Cheapo Plinker ... Rohm?

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Nushif

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Alright, so I just picked up a beat up .22 SA revolver as a little plinker. It had some surface rust (very mild), the finish is kinda owrn, but the trigger is very light and crisp. The cylinders line up and while there is a little side to side on the cylinder, there is no forward or backward play, there is no transfer bar, but that's not an issue in a plinker ... and it was cheap.

In short, it is what it is. A cheap plinker that shoots .22. and it has a loading gate, loaded from half cock, which is fun.

I promptly went on the interwebs and looked up some data. It import mark says "Sportarms of Florida Miami." There's another mark on it. "MOD. 21S Cal .22lr MI West Germany"

So I googled around a bit and appears to be a Rohm.

I googled that and found out they actually are considered Saturday Night Specials and are on par with Jennings and the like.

Here's my question though.

This is a single action .22 revolver. How badly can it suck? I know the trigger is actually pretty good and accuracy can be no worse than my Puma, which ... while not stellar keeps me on a letter sized piece of paper quite easily at ten yards.
It weighs in at about what I would expect a revolver with the appropriate barrel length, and even if it is made of zink, which the interwebs says, how much does it matter, considering it shoots a .22?

Is it a match grade olympic pistol? Well, no. But how bad can this thing really suck?
Am I missing something here or are all these "junk" comparisons just because they compared a cheap plinker with a serious defensive pistol?
 
To be honest Rohm made some nice cheap guns, these were the guns you put in the tackel box or in the front seat of the farm truck. They are accurate enough to pop a snake or a small critter out to about 10 yards. They usally always go bang and if they get a ding or some rust for the price you seldon cared. I just wish we had somethng like that today a nice small 22 revolver for under $100.00 would be nice for a kick around gun.
 
All I've heard of Rohm is that they are cheap guns. But as you have noted it's a freakin' .22 SA gun. It's not like the [Monster truck event announcer voice mode] "AWESOME POWER" [/Monster truck event announcer voice mode] of the .22LR rounds is going to beat it to death.

Try it out. If the groups it shoots are as tight or tighter than what you normally shoot you're gold. If the groups are more open than you're used to then see a smith about being able to do a cheapie crowning job to the barrel if it looks soft. Or even have a go at using a round head brass screw and some grinding compound to sharpen up the muzzle crown yourself. But likely it'll shoot just fine for your needs. The biggest issue with these cheapie .22 wheel guns is typically the trigger. On that count you've obviously scored already.
 
quality probably comparable to today's HRR
fact is, they all pretty much go bang, and even the cheapo stuff is more oft than not "pretty accurate", whatever that means

like you said, it's a cheapo "beater" plinker, not a match gun
and IIRC you have other/better for more demanding pursuits
shoot it, throw in the tackle box, drop it in the creek, or whatever
 
I have had three of those guns and they were all pretty much junk. I couldn't hit worth a hoot with them. Plus the triggers were so light as to be dangerous. You really need to point it down range when you cock it in case its fires with the light trigger.

I sold 2 of them for $25 each and was glad to see them go. The third was the nicest and I deepened the sear notch and improved it a little. A friend wanted it and so he got it for $50 and sold it to a coworker.

I don't believe any self respecting Jennings would be caught dead in the company of an RG.

Anyway, be careful with your gun and start saving for a ruger if you want a single action. Also a Ruger Bearcat only weighs 24oz so there are other light weight single actions around.
 
What's the worst that can happen? It'll break and quit working? It's not like it's going to blow up and take out half a block when it goes.
Click to expand...

No, but it could blow up and take out half a hand.

I saw more than one "pot metal wonder" when I worked in Miami that literally crumbled to pieces when handled because they were so badly corroded internally.

One in particular that sticks in my mind was an RG (Rohm) .38 revolver brought in by an elderly lady for repair that crumbled to pieces when it was dropped on our padded counter top. If she had had the misfortune to need to shoot that thing it would have been a hand grenade.

Another was a Raven whose frame was so badly corroded (with a live round in the chamber) that literally broke in two pieces.

Pot metal has NO business in the construction of firearms, other than to make a nice fat profit for the manufacturer.
 
On that note ... I took it out and it performed very, very nicely. the trigger is very sweet and light, it fired every single time and while the finish isn't the best (read:) barely there) it performed internally like a champ. I even managed producing a group slightly larger than a quarter with it, at seven yards, pretty consistently if I really took my time. Made me look good!

If that's a pot metal wonder, please tell me where I can find their high priced wunder-guns!
 
I think that what happened to Ratshooter is that his gun may have been shot a lot and as a result if the hammer and sear were not properly hardened then it could wear out the engagement ridges and a lack of hammer retention is the result along with surprise discharges.

I'd keep an eye on your Rohm. If you notice that the trigger is getting silly light it may be worth having someone look at re-harending and tempering the sear and hammer to make these hooks less prone to rounding over. When properly done they'll NEVER wear out. But if not just the right hardness it's all to easy for the metal to peen over with lots of use.

It doesn't need to be an actual gunsmith. Just someone that understands what is needed to properly heat treat such parts.

I know that as part of my own home shop machining I've made special cutters and even threading taps from drill rod and ground 01 tool steel and then used a high temp propane or MAPP gas torch to harden then temper back the cutters and tooling to just the right hardness. Done a couple of gun parts as well with great results on an old .22 rifle that someone had gotten half way through making a replacement trigger/sear. I finished the shaping and hardened then tempered the trigger and then stoned the sear edge to work with the hammer hook.
 
I think that what happened to Ratshooter is that his gun may have been shot a lot and as a result if the hammer and sear were not properly hardened then it could wear out the engagement ridges and a lack of hammer retention is the result along with surprise discharges.
Click to expand...

It wasn't my "gun" it was my "guns". They were all like that. My dad had one and his was the same way. The hammer springs are also light and that reduces the trigger pull also.

I am glad the OP likes his gun. Sounds like he is accurate with it too. I just never had one that impressed me. They make good truck guns. If it gets stolen you haven't lost much.
 
No, but it could blow up and take out half a hand
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Not likely to happen at all. The cylinders and barrels are made of a decent quality steel. Only the frame and barrel shroud are made of "pot metal". The worst danger with these guns comes from spitting lead if the gun is out of time.
 
I've owned 3 also, the 1st one I gave to my son as a first handgun 2 years ago at 13. This spring the little lever to eject spent shells fell off. It also has one cylinder that tends to split cases. Other then that no problems. The next 2 I bought together, I shot the first one a little and sold it to another guy as a first handgun, he's had no problems. The other one has a miss matched magnum cylinder and i've not shot it. Until this thread I forgot I had it :) It's only been a year now, lol. I should try it out this weekend.

These are not of the same quality as h&r revolvers but they do make great plinkers or truck guns. For me it's a gun that you just don't get heartbroke if something happens to it.

Ya you could just throw it away and buy a single six but you can buy 6 or 8 rohms before you spend the cash on a ruger. I'd buy another if I stumbled on one for the right price.

Please don't tell my son how crappy they are, he thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread and generally shoots bottle caps with his at about 10 feet. Of course he's 15 so what does he know.
 
Not likely to happen at all. The cylinders and barrels are made of a decent quality steel. Only the frame and barrel shroud are made of "pot metal". The worst danger with these guns comes from spitting lead if the gun is out of time.
Click to expand...

And, when the pot metal portion of gun disintegrates when you fire it, it won't matter if the cylinder and barrel are made from Krell steel. As I said, you are basically holding a hand grenade.
 
I taught CCW certification classes for 10 years. Saw a number of RGs in the class but never saw one get through the simple qualification course...or perhaps I should say, I never had a student successfully get through the simple qualification course of just 15 shots while using an RG.

Based on that experience I honestly believe the RG is crap trying to pass itself off as junk.

Dave
 
Maybe I wasn't clear about the .38 Special RG incident: The gun literally crumbled to pieces when it was accidentally dropped on our padded counter top from about 12". If the elderly lady who owned the gun had attempted to fire it, shards of pot metal would have launched themselves everywhere and the barrel certainly would have become a projectile.

I say again that pot metal has NO business in the construction of firearms.
 
gyvel said:
Maybe I wasn't clear about the .38 Special RG incident: The gun literally crumbled to pieces when it was accidentally dropped on our padded counter top from about 12". ...
I say again that pot metal has NO business in the construction of firearms.
Click to expand...

I have personally put about 1200 rounds through my RG40 .38spl, including a couple hundred +P. It was made probably around 1983-1985, so it has seen AT LEAST that many rounds, but most likely a few hundred or maybe a thousand more. I have even fired several rounds underwater. I take good care of it and it in turn works well for me, and I would be perfectly willing to bet my life on that if I ever needed to use that gun to protect myself.

Any gun maintained very poorly or neglected can be unreliable or dangerous to its user. The only conditions that could cause a zinc/ZAMAK frame to "crumble" would equally oxidize and destroy a carbon steel firearm.

RG firearms are not high end by any means, but they are mostly serviceable, and will do the job if maintained correctly
 
Rohm is just a manufacturer who used to make & export el cheapo guns
not world renowned as a high quality gun maker, but it's not like they never made but one model handgun either

no, I myself never heard high praise for any of their models, but some I might suppose a tad better than others
only one I ever saw and held in hand was a snubbie "RG" 22 rimfire that I myself refused to fire (a junker a grandson picked up for junk gun price)

but thinking that they are a "hand grenade", that requires way too much imagination

OP got a cheap beater shooter, he knew it wasn't a Korth, and he ain't complaining
 
When I was a kid(early teens) I would sneak dad's RG in .22 short out and shoot up whatever ammo I could find. I took .22 longs and cut the bullet until it would fit in the .22 short cylinder and shoot it. On one occassion,the round in the cylinder AND the next round fired simultaniously! Outside of a painful powder burn there were NO ill effects suffered by either me or the revolver. Later,I carried the same revolver for 30 years as a trapline gun(even killing a medium sized bobcat that surprised me while I was running beaver traps)!
 
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lest I be misinterpreted, I have no cause to defend, nor any vendetta against Rohm
(or Hertitage or whoever)

the one I referred to, the shape it was (not) in, I wouldn't have fired it if it had a S&W or Ruger stamp on it, that's all
the boys shot it some, though, nobody got hurt, no lost hands
didn't hit squat with it either, but it functioned ok, mostly, sort of

(but I think grandson did take the cylinder out and throw the separate parts of it in separate garbage cans later on.. I think it only cost him $15 bucks, something like)
 
About 100 bucks. but prices around these parts are *never* these mythical deals I see on this board. Probably the cheapest gun I've bought yet.

So for around here: Decent deal.
THR average: Bad deal!
 
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