Lets hear your Rohm/RG stories!

Had an RG10 in .22 Short in '69.
Dismal accuracy.
Would not penetrate the side of an old abandoned washing machine.
Stolen from my car in '70.
Did not bother notifying police.
Denis

Dad had a Rohm .22 short and it was so awful, with such a bad trigger and spat lead when firing, couldn't hit anything with it. Pure junk. He Ground off the hammer face and chucked the gun somewhere. They suck.

I had to twist the barrel to line up the sights before i shot it. LOL still have it as a conversation piece only

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I have a RG10 in .22 short. It was my Grandpa's nightstand gun, that's the only reason I keep it. Thing is as useless as teats on a boar hog. At least I got a couple boxes of ammo with it. Oh, have the original box too, price tag says $17.50 I believe.

I've never been tempted to buy a crappy gun. Too risky & I like being able to count to 10 & use both eyes. Even criminals have better taste.

I paid either $15 or $17 for mine.
Overpaid by at least $10 either way.....
Denis

I have taken several of them off of criminals in the past 21 years .

When I found the first one, a .38 with about a 2 inch barrel, I honestly thought it was a blank pistol/starter pistol like they use at track meets .

Die cast metal, crude finish, crude action. Basically a disposable handgun.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

My friend has one in 32 long that he keeps loaded for HD. He has never fired it. I have no idea whether it works or not. I told him I could get him something a lot better for not much, but he wasn't interested. Since he has two pit bulls as house pets, it probably doesn't matter.

I ended up with a RG 22 revolver that looked new (probably was) after my grandfather died years ago. You had to unscrew and remove the cylinder rod to swing it open, then use the rod to pop out the cases. I think it was the same model as the Hinkley gun. I took it to the woods with a friend and fired it, and some frag came sideways out of the cylinder and hit my friend in the cheek. Since it was dangerous to fire and absolutely worthless I had it safely disposed of. Besides, there was also a decent old taurus 38 in my late grandfather's "collection".

I can't really add anything here but my mother had an RG10, the classic "Saturday Night Special" in .22 Short. As far as I know she never fired it. She passed in 2002 and it is in my collection only because it was her gun. Do I plan on shooting it? No, I have many others that are far better.

I will say the .22 short RG10s I saw in the day were better for firing blanks than for firing bulleted ammo.

There were other Rohm guns besides the RG10 and some were much better guns; however, the brand name was ruined by the early bad examples and never recovered.

At auction sales, you will often find a nightstand revolver or pistol and a box of ammo missing one or two cylinder or magazine loads of ammo. The gun and a box of ammo were bought for protection, fired a few times to show they worked, then put away. They were not hunters' or fishermen's workhorses; they only had to work for the lifetime of a box of ammo to give the owner a sense of security.

I have one, it is an RG 39 32swl. Despite its bad reputation simply by the name on the side, it is a decent gun. It was my grandmas. She carried it in her big old leather cigarette bag/purse. Locks up acceptably well and shoots pretty well. Nothing spectacular, but certainly not in the class of death trap most folks make RG guns out to be. My dad's 4" 38 spl is equally well built, and again shoots well enough. Only RG I ever had that was pure junk was an rg10, and I gave it to a friend who simply wanted a noisemaker If somebody came through his window. Even as pure junk, it fired every time and at 7 yards all shots were on a pie plate. Would serve it's purpose if ever called on to do so.

I had a RG 38spl Derringer in late 60's As a married PFC not much money and living off post . I couldn't hit anything over 10' with it . But never failed to fire . I kept for several years and as a SGT I bought a Colt 1911. My landlord son saw the derringer and said he make me a set of wood grips at wood shop in school. I gave him the grips and a few days later I had a lovely set or walnut grips . Pistol didn't shoot any better but looking good. .Couple years later I was stationed at FtCarson Co. A Sgt from my unit was at my house visiting and I was showing off my pistols and rifles. He spotted the derringer and wanted it. Well he ended up making a offer I couldn't refuse and derringer went away. at twice what I had paid for it years before.

Was at my brother house last Sunday he's 84 . I have a few guns stored at his home. I was checking them out to make sure all right. He brings me a S&W 36 no dash looks new. FIL passed away and he got it.

Then he wants to show me his other guns . 1st up a Jennings 22 semi auto . Then a RG 22 revolver and finely a Beretta 21 with wood grips . Said dealer charged him $450 for that one. Dealer told him was a 380 (its a 22LR) I told him he had some nice pistols and keep the Smith close as it was the best one. I don't know who the dealer was but that was wrong to do to a old man on the Beretta . My brother not a gun person. Didn't start buying till in 70's . I live a hour away So can't keep a eye on him and his wife. His sons don't know what end bullet come out . Being not raised around guns.

I had a reserve officer riding with me one night. We were attending to a psychiatric patient in a hospital ED who had tried suicide the night before, and had taken him into protective custody. He was not entirely cooperative.

When we uncuffed him to let him use the urinal, he made a break for it, running down a long corridor toward a fire door at the end. The RO was between me and him, and we were both in immediate foot pursuit down the hall when I suddenly noted a black, brick-like object skipping down the way with us, zig-zagging across the corridor as it bounced off the walls. I slowed to scoop it up as my partner and the individual we were pursuing made their exit through the fire door.

Of course, the object was a RG .38 revolver, that had broken loose from my partner's ankle rig as he ran. I shoved it in my pocket and resumed the chase (which ended uneventfully about half an hour later when the patient, who had given us the slip in the woods across the street, returned to us.)

Knowing what I know now, I'm grateful that gun didn't discharge any of the times it hit the walls. Incidentally, my Charter Arms Undercover 38 remained securely in place throughout that pursuit, and countless others.

Found one at an uncontrolled shooting area once. Made sure it was empty and gave it to a cute ranger girl. I'm sure it ended up as part of a Toyota or some such. Couldn't come to a better end.

I carried my dad's Rg-10 in .22 short as my trapline gun for many years (at least 2 decades). It served me very well in that capacity. I even killed a bobcat that walked up on me while I was running beaver traps with it, a one shot kill. My dad bought the gun in the 1960s for $5. When I was a kid I would sneak it out and if I couldn't find any shorts I'd take .22 longs, cut the bullet down until they would chamber and shoot them. My younger brother has the gun now and shoots it every now and again. The gun is still tight and in time.

About five years ago, a friend asked me to help him dispose of a half-dozen guns that had belonged to his recently deceased father-in- law.

I took a look and gave my best advice, and he ended up doing okay.

One of the guns was a Rohm .44 Mag. Just looking at it convinced me that I would never want to be behind the trigger when a round went off. Even a .44 Spl round would be scary (for me).

I tried to talk him into beating it with a 12-lb sledge and throwing it in the lake, like I did with my Rossi....so many years ago... but he sold it to his brother (along with the whole mess of others).

Guess he doesn't think much of his brother...

When i was a kid, a jr. high school acquaintance converted an RG .22 revolver starter pistol to shoot regular .22's by drilling out the barrel block and lining it with a piece of car antenna.

At one point I bought it from him for $5 and shot .22 standard velocity shorts with it down in my cousins basement with him when his parents weren't home. This was in NYC in the late '50's.

Fast forward 50 years when they're having a gun buyback in Brooklyn. I was rewarded with a $200 cash card for turning it in. That, and a few other garbage guns, bought a Marlin Papoose for me and a Mossberg pump for my son.

I'll say this, the RG never failed to fire, although it was always with great trepidation on my part every time I pulled the trigger. Is this the shot it's going to blow up?

When I was in the single digits, I used to spend a good part of my summer/winter school breaks with a set of grandparents. Grandpa used to let me go start his car to "warm it up" in the morning.

One day I reached into the driver's door side pocket and felt a gun. When he came out I asked him about it, as nonchalantly as I could. He said it was his "car gun"... ie, a cheap one he wouldn't shed too many tears about were it to disappear.

Yup... Rohm 38 special.

Instead of going to work he drove right to the range outside of town and we put all of the 50 round box that was in the trunk downrange. No malfunctions, a few dirt clods hit, and I can still remember the green/yellow Remington box and the LRN bullets poking out of the brass cases. He bought another identical box in the pro shop and everything went back to where it was that morning.

Then we drove to work. And no one batted an eye or uttered a word in edgewise about him being a couple of hours late.

It's good to be the boss

Father in Law passed away in '92. He was a WWII SeeBee and in his later years became real secretive building an office as an extension to his garage. Always locked. Nobody and I mean nobody allowed in even if he was there.
The day after he passed my brother in law and I got the old mans key ring and opened the office. He had built a walk in closet at the rear of the office and in there we found his firearms. 3 pistols an RG .38 a Arminus .38 and a Jennings .22. 3 Long guns an M1 Garand in pristine condition a M1 .30 Carbine and a Marlin 30/30. Now my BIL knew next to nothing about firearms so I gave him a crash course on each one. Probably the worst mistake in my life. I ended up with the 3 pistols and he took the rifles which he sold or pawned over the years. I sold the .38's for $75 and put the Jennings in my tackle box where it stayed for twenty plus years until it rusted shut. It never jammed or anything in the few times I shot it. About a 10" spread at 10 feet.
Also in the closet was a WWII era locked footlocker with a seperate padlock on the front. BIL wasn't interested in it and my wife thought it contained old uniforms so I took it back home and put it in the garage where it got lost in the clutter of crap over the years. A couple years ago I was moving some things around to make way for a freezer when I came across it. Took me awhile to bust the locks off but when I did. Surprise! Yeah old uniforms and a Samurai sword with scabbard, two Japanese battle flags, two military knives/bayonets, a few old Case and Old Timer pocket knives and a sawed off H&R single shot 20 gauge. I guess you could say that it was a nice find.

I picked up a RG14 22lr as part of a trade. The guy I got it from gave me the gun and 26 rounds of very old Remington 22lr ammo. It did fire and was fairly accurate out 20 feet or so. I ended up giving it to a buddy who drives a dump truck. He keeps it in the truck mainly as a wild anamal noise maker.

I once worked in as shop where we sold a ton of those things. The owner didn't want to send anything back if it could be fixed (the shipping was less than I got paid to fix the junk, so if it could be fixed, I did it). I guess the majority worked OK (the customers really didn't expect much) but I fixed a bunch. None were any good. Röhm started out making blank pistols and did get the guns to sort of fire enough to get the West German proof mark. At that time, the Germans were hurting for hard currency and didn't much care about the "rep" they were getting over that junk. Part of what happened was the Gun Control Act of 1968, and the antis beat the "junk gun" drum endlessly. It turned out that old Tom Dodd was owned by Winchester, which put big money into the "gun control" push (to stop the importing of milsurp weapons) but of course at that time only the anti-gun gang knew that or at least no one else was willing to speak out.

Dodd was making his name on juvenile delinquency (see, I give my age away) and crusaded against cheap guns which he blamed for every problem in the world. He eventually got his bills passed (as GCA '68) so we now have nothing but peace, love and brotherhood (it says here).

Jim

Here is a less common RG revolver for sale:

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/575787945

(I have no connection with the seller, nor do I know if the starting price asked is reasonable. I found it because I like 32 S&W Long.)

Two points about this gun stand out to me: the way Rohm seems to have tried to make it resemble a 4th Issue Colt Police Positive, and the extensive use of Philips-head screws. There was a thread recently in the automatic pistol forum where someone asked us to identify a gun from a movie still, and I guessed it was a non-gun simply because it used a Philips screw to hold the grips on. Yet here is a real gun doing the same thing. You learn something new every day.