MEASURES

• Weight:

  85 oz.
• Barrel Length:

  18.5″
• Overall Length:

  35.6″

The Rossi Circuit Judge is a fascinating and ingenious hybrid that’s part revolver, part shotgun. It’s got a 5-round cylinder chambered to handle both .45 Colt AND up to 3” Magnum .410 bore shot shells. The Circuit Judge has a single-action/double-action trigger so you can fire either for precision or speed.

There are only two real options: stainless steel or polished black. Pick whichever you want, and that will be the look of the barrel, receiver, hammer, cylinder, trigger guard and trigger. That’s it.

Everything else is standard to both models. Thus both have an 18.5” long barrel, a lovely Brazilian hardwood forend and stock, raised front and rear sights, strap loops, a thick black buttpad, etc. The front sight is fiber optic while the rear one is adjustable for both windage and elevation. The guns also come with an optional scope mount.

rossi circuit judge .45 colt/.410 gauge,

The guns have a transfer bar safety. Drop the gun, and they won’t fire. They also have a built in Taurus Security System just behind the hammer. It’s essentially a little key you can put in to lock or unlock the gun. There is a nice visual indicator: the lock pin pops up to protrude when it’s locked and sinks back down when it’s unlocked.

In either case, the guns weigh 85 ounces (5.3 pounds) and have an overall length of 35.6”.

In the past, there were other versions of the Circuit Judge available. These included the two cylinder .22 LR / .22 MAG 9-round cylinder, .44 Magnum 6-round, 28-gauge non-rifled 5-round, a shorter Tuffy model with a 32” overall length, etc. But all retained the 18.5” barrel length with varying weights of 75 to 90 ounces, different sight combinations and lengths between 32” to 36”.

While the Rossi name sounds Italian, the company is actually Brazilian albeit founded by Amadeo Rossi who was either an Italian immigrant or of Italian extraction. Rossi’s manufacturing and headquarters are in Sao Leopoldo in southern Brazil. It’s been in business since 1889 when Rossi founded it there. The current US importer of this compelling pair of hybrids is Rossi USA, but in the past it was BrazTech.