A friend brought me a Rossi RBL single shot .44 rifle (1997 date). He was having misfires with CCI Magnum primers and failing to ignight some ordinary primers. We thought it might be a tired spring. I contacted Highland Outdoors, the UK importers, who informed me that they had these in stock. However they refused to supply me as I did not have an account with them. So I applied for an account, I was made to supply references and a copy of my RFD certificate. Two months passed-nothing. I telephoned them and was informed that there would not be enough trade to make it worth while opening an account. They did however aggree to sell me a spring and sent me a MAGAZINE SPRING FOR A SINGLE SHOT RIFLE!!!. I was then told that no springs were available as it was such an old model. What twats. Any way I made a selection of springs, trying all heat treating at all temperatures and could not get any stong enough to fire the Mag. primers. The original wire was .064", I even tried .072". The best I could get was a .064" cold formed spring which fired the ordinary large rifle primers.
Have any of you had similar problems with Rossi or could you advise me of a solution?
Sorry this has been so long winded, I had to get it off my chest!

I don't know which Rossi that is but it sounds like a coil spring, check Wolfe springs; they make springs for everything and you might be able to make one of theirs work.

wouldnt it just be easier to use a differant brand of primer ?

If the coil spring isn't fully compressed when
cocked you can pick up a bit of force by putting
washers under the lower end.

Thanks for the replies, muzza, your sugestion was the way my friend decided to go. The spring in question is a radial arm spring. Too many gimmiks in the design resulting in bad geometry in powering the hammer. Rossi have messed up a design that has been working fine for 150 years.