[FSCJedi]

Anybody ever fired one of these interesting little guns? I wonder just how much does firing from the bottom cylinder help. What about one of the new Model 6 Unica's? The autorevolver. This is such a unique gun that I might have to get one, if that's even possible. Any info?

[Justin]

Anybody ever fired one of these interesting little guns? I've got one. Little is hardly the word I would use to describe the Mateba 6 Unica. Large or massive would be better. I shot mine side-by-side with a Colt Trooper Mk. III and found the differences illuminating. The Mateba is about a pound heavier than the Mk. III, which reduced the recoil noticeably. As to firing from the 6 o'clock cylinder, I think this might be an overtouted advantage of the Mateba due to the fact that the design is taller to make room for the slide rails (if you could call them that.)

Overall, the pistol feels both massive and fragile at the same time. The double action trigger pull isn't bad, and the single action is quite decent, if not a tad bit squishy. Fit and finish is nice, with a really pretty blue job straight from the factory.

It's certainly an interesting design, and fun to shoot, but as a serious defensive arm, you can do far better for far less money.

It will definately get you attention at the range, as you're more than likely the only person in town who owns one.

Oh, and a word of warning: Putting it back together after cleaning it the first time can be really frustrating.

[mountaindrew]

Cdnn has them in thier catalog, ithink they were $599.00 for a .44 magnum with an integral compensator

[Soap]

Justin,

So you finally got one! Did you end up getting the .357 or the .44 version?

[Justin]

Dan- I bought the straight up .357 with a 6 inch barrel.

BTW, I've found it very easy to do double taps with the Mateba with factory .357 loads. :)

[FSCJedi]

Justin,

How does the cylinder swing out? Does it swing out and down like most normal revolvers? What is the recoil of the .357 comparable to from that length barrel? Have you fired .38 special out of it? I'm trying to debate what caliber I want to get one in, and if the recoil reduction is significant, I might just go ahead and get the .454 casual.

[Justin]

The cylinder swings out and down on the left side of the pistol.

Recoil with the Mateba is heavier than I'm used to, but for the most part I shoot .22 and 9mm autoloaders, so what I consider to be heavy recoil and what you consider to be heavy recoil could very well be two completely different things. There was noticeably less muzzle rise/recoil with the Mateba than with the Colt Trooper Mk. III, but more than a standard autochucker like a 1911. For a very rough guesstimate, I'd say that the Mateba had maybe 15-25% less recoil than the Colt.

I have fired .38 Special out of it, and if you don't change the recoil spring for this the .38 Spl. will fail to cycle the weapon about 2/3 of the time. But if the gun doesn't cycle, it's no big deal as you can simply fire it double-action. The DA trigger is a tad heavy, but very easy to stage. The SA trigger pull is quite light, and has a slight amount of creep.

The other thing to watch out for is the barrel getting loose. Matebas have interchangable barrels, and come with a special wrench for taking the barrel off to replace it. As such, I found that I'd have to get the wrench out after about 50 rounds or so and check to see if it had loosened up any.

As for the .454 Casull version, I really can't offer much insight. I would assume that it would have less recoil than a typical .454, but that would all be speculation on my part. I've never even shot a revolver chambered in .454 Casull.

[FSCJedi]

Do you have a holster for it? Do they even make holsters for them? Also, do you know if you can purchase rubber grips to replace the wooden ones? I want to get a stainless one, but I like the look of rubber on stainless instead of wood on stainless.

[Tamara]

BTW, I've found it very easy to do double taps with the Mateba with factory .357 loads. :D

The Mateba is the only revolver you can accidentally "double" with. :o

[Justin]

Nope, no holster for it, just what came in the box. Unless you're willing to go the custom route, your odds of finding a holster for the Mateba in the United States are about zero. More than likely you'd have to make an international call to Mateba in Italy and ask them, or drop them an email via their website.

http://www.mateba-arms.com/pricelist.html

The pricelist is unfortunately only in Italian, but a babelfish translation at AltaVista says that Fondina is Italian for holster.

AltaVista Babelfish translator (http://world.altavista.com/)

I have no idea what it would cost to have a holster shipped to the United States from Italy. In any case I don't think much of the Mateba as a carry gun, except possibly as a BBQ gun.

As far as rubber grips, I believe that the stainless models come with them, but don't quote me on it.

[patentnonsense]

Their prices are in Euros, so add about 25% plus shipping.
The .44 holster is 52 Euros, i.e. around $70.

And I see their autorevolver is also offered in .454! But... is the net capacity of their autorevolvers any greater than a plain old revolver?
I'm missing something.

[Justin]

By capacity I'm assuming you mean how many rounds it holds? No, it doesn't hold any more rounds than an average revolver. It's just a regular old six-shooter in that respect.

:cool: