Bang for the buck.........., I mean "a" buck.

[Mark K]

Well, I have read over the years with great interest the horror stories about "Saturday night specials" that were sold out of car trunks in darkened alleys and back rooms. It's been said that the gun act of 1968 did little but return the poor to defending themselves with their hands.

One of the great offenders that gave self defense a bad name was the Rohm RG 10. It was a zinc framed (pot metal) .22 short only revolver, that was good for a few shots and could subsequently come apart at the seams. Someone decided it would be a good idea to take a starter's pistol which they already manufactured, change a few things and make it into a .22 short pistol, it turned out to be a bad idea, and the reputation that followed could never be shed.

What I have here today is a Rohm RG 12, in .22 LR, and although it is not going to win any design awards, I was really surprised what the Germans did with a gun that retailed for less than $30. The frame is actually steel as is the cylinder and barrel, and it has some funny although practical adjustments. The bottom of the frame under the grips has a spring loaded screw that adjusts the trigger pull tension, and right behind the trigger is a small screw that adjusts the depth the hammer travels into the cartridge, something that may explain a major complaint that these would fail to fire on all cylinders.

After cleaning, surprisingly this little gun locks up tighter than most I have, has a very small cylinder gap, a super clean bore and a pretty smooth trigger pull. The Ruger style extractor works well and is fun to use.

I am going to throw caution to the wind and let her rip, I'd like to see if it is accurate at all. Most advise that these be thrown in the river with a quarter strapped to them so you feel you actually lost something valuable! :~) I'll reserve judgment until after the boolits.

http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp104/Mbrgr/rhand.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp104/Mbrgr/rg9.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp104/Mbrgr/rg8.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp104/Mbrgr/rg7.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp104/Mbrgr/rg6.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp104/Mbrgr/rg5.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp104/Mbrgr/rg4.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp104/Mbrgr/rg3.jpg

[jim4065]

Never throw it away. I traded one to a Mexican taxi to give me a ride back over the river to Del Rio late one night, and sure was glad that I had it to give. Hmmm - do ya think it could've started this whole "Guns Across the Border to the Drug Lords" thing? :roll:

Incidentally - yours is a lot prettier than mine was. Maybe you could trade it for something else down in "Boys Town"? :kidding:

[trickyasafox]

I'm intrigued. Interested to hear about the range report. I've never seen the low cost 'saturday night specials' in person.

[MtGun44]

I would guess that for a really poor guy, this would be a lot better for self defense than
harsh language and a baseball bat. I have seen the .22 Short *** Rohms and they really do
deserve the bad rap. That one, while it will never win a beauty contest, looks like it might
suffice for basic dirt poor self defense.

Bill

[Bret4207]

There's nothing wrong with cheap guns, as long as they're safe in the first place. I don't care if it's an old Western Auto single barrel shotgun or a RG or other off brand gun, they can serve their purpose and that's all that matters.

[Doc_Stihl]

I like cheap guns. Make it a project, and enjoy it for what it is.

[HeavyMetal]

I think you'll be surprised and look forward to a range report.

I have a 38 special derringer, the over under type, that is also thought to be poor quality.

I haven't looked at the brand name in more years than I can remember, I do know it's German.

I also know I won a $20 bet with my service manager when He said I couldn't hit a man sized target at 5 feet with it. Just to get him to actually cough up a real 20 I offered a 15 foot range to make him feel even safer with his bet.

Put both rounds, touching, in the head of a IPSC target at 15 feet. using Federal target wadcutters!

Can't get anyone in the building to bet with me no more.

[cajun shooter]

As a cop on the street I took these guns off people in the 70's and 80's by the basket fulls. When we would have a shooting in a black bar and respond with officers we would find several of them thrown on the floor. When we would ask the person nearest the gun if it was theirs of course you had denial. I have left out of one of these bars with several to turn in to evidence. They have to have the cylinder removed and you use the base pin to extract the fired cartridges. The local gun store sold them for around$28 at the time. I worked one killing with one of these where the woman who shot her boyfriend 9 times pleaded insanity. When I demostrated what it took to reload this gun in a dark bar and continue to fire she was convicted. The barrels and cylinders were of pot metal and lined with steel. They killed a lot of people in the day and were the main reason for the gun control push to start.

[Wayne Dobbs]

I worked a domestic violence shooting involving one of those RG .22s years ago. Guy was beating his wife on her workplace parking lot and she had one of these little trotline weights in her purse. She went six for six in his groin area (missed the gear completely), walked inside the business, threw the gun down on the security guard's desk, clocked in and was drinking coffee with her girls when we went in and arrested her.

Hubby refused to prosecute and made a full recovery. I guess they lived happily ever after...

[Char-Gar]

I have one of those pistols that was a murder weapon. A guy killed his wife with it. He held her down and placed the muzzle against her scalp. It took him all six rounds of 22 short to put her lights out. He turned her head with each shot looking for a place the bullet would do some good. It would have been more merciful just to cut her throat.

[jhrosier]

I remember when those clunkers sold for less than $15 new. .22 shorts were about 23 cents per box back then. My pal convinced me so save up and buy a Ruger standard model auto for $37.50 so I never got to try the Rohm.

I've seen a couple of them offered for sale locally for $100 and wonder if some folks would know quality if it smacked them in the nose.

What's interesting to consider is that one day, they will be rare and valuable antiques.

Jack

[Mark K]

I'm glad I got this one off the streets. :~) I promise it will never hurt anyone except a large cockroach. It's 22LR by the way, I can only imagine a 22S, might as well pull out the Velo Dog. :~)

[Bret4207]

They killed a lot of people in the day and were the main reason for the gun control push to start.

Read the old Riflemans from the 20's and 30's or before. There was a push for gun control back then too. It wasn't these guns, it was control over people. Some people shouldn't have guns- that's a 100% fact anyway you cut it. But the easy answer is to disarm everyone, except the politicians and the "good " people. The hard answer is to let people use common sense and decide for themselves if they want to have a gun.

[StrawHat]

Read the old Riflemans from the 20's and 30's or before. There was a push for gun control back then too. It wasn't these guns, it was control over people. Some people shouldn't have guns- that's a 100% fact anyway you cut it. But the easy answer is to disarm everyone, except the politicians and the "good " people. The hard answer is to let people use common sense and decide for themselves if they want to have a gun.


A very reasonable collection of thoughts. There was also a push after the Civil War.

But of course, gun control is not about guns.

[725]

In my career I took a bunch of those off the street. Those cheapies allowed the poor to defend themselves, and yes a bunch made their way into criminal activity. A huge number defended the homestead of those who couldn't afford more. The modern Jim Crow - anti-Saturday night special laws slowly weeds the possibility of the poor from using such handguns to defend themselves. Now cops are forced to face generally better made and larger caliber handguns instead of the smaller, more prone to failure cheapies. Where freedom disappears, the laws of unitended consequences always come into play and frequently bites ya.

[Boz330]

In my career I took a bunch of those off the street. Those cheapies allowed the poor to defend themselves, and yes a bunch made their way into criminal activity. A huge number defended the homestead of those who couldn't afford more. The modern Jim Crow - anti-Saturday night special laws slowly weeds the possibility of the poor from using such handguns to defend themselves. Now cops are forced to face generally better made and larger caliber handguns instead of the smaller, more prone to failure cheapies. Where freedom disappears, the laws of unitended consequences always come into play and frequently bites ya.

An old friend of mine did his residency in emergency medicine at University Hospital which gets all of the serious trauma stuff, such as gunshot wounds. I was surprized to learn that most of the folks shot with these weapons in the chest area, even through the heart, survived. He said if they got to the emergency room alive they could usually save them. If they were shot through the heart with a 9MM or larger then the damage was usually too bad for them to save them. He really had some wild stories about working there.

Bob

[jim4065]

I'm surprised that you can be shot through the heart with anything and live long enough to make it to the hospital. Headshots, hmmm?

[9.3X62AL]

I've seen a few of the 22 Short RGs over the years, fewer of the example Mark K photographed so well.

I noticed the "stag antler" proof mark (?) in one of the photos. I had an HK-91 with a very similar mark......anyone know its meaning or origin?

[Mark K]

It turns out this frame is Zinc die cast, it also turns out the high pressure die cast procedure can produce highly detailed castings without the need for expensive machining. Zinc is also more than strong enough for any pressure a .22 can exert as shown by the proof marks.

The anti "junk gun" legislation has come back to bite some manufacturers in the backside as the original attempt to ban these came in the form of banning any frame or cylinder with a melting point below 900 degrees F or so, which would be Zinc and lots of plastics, well, some of the high tech new guns are made of these materials now, and are subject to the same laws. Talk about unintended consequences.

I'm pretty sure Rohm and others did not think to themselves "Hey, lets make crappy guns", they decided to make an affordable gun that would do in a pinch, and not need to last a lifetime or be handed down to subsequent generations. It's a niche market just like anything else. I'll bet if i take care of this gun, clean it after use and store it properly, it will last a long time, zinc and all. :~) I'm going to shoot it tomorrow for the first time, I'll post pics when I get back.

This has been a fun discussion, thanks for all the input.

[chevyiron420]

i had someone bring one of those over to my house once to check it over. i had it out back at my little test range and a little snake slithered accross in front of my target. i shot a cylinder full at it and hit it every shot. range was about 7 yards.

[Bret4207]

I've shot a lot of "cheap" guns, IJ and H+R always had a crap reputation among the gun writers. You'd be amazed what some of them can do after a good cleaning and a little TLC. Some have been abused and aren't worth it, others are jewels.

[HamGunner]

This RG 10 was my wife's Grandma's marked for .22 short and she kept it by her bed with hp bullets. Now it stays in my fishing tackle box with cut off .22 LR in the chamber. I have shot it years ago, but I can't remember if it would hit a snake at 10 ft. or not. Like Cajun Shooter said, it requires the cylinder to be removed for reloading.

Granny Nora was born in 1892 and usually would carry a shotgun when she carried a gun. She was probably the first women in Ozark County, Missouri to drive. Her and her first husband (outlived three-all preachers) went out to Illinois and worked as farm hands on a farm to get a start and one of the other farm hands taught her to drive. They bought a new Model T and she drove them back to Ozark County. Since there were hardly any roads for cars in the county, they had to park it several miles from their old homestead farm. They sold it for cattle and eventually her husband learned to drive when roads improved. She never drove again the rest of her life. She lived to be 97.

[Bret4207]

Good story Hamgunner. I don;t think they build women like that anymore.

[wallenba]

I am going to throw caution to the wind and let her rip, I'd like to see if it is accurate at all. Most advise that these be thrown in the river with a quarter strapped to them so you feel you actually lost something valuable! :~) I'll reserve judgment until after the boolits.

Funny you should say that Mark. Back here in Michigan some kids playing in the Owosso river found one of those, turned it into the State police, who tracked down the owner who helped them link it to the rape murder suspect of Dawn Magyar. He was ultimately arrested charged and convicted with decades old DNA evidence. Same gun.:coffee:

[Who's this Guy ?]

A freind of mine's father has one of those Rohm's. The first time I saw it I thought it was a joke. It looked like an old cap pistol almost. But sure enough it was in .22 short and you have to pull the cylinder out etc. to load and unload. My friend told me for years that was the only gun his father owned.The guy still has it today. I think however he upgraded a bit to a S&W 622. As much as we laugh and joke about small caliber SNS-***'s I wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of one.