I bought my Rossi when Interarms was importing them. I can't remember the date, but it was more than 20 years ago. It is a .357, but I bought a 44 Mag too .Then bought a Marlin 94 in 44 mag to. Sold the POS Marlin and gave the Rossi 44 mag to my niece. Anyone with a little bit of manual dexterity can take the Rossi apart and smooth up the actions.
My .357 is my favorite saddle gun. It rides in an old scabbard I think was made for the original 92's. As for the soft stocks I'll run up the BS flag on that. Mine has spent a good bit of time riding in a scabbard and knocking around, plus a couple of years in Cowboy matches and still looks good.Certainly no worse for wear than any of the other hunting rifles I have.I did strip the dark finish to lighten up the color of the stock though.
Yours is from a different time than mine. The stock on mine is comparable in hardness to white pine. Those Interarms guns actually had finish on the stocks too. Haven't looked at any of them in a couple years but when I bought mine {2014 I think} the stocks had no finish just stain.
