Help with revolver history: Rohm RG10s

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swidgen

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A good friend of mine has offered me a pretty neat little gun. If anyone can tell me anything about it I would appreciate it. This would be my first gun, so please tell me the obvious also.

Markings (handle): Rohm, other side RG10s

Barrel: Cal. 22 short, stamped insignia "ccc"? in a cross type design with an "n" underneath it (same insignia on the body), Rohm G.M.R.H. Sontheim/BR., made in Germany

Body: "63" with an antler insignia and the "ccc/n" thing.

Thanks in advance

Swidgen
 
Your friend is no friend of yours, that revolver is the prototypical Saturday night special. Don't get it. Calling it garbage is to complement it.
 
I agree. Pass on that gun. The materials and workmanship are substandard.
 
Rohm RG10. What a gun!

The history of Rohm began in Bulgaria where goats were bred to have muscular intestines. These goats were fed ferrous and alloy scrap metal and kept in huge mountainous pastures. Each day afterwards, the peasant farmers would gather Rohm revolvers among the toadstools.

Avoid this gun. Do not buy it. Don't even accept it if it is given to you! It is one of the worst guns available, and even if it does function, it will not function for long. There are much better guns out there, some for the same money. If you want an inexpensive first gun, simply state your budget and desires. You will get a plethora of helpful replies.
 
Oh, it'll go bang, about once out of every three or four tries...:rolleyes: I had one I think I got out of a cracker jack box. I was elated it wasn't another fake tattoo. But, after trying it, I traded it for a fake tattoo.

Seriously, I had one. It was a Gibson's discount on sale for under 30 bucks back in the day and I just had to try it. It looked a lot like a blank pistol, but wasn't as reliable. I never found a hole in a target, though, probably would have hit better with the blank pistol.
 
Your particular one was made in Germany in 1963, and imported before the cut-off imposed by the "Gun Control Act of 1968"; as noted, only slightly better than a rock or a pointy stick, but they sold well enough that RG Industries was set up in Florida to manufacture the exact same designs that could no longer be imported from overseas.
 
History of the RG revolver,,,,,
This was the pre 1968 German revolver version of the Jennings J-22 semi automatic pistol.
There is nothing neat about these guns.
They are junk.
 
I had one I paid all of $1o for. Would not hit a gallon jug from 5 feet, would not fire reliabl. Pin fell out and barrel shroud fell off. Fell in a local lake when fishing about 10 years ago and that's where it belongs. Joe
 
I usually defend the guns that others call junk, but in this case their reputation is well deserved.

I bought one NIB and unfired many many years ago, the same one you are talking about.

It never failed to fire or gave me any malfunctions.
But every time I shot it i felt a sensation of sand blowing in my face.
For some reason one day (I only had it for about a month) I had my left hand up when I fired it.

I found out what the sand was.
The gun was so badly timed that it was shaving lead and blowing it back in every direction.

Shards of lead went so far into my hand that they had to be cut out.

I tried to give it to a gunsmith I knew as a parts gun and he laughed at me.

I told him if he didn't want it he could smack it with a hammer.
The gun broke into three or four pieces when he did.

You know that lady that is always shrieking about guns being dangerous, she's talking about RGs
 
I had one I paid all of $1o for. Would not hit a gallon jug from 5 feet, would not fire reliabl. Pin fell out and barrel shroud fell off. Fell in a local lake when fishing about 10 years ago and that's where it belongs. Joe
Click to expand...

You might have gotten $50, maybe even $100 dollars for it in one of those by back things the big cities put on to "get the guns off the street" from time to time. If I lived in LA, I'd buy every one of these little POSs I could find for ten bucks and make a living at it. :D
 
My brother-in-law gave me one in the 70's. It reliably spit lead everywhere... 360°. My biggest regret was giving it away myself. I should have taken a ball peen hammer to it and sent it to a landfill.
 
Now, now. That was my first ever handgun (age 11, iirc). I traded 2 boxes of 12ga ammo for it. I got took to the cleaners. Even tho' it's a .22 short, an enterprising (stupid) young person can take a .22LR HP, file down the bullet so that the OAL is less than the cylinder, and have some REAL fun with that revolver. Just don't ask me how I know.
 
I love this forum already! Thanks for the info. I was going to take it down to the range today but I think I will pass. He said I could have it but I think I will pass. It certainly fit my budget (free) but I will start a new thread regarding a good bang for the buck first time revolver.
 
Want a first time bang for the buck revolver, look to Rossi. Quality for about as little money as you can buy it. It's no Smith and Wesson, but then, it's no RG either.:D They time well, last well, shoot well, just lack the refined look and DA trigger of higher priced guns.

I don't know if there's anything offered today that's as junky as the RG revolver was, thank goodness. I'm always buying cheap guns, so I kinda know what works and what don't. There's some good stuff on the market, quality stuff like the Rossis and pot metal stuff that works anyway. There's also still some junk even I wouldn't have, but nothing like the RG revolver that's actually dangerous to fire.
 
It is an historical (bad) example of the classic Saturday Night
Special and may be blamed for inspiring the 1968 Gun Control Act.
A curio, a relic, but not a shooting, working firearm.

The 1968 Gun Control Act got those low power (.22 short),
inaccurate, unreliable, unsafe and cheap revolvers off the
market, so when today's criminal steals a gun to use or
sell to a fence, he knows he's getting a powerful, accurate,
reliable, safe and more expensive weapon, because that is
what is left on the market.
 
can we run out of disparaging remarks for the RG10?

An RG10 will make ANY other gun look good by comparison.
Since I own a CZ52, a Mauser C96 and a Webley (they should
star in a movie "The Ugly, the Ugly and the Ugly"), an RG10
in the collection would make them feel better about their looks.
 
A guy brought one of their .38 Specials to the practical of the CCW class I took, Thursday night.

As everyone else has said, they're a piece of crap.

Strangely, I think they made a .44 Magnum, and or a .45LC for about five minutes in the '70s.
 
A 44maggie Rohm.

The mind boggles, right after puking.

The only way I'd fire such a thing is with a bench vice and 100yds of string.
 
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