Mateba Practical?

[Treker22]

Hey all,

I'm looking for a good, all-around revolver mainly for HD, but also for some open carry. The aesthetics and innovation of the Mateba Unica 6 has caught my attention and I'm considering the 5" .357. I've done a lot of reading about it and the main complaints seem to be weight, sheer fugliness, and lack of safety/de-cocking.

Disregarding how crazy rare these guns are and their fairly prohibitive cost, what are the other cons of the Mateba? And can it be modified to shoot DAO?

Thanks for the help!

 

[jhvaughan2]

Some kindly advice. IMHO, Nothing you have to modify to meet the needs of everyday carry and self defense is the best solution. If in the case -- lets hope it never happens -- that you need it to protect your life, why put your trust inot to something that you had to "convert" or tune or tweak?
There are plenty of trustworthy, tested, un-modified self-defense weapons out there that you can trust to work. (I trust mine to work better than I will, if the situation arises.)

To put it another way, if I was unsure enough to ask, I'd be unsure enough to trust it for my family's protection.

Now just to make a statement. That is another point entirely.

 

[Treker22]

jhvaughan2: You make a great point.

The Mateba's main draws to me are its ability to shoot .38s with the perceived recoil of an air pistol and its awesome appearance. In all likely hood, I'll get a 686+, but I want to kick around this idea first to see if anyone thinks the Mateba can be used for HD or EDC'ed.

 

[Guillermo]

practical? heck no

Cool? yes

 

[General Geoff]

The Mateba's main draws to me are its ability to shoot .38s with the perceived recoil of an air pistol and its awesome appearance. In all likely hood, I'll get a 686+, but I want to kick around this idea first to see if anyone thinks the Mateba can be used for HD or EDC'ed.

I'm sure it can be used for HD and carried every day; but converting a Mateba to DAO would completely defeat the purpose of the gun.

 

[Treker22]

While its semi-automatic ability is a characteristic, I would maintain that the purpose of the Mateba is to shoot.

There is good news though! A bloke over at TFL put me onto a new revolver, the Chiappa Rhino. It looks much like the Mateba, having the same designer, and also shoots from the 6 o'clock position; it's supposedly coming out any time now...

 

[NMGonzo]

I'd rather have a Webley-Fosbery ...

I have rather victorian taste in auto-revolvers

 

[Billy Shears]

While its semi-automatic ability is a characteristic, I would maintain that the purpose of the Mateba is to shoot.

Actually, the whole point of the Mateba's complex design was to provide the shooter with a feature usually associated with autoloaders: a short, light, single action trigger pull for every shot (without the shooter having to thumb cock the hammer). If you could somehow convert the gun to DAO (doubtful, and very expensive if you could find someone to do it), what you'd be left with is an overly heavy, overly complex revolver, that no one makes any holsters for, and which offers you no advantage whatever over an S&W or Ruger. Why would you want a Rube Goldberg revolver?

 

[rcmodel]

Mateba Unica? the main complaints seem to be weight, sheer fugliness, and lack of safety/de-cocking.

Add getting parts here in the U.S.A., and getting someone to work on it who ever saw one before if ever needs fixing.

Might as well be a Webley-Fosberry in that respect.

AWA was the last known importer of them.
But they have been in & out of business several times in the last 10 years.
http://www.awaguns.com/handguns.html

I'd say, neat to look at, but I wouldn't want to own one if I had to depend on it for SD, and keep it running forever.

rc

 

[unspellable]

The main point of the Mataba was to"prove it could be done" as stated by the designer himself. That said, I see it more as a target gun than a self defense gun. It's main value is as a novelty.