Your (informed) Opinions, please

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My first was a Ruger Old Army. Buy once type of thing.

Then when I was of age, I bought a Ruger Security Six and carried that as a duty sidearm until I transitioned to pistol.
 
I still have my 1970's RG .22 snub nose. In fact in the summertime here in Mississippi I pack that thing in my right rear pocket loaded w/5 rounds No12 snake shot. I "cleaned" the barrel til there wasn't much left of the rifling. Took off the fat plastic grips and wrapped the gun grip with very little black tape to give it a slim profile. That short barrel does not distort or spin the shot pattern and I get a perfect pie plate size cloud landing on those pesky water moc's that show up here weekly crossing from the creek on one side of the house to the pond on the other side. Back in the 70's I was fishing off a jetty near Balboa in Calif. and had the RG in my pocket. Stayed to late and the waves took me off it. Lost my pants in the rescue by some surfers. Long story short 2 days later I had the Feds on my front porch. They had a big time drug dealer dead on the beach. Shot with a .22, plus my pants and the RG with 5 empty shells in it. ( Had a little Jack Daniels and was shooting crabs off the rocks, Oh well ) Anyway, that little piece of junk and me had quite the adventure. Final... Fed Agent said your not who we'er looking for. Gave me a slip of paper to reclaim my property at the Huntington Beach Office. Went down a week later to get my "Roscoe" and it was in a ziploc bag full of sand and saltwater. One big ball of rust. Well that was a waste of time I thought. Came home and dropped it in a solvent tank I had in my shop. Forgot about it. A month later fished it out and Wa La..Looked like new. 50 years and still being of use to me.
 
Electrod47 said:
I still have my 1970's RG .22 snub nose. In fact in the summertime here in Mississippi I pack that thing in my right rear pocket loaded w/5 rounds No12 snake shot. I "cleaned" the barrel til there wasn't much left of the rifling. Took off the fat plastic grips and wrapped the gun grip with very little black tape to give it a slim profile. That short barrel does not distort or spin the shot pattern and I get a perfect pie plate size cloud landing on those pesky water moc's that show up here weekly crossing from the creek on one side of the house to the pond on the other side. Back in the 70's I was fishing off a jetty near Balboa in Calif. and had the RG in my pocket. Stayed to late and the waves took me off it. Lost my pants in the rescue by some surfers. Long story short 2 days later I had the Feds on my front porch. They had a big time drug dealer dead on the beach. Shot with a .22, plus my pants and the RG with 5 empty shells in it. ( Had a little Jack Daniels and was shooting crabs off the rocks, Oh well ) Anyway, that little piece of junk and me had quite the adventure. Final... Fed Agent said your not who we'er looking for. Gave me a slip of paper to reclaim my property at the Huntington Beach Office. Went down a week later to get my "Roscoe" and it was in a ziploc bag full of sand and saltwater. One big ball of rust. Well that was a waste of time I thought. Came home and dropped it in a solvent tank I had in my shop. Forgot about it. A month later fished it out and Wa La..Looked like new. 50 years and still being of use to me.
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Great idea! Mine is shorts only and I haven’t ever seen shot shorts but it’s still a good idea
 
kBob said:
......

If you remember them and are not yet in your dotage which was the better pistol, the one GCA ‘68 stopped or the one GCA ‘68 started?

-kBob
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The Roehm revolvers were built in Germany on models that were starter or gas revolvers, very few .22 l.r. Roehms were sold in Germany and those mostly went to hunters to shoot trapped animals. The vast bulk was shipped to the U.S. and sold to undiscriminating buyers, who wanted cheap and got cheap. Some of their revolver models, especially with swing out cylinders were not too bad, some Single Action revolvers were poor quality at best. I had owned a whole shoe box of them that I had bought from law enforcement sales.

Arminius is the revolver line named after Hermannn, the Cherusci who defeated Varus and wiped out two Roman legions in 21 A.D. Arminius revolvers are made by H. Weihrauch in Mellrichstadt and use Lothar Walther barrels, they have a very interesting interlocking crane, that the MR73 loosely copied. The target models HW7(8shot) and HW9 (6shot) are pretty accurate and durable. They used to be quite inexpensive and many German gun clubs had Arminius HW7 & 9s as club guns, seeing regular use and more abuse than gun care.

The shorter barreled rimfire versions were mostly imported here pre GCA but are not as uncommon in Germany as the Roehms.

This is a HW7 that I had test fired to check the sights at 25m in a gunclub in Germany:
OxyWxiPh.jpg

This is an older HW9, it is an excellent target revolver imho and has a very good trigger. The removable trigger shoe helps to make the charcteristics pretty nice.
Ys48Pzhh.jpg
 
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I've somehow been able to avoid the pot metal guns. In 1986, I was 12yrs old and had saved up just over $200 doing odd jobs and saving pennies. I set out to do some Christmas shopping. I had called the local gun shop and asked what was the cheapest .22 revolver and automatic they had. Didn't have enough sense to be more specific. I was elated to find that I could get not one but TWO cheap .22 handguns, one for Dad and one for Grandpa. When we got to the store I found out what a sub-$100 .22 was. I don't remember what the auto was but it was a cheap pocket gun like the Jennings. The revolver was an RG. Even then, I couldn't do it and they weren't what I wanted anyway. So I started looking at other .22's and fell in love with the Uberti Virginian .22 convertible single action. What would later become the Stallion. But it was going to take every penny I had saved. Dad talked me into buying it for myself, instead of those cheap guns for them. I think it worked out better that way. ;)
 
CraigC said:
In 1986, I was 12yrs old
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In 1986 I was working on the YF31T experimental fighter project, the F16 refit project and the VTOL-Super Eagle project, getting ready to finish a degree in engineering and looking for a job closer to Vero Beach so I could go surfing all year round. The Canaveral seashore/Playalinda beach closed when there was a vehicle on the way from the VAB to/on one of the pads waiting for launch and back in '85/'86 that was almost constant. :(
I bought my first "pot-metal" gun in '89 - a Lorcin .380 - to keep under the seat of my Suzuki Katana. Figured it worked well enough if I broke down in the middle of nowhere and needed something for small animals or two-legged predators - and I wouldn't miss it if it "disappeared." The seat lock on those older Suzi's was actually pretty impressive so I wasn't terrible worried. We never had registration here in Florida and I got it through a private sale anyway so it wouldn't come back to me if found at a crime scene. At least, that was how I figured it then. Before that I rode a '69 Triumph 650 Tiger and before that a '77 Honda 350 Twin. You could pop the seat lock of the Triumph with a bobby-pin and the Honda didn't have a seat lock.
 
CajunBass said:
I remember those RG 22's selling at the local G.E.M. store for about 30 bucks. Them and the Raven 25 semi-autos. I didn't have any handguns back then and wanted one or the other so bad. I could at least imagine the circumstances that would let me scratch together the money to pay for one of them. A Smith and Wesson or a Colt? Forget it. They might was well have been a million dollars. I had about as much chance of coming up with that, as I did whatever the actual price on the tag was.

I never did get an RG or a Raven. My first handgun came some years later, a Smith and Wesson Model 19. I don't have any idea how many I've owned over the years, but it's in the 100's I'm sure. Those RG's and Raven's had kept the dream alive. I've been tempted to buy one over the years, just for grins and giggles. Never have though. One of the few guns I've never owned actually. :)
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Years ago when I was trying to get every handgun caliber I wound up getting interested in Raven .25's, first real US made Saturday Night Special semi auto, first one's to give the GCA the middle finger, seemed like they were known to be better than all the other Ring of Fire brands and I got one. Cost about $150 after shipping and transfer, pretty reliable except the last round or two in the mag tends to stovepipe. Good news is that Phoenix Arms still makes and sells mags for the Raven pistols.

That said, if I was going to buy a 20+oz .25 pistol today, I'd buy the Phoenix Arms. The ergonomics on their pistols are far superior to the Raven, the magazines better made, the trigger far better. The one thing I'll give the Ravens is they look better, very sleek, everything a pimp in the 70s or 80s would want.
 
I'm reading thru this thread and over the years I've grown into a big H&R fan and I know they were still making revolvers in the 80s that weren't pot metal. Did no one bother to look at H&R's or did gun stores not stock them? I assume they must have cost more than Rohm and Clerke...
 
When I had bought the guns from law enforcement auctions there were a few H&R top break revolvers in .38 S&W that I bought also. They weren't bad but I never got the dies to reload for them and sold them, as well as all the others that did not meet my quality standard.
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
In 1986 I was working on the YF31T experimental fighter project, the F16 refit project and the VTOL-Super Eagle project, getting ready to finish a degree in engineering and looking for a job closer to Vero Beach so I could go surfing all year round. The Canaveral seashore/Playalinda beach closed when there was a vehicle on the way from the VAB to/on one of the pads waiting for launch and back in '85/'86 that was almost constant. :(
I bought my first "pot-metal" gun in '89 - a Lorcin .380 - to keep under the seat of my Suzuki Katana. Figured it worked well enough if I broke down in the middle of nowhere and needed something for small animals or two-legged predators - and I wouldn't miss it if it "disappeared." The seat lock on those older Suzi's was actually pretty impressive so I wasn't terrible worried. We never had registration here in Florida and I got it through a private sale anyway so it wouldn't come back to me if found at a crime scene. At least, that was how I figured it then. Before that I rode a '69 Triumph 650 Tiger and before that a '77 Honda 350 Twin. You could pop the seat lock of the Triumph with a bobby-pin and the Honda didn't have a seat lock.
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My old Ducati had a fairly beefy seat lock as well. There was just enough room in the little storage tray beneath it for a couple of wrenches, screwdriver, and a Beretta Tomcat. Only problem was it wasnt exactly sealed against the elements very well, so the gun and tools had to go in HD Zip-Loc bags. :)
 
Electrod47 said:
I still have my 1970's RG .22 snub nose. In fact in the summertime here in Mississippi I pack that thing in my right rear pocket loaded w/5 rounds No12 snake shot. I "cleaned" the barrel til there wasn't much left of the rifling. Took off the fat plastic grips and wrapped the gun grip with very little black tape to give it a slim profile. That short barrel does not distort or spin the shot pattern and I get a perfect pie plate size cloud landing on those pesky water moc's that show up here weekly crossing from the creek on one side of the house to the pond on the other side. Back in the 70's I was fishing off a jetty near Balboa in Calif. and had the RG in my pocket. Stayed to late and the waves took me off it. Lost my pants in the rescue by some surfers. Long story short 2 days later I had the Feds on my front porch. They had a big time drug dealer dead on the beach. Shot with a .22, plus my pants and the RG with 5 empty shells in it. ( Had a little Jack Daniels and was shooting crabs off the rocks, Oh well ) Anyway, that little piece of junk and me had quite the adventure. Final... Fed Agent said your not who we'er looking for. Gave me a slip of paper to reclaim my property at the Huntington Beach Office. Went down a week later to get my "Roscoe" and it was in a ziploc bag full of sand and saltwater. One big ball of rust. Well that was a waste of time I thought. Came home and dropped it in a solvent tank I had in my shop. Forgot about it. A month later fished it out and Wa La..Looked like new. 50 years and still being of use to me.
Click to expand...
Wow!
 
TTv2 said:
I'm reading thru this thread and over the years I've grown into a big H&R fan and I know they were still making revolvers in the 80s that weren't pot metal. Did no one bother to look at H&R's or did gun stores not stock them? I assume they must have cost more than Rohm and Clerke...
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At the time I'm talking about, the early 70's or so, I had never seen an actual "gun store." Sears, Penny's, Best Products, G,E,M. and the Army-Navy stores were the only places I'd ever seen that sold guns. GEM, and the A&N stores (nothing at ALL like the "A&N" stores of today, I assure you) were the only ones that I remember seeing any handguns in. A&N might have just sold blank pistols now that I think about it.

I knew about H&R and a lot ot other inexpensive guns from the pages of "Shooters Bible" and "Gun Digest." I just never actually saw them. I guess it was the late 70's or so before I discovered a "real" gun store, and by then I was making enough money to actually afford a Smith and Wesson Model 19, and the disease has never left. If I hadn't taken 20 years off from shooting to chase "little green fish" (tournament bass fishing) the good Lord Himself, only knows how many guns I'd have bought, sold, traded and swapped. :rofl:

Oh, and you're right. Things like H&R, and High Standard, and even Taurus and Llama were considerably more expensive, going by the prices I remember being listed in the Shooters Bible, than the Ravens and RG's of the day.
 
H&R lost a lot of money after WW2 because they had invested tooling in military projects which either went nowhere, such as the Reising SMG or dried up quickly like their Garand and M14 contracts. This really crippled really their ability to develop new civilian products and quality began to decline. Although never as bad as the zinc guns, their later steel revolvers are pretty soft and go out of time quickly- broken springs are a thing with them too.
 
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This is from H&R's "sister company", New England Firearms. I also have a single-shot shotgun they made.

I remember these being on sale for $89 in the mid 80's.

I bought two of them maybe ten years ago and gave one to my FiL.

They both go bang every time. This one will even shoot 32acp. I don't know how many rounds it will fire before it breaks, but I shoot a few cylinders of 32 S&W long through it every once in a while and it will probably last longer than I will at this rate.

New England Firearms Model R73 in 32 H&R magnum

New England Firearms Model R73 in 32 H&R magnum

 
Hopefully my DD-214 covers me here, but I got an RG-14 when I was in the reserves as a snake pistol, after seeing a bunch of the other guys with them. Lots of rattlers where we trained at and it hid pretty well under my BDU shirt.
Found out .22 shot is pretty much worthless after ten feet, and moved up to a Davis derringer in .38, which worked a tad better and was easier to hide. Also had the .22 Short only model, but that was just a range toy. Both .22s shot okay with solid ammo, least for hunting tin cans and paper plates, but the derringer worked with shot acceptably well.
 
Back in the mid-'70s, I bought one of those "standard" Ruger's but it had the 7.5" barrel. About 2 years later, I made the mistake of using it as a partial trade for an Astra Constable in .380, which I still own. I just didn't have enough cash buy the Astra outright and I am still kicking myself for letting that Ruger get out of my hands. :(
 
Well to “sort of” get back to my original post I ran into an RG at a local shop in as nice as a50 year old RG gets condition. It was I think the only sub $100 gun in the shop.

In the same glass case was a S&W Terrier in .38 S&W.

Why would I mention that?

Well after friend with the Clerke was to ashamed to show his face his Dad got him a Terrier. He used it a couple of years and traded it …like some one else up stream… for an astra Constable. I will say those PPkS with the strong Spanish Accent were cute and for the time nice CCW.

A lot better than a Clerke atleast!

Many times my friend wished he had kept the Terrier…. but not the Clerke.

See back on topic!

I like the H&R posts both solid frame and top break… and that includes the NEF. Any of those solid frames would beat the Clerke hands down.

-kBob
 
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