Rossi has lived in that mental bucket of “cheap knockoff” for a lot of shooters. The last few years changed that, and the RS22 pistol is one of the clearest signs the brand is trying to earn a second look. It’s not a flashy centerfire carry gun or some boutique race pistol. Instead, Rossi took its budget .22 LR semi-auto rifle and built a compact, modular pistol around that action. On paper it sounds like another toy. In practice, it checks a lot of boxes for training, plinking, and suppressed fun without feeling like something tossed together in a corner of the factory.
A rifle-born action with real flexibility
At the heart of the RS22 pistol is the same blowback-operated .22 LR action used in the RS22 rifle. That means you’re working with a known quantity: simple internals, easy maintenance, and mags that already have a track record. The pistol shares magazine compatibility with the rifle, ships with a 10-rounder, and runs off an aluminum alloy receiver with a cross-bolt safety in front of the trigger guard. Instead of inventing something wild, Rossi leaned on a proven budget rifle system and built outward from there. That stability is part of why people who usually roll their eyes at Rossi are stopping to actually handle this thing.
Threaded barrel, optics rail, and a chassis that doesn’t feel cheap
The RS22 pistol runs a 6″ alloy-steel barrel threaded 1/2×28, complete with a thread protector, so dropping a .22 can on it is straightforward. There are no iron sights from the factory, but you do get an aluminum Picatinny rail for optics, which lines up with how most people are going to run a gun like this anyway. The action sits in a polymer chassis with an AR-style pistol grip, an accessory rail on the fore-end, and a rear Pic rail for a brace or sling. It still lives in budget territory, but the layout feels thought-through instead of thrown together to hit a price point.
The brace option that turns it into a handy little training rig
Rossi offers the RS22 pistol with an optional Strike Industries folding stabilizing brace. Extended, overall length is about 22.75″, and the brace only adds 10.75 ounces and less than an inch when folded. On the range, that turns the pistol into a very forgiving platform for new shooters and a fun suppressed setup for experienced ones. With a brace and a red dot, recoil is basically non-existent, and you can run transitions, reloads, and manipulations that map surprisingly well to centerfire carbines. It ends up in a weird sweet spot: cheap enough to treat as a beater, useful enough that you’ll actually bring it to the range.
Price point that undercuts most of the competition
MSRP comes in around $190 for the bare pistol and about $400 with the folding brace. That’s well under a lot of rimfire pistols once you start talking threaded barrels and rails, and you’re doing it on a platform that shares mags and parts with a common budget .22 rifle. If the gun were sloppy or failure-prone, the price wouldn’t matter, but early coverage points to a compact .22 that actually runs and gives shooters more options than the sticker suggests. For a brand that used to be shorthand for “lowest-grade option in the case,” that’s exactly the kind of move that makes people stop and reconsider.
What this says about Rossi moving forward
The RS22 pistol doesn’t suddenly turn Rossi into a premium name, but it does show the company paying attention to how people actually use rimfires today. A modular chassis, threaded barrel, brace option, and optic-ready setup used to be features you’d only expect on higher-priced builds. Here, they show up in a package that lives squarely in the “anyone can buy this” tier. Combined with the updated Brawler line and the comeback of their classic revolvers, the RS22 pistol fits into a pattern: Rossi trying to clean up its image by putting out guns that do more than you’d expect at the price.
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