The trend of modernized lever-action rifles keeps growing and currently, most of the major lever-action rifle manufacturers offer such guns. At NRAAM 2019, Marlin introduced the Dark Series, at SHOT Show 2020, Henry released the X-Series and Rossi jumped on the bandwagon of modern lever guns with the launch of R92 Triple Black rifles. Well, the Brazilian company is expanding their line of black lever guns offered in the US market by adding a rimfire one. This new iteration of Rossi’s Rio Bravo lever-action rifle has a quite nice-looking Magpul-esque polymer furniture and other features seen in guns of this new breed.

Here is how the modernized Rio Bravo is described on Rossi USA’s website:

The Rossi Rio Bravo is based on the company’s popular line of R92 lever-action firearms. Featuring a rugged black polymer forearm and stock with polished black metal finish, the Rio Bravo brings the traditional rifle experience to the rimfire category. The Rio Bravo is well-suited for small-game hunting, adventurous target shooting, around-the-farm pest control, and can be used for youth training.

This Rossi Rio Bravo rifle is chambered in .22LR and has a magazine tube capacity of 15 rounds. As we can see in the pictures, the smooth matte black polymer stock has a textured grip area, ambidextrous cheekpiece, serrated buttpad, and a bottom sling swivel stud. The handguard features finger grooves at the rear and M-LOK slots on its front portion which is wrapped around the barrel. The rifle also comes with adjustable rear and shrouded front fiber optic sights. The manual cross-bolt safety button is located above the trigger and there is also a half-cock safety. The rifle has an 18″ barrel, an overall length of 35.9″ and weighs in at 5 lbs 2.7 oz. The MSRP of this Rossi Rio Bravo rimfire rifle is $301.52.

One feature normally seen in other black lever guns that the Rio Bravo lacks is the threaded barrel. I think it’s a must-have feature for a gun like this along with some sort of optics mounting provision. What do you think about the Rossi Rio Bravo with polymer furniture and this trend of modernized lever guns in general?

Images by Rossi USA, www.rossiusa.com