. Is yours an Interarms marked one, just curious. The one thing to remember with older used guns is we never know what the previous owners used in them. BTW, I paid $50 more for mine, and consider it money well spent.

 

[wcwhitey]

Same as any J Frame not rated for +P. If you are looking to practice with it a bunch standard pressure is what I would do. There are rounds like Standard Pressure Hornady Critical Defense that are decent rounds for such guns. It is what I use in an older Colt Agent. Other options are standard pressure Semi Wadcutters, Wadcutters and lighter bullet standard pressure hollow points that run fast enough to expand, think +900 fps give or take.

 

[Snowdog]

A picture could have helped a bit:



I'll probably pass on my reloads. I did intend to load more 148gr DEWC (also powder-coated WW), so perhaps I'll just load up more of those. My M60 needs to eat too.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Paul Harrell recently compared some defensive .38 Special loads, including HBWC target ammo. Jump to the end (around 28 minutes) for his conclusions -- they weren't his first choice, but he found that the wadcutters performed pretty well in his 'meat target' test, better than some heavy bullet +P loads.

 

[Tallball]

I believe those were some of the nicer Rossi snubs. I'd dearly like to have a 3".

When in doubt, don't use +P.

 

[Slamfire]

I had an issue with my Rossi snubbie and sent it to the warranty center. The gunsmith there said he had seen many of those Rossi's blown up with +P ammunition.

The pistol is not a +P revolver, don't load or shoot +P in the thing.