The Rossi Ranch Hand "Mare's Leg."

Not the most practical pistol to own. I still love this gun mostly for the cool factor. This is the Rossi Ranch Hand in .45 Colt caliber. It's a 6 shot lever action pistol that has a distinct look and feel of the old west to it. It handles well but is a bit heavy after a while of shooting at the range. The lever action is pretty smooth but needs to be broken in. The sights are fixed with a range adjustment on the rear sight. The sights themselves are a bit hard to see and use and I find that the pistol shoots high and left and still need to contact Rossi about adjusting that problem.

As for home defense, it'll work for that. You can still use it at the close ranges for home defense by sighting down the barrel. Takes some practice but it can be done. The .45 colt round is more than enough to stop a home intruder. The 12 inch barrel insures the additional power doesn't go to waste. As for any real practical use for this pistol, I can't think of any. I bought it mostly for the cool factor and don't regret it. It definitely gets looks from other shooters at the range. It has the large loop for flip cocking but I don't recommend it for live rounds. I love it, it's fun to shoot. I'm sure others out there will find more practical uses for it. I do know of one fellow who uses it for hog hunting. I'd rather use a rifle for hunting, but everyone will find some justification for owning it.

I don't actually use it as one of my home defense guns as it's a bit awkward for me. My CZ P-07 is more suited for that task. I plan on using it for fun and show and maybe as a backpack gun for hiking and camping. I'm sure there are heavy enough rounds made for it to use effectively on bears. Not that I plan on shooting bears left and right, just in case type of situation is what I mean.

If you like the old west and want a memorable gun for shooting, the Rossi Ranch Hand is perfect for making impressions. Not so much for home defense as it's a bit large and awkward, for me at least. I'd give it four out of five stars for ratings. It loses the one star for the sight problems.

My impression of the GP WASR 10/63

Well about a year ago I saved up money for an assault rifle. I wanted something for an extreme case/worst case scenario for defense. I originally narrowed my selection to three types, the M-1 Carbine, the Ruger Mini-14 and the AK. I did a little research and rejected the M-1 Carbine due to the cost of the rifle and the cost of the ammunition and availability of ammunition. It wasn't the cheapest to shoot and I can't get the ammo at Walmart. I rejected the Ruger Mini-14 only because the price was too much for the rifle. I have a low income and need to find the best prices that I can with the best quality. I finally settled on the AK.

Now my version is the Romanian made WASR-10/63. I read the reviews for it and thought that this is the best rifle I can afford and the ammo is plentiful and cheap. I checked this rifle out before buying, checking for the things I read about that were quality control problems with the WASR-10. The WASR-10/63 is vastly improved over it's previous version. I couldn't wait to take it out and try it.

It shot well and reliably. I put three hundred rounds through it that first time and it worked every time and it had a pretty decent grouping at fifty feet. The only complaints I have with this rifle is that the pistol grip is uncomfortable. The original grip is a plastic stick that cramped my hand after a while. I replaced this with a Hogue pistol grip and it makes a world of difference. The comfort level is high and it fills my hand better. I also added a few other items to the rifle and turned it into a tactical rifle.

The WASR-10/63 holds a good grouping, it is easy to clean and maintain. The rifle came with an extra magazine and a bayonet. The bayonet isn't all that useful for me and needed a very thorough washing. The items you need to get to make this rifle complete is the front sight adjustment tool, which I picked up in Amazon and a small mallet for making fine delicate adjustments to the front sight. One more thing that you need is a sling with metal attachments. My original sling melted from the heat of the barrel as I layed it down on the ground. My sling rested on the barrel and the sling attachment next to the barrel heated up as much as the barrel so that when I picked my rifle up again the sling came apart.

This rifle is the best rifle I've shot and I can see this rifle being used by me for the rest of my life. I have no need or want for another assault rifle. The picture above was taken a few months after I bought and I added the red dot scope to it with a new receiver cover that had rail mounts on it. The picture below is my current version of it with a Tapco Galil type handguard and a collapsible stock and a new muzzle brake. It shoots well before and now the recoil is lessened not that recoil was bad before but now the muzzle lost a lot of that upward motion with this new muzzle brake.

In short, the GP WASR-10/63 is a good buy and a good quality rifle. It's also a lot of fun to shoot and it's completely customizable to fit your needs. I'd give this rifle 5 out of 5 stars.