Looking to own a 22cal wheel gun - just because - any thoughts?

[omega4179]

[Safrguns]

BOOM!.... Head Shot!

[niteowl77]

He stored it at my place for a while, and I keep making sure it works :)

That sounds fair to me!

Mr. niteowl77

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

ARMINUS. I looked at some of them way back in 1968. I would not buy because the ones I saw had almost a 1/8 inch gap between the cylinder and bore.

[smokingfrog]

I wish they made one where you could change out the cylinder and shoot .22 magnum too, like the Taurus 992. Maybe with a 6 inch barrel? Not sure if a longer barrel would make it more accurate or not, but would give you a longer sight radius, anyway.

[MtBaldy]

I had a Ruger Single Six years ago that came with a .22 Magnum cylinder. It was a great gun and I put thousands of round through it plinking. I eventually sold it and sometimes wish I hadn’t. I have a stainless Ruger Mark II .22 long rifle semiautomatic now that is also a great gun. In fact it is what I recommend to anyone looking for a .22 pistol.

[yarddog]

I had an Arminius around 1985. For some reason I sort of liked the way it looked.

Unfortunately the range on mine was off on all chambers. It shaved lead like crazy. The barrel to cylinder gap was a bit large on mine too but not quite as bad as yours.

[niteowl77]

I've shot some Arminius revolvers that were not bad guns for the money, but they always struck me as a hodgepodge of Euro engineering and (attempts at) American styling. My experience with German-made revolvers (Arminius/HW, Schmidt/HS and - the worst of the lot by far - Rohm/RG), has been decidedly mixed, but many of them were fairly accurate in spite of themselves, with a friend's old HS "cowboy" single action .22LR outshooting all the Ruger Single Sixes I ever owned.

Mr. niteowl77

[ApplegateRanch]

At risk of dating me, I love my double action High Standard Sentinel, with the 6” (also came in 4-3/4” & 8” or [forget which] 9”) bbl. Paid my older brother $25 for it when he was drafted in 1957. It is still functionally tight, though the ejector plunger does finally have some minor play in it, after several cases—not boxes or bricks—fired through it.

Light wt (for its size) & rust proof aluminum frame...it has gone swimming with me many times when I thought I was fishing. It’s been dropped, fallen out of, or bounced onto the floor, of vehicles, and taken any other abuse a 12 year old country boy could dish out over a 55 year period of the two growing up together.

Accurate, comfortable grips, easy to reload, and to clean.

9 shot, .22 cap & ball, S, L, LR, or birdshot; handles Mini-Mags & Stingers without any problems.

You can find them in pawnshops...seen them still in the box as recently as 8 or 10 years ago...or at other venues, for a reasonable price.

OTOH, never use my Ruger Single-Six, also with 6” bbl: hard to reload, harder to clean, too heavy, uncomfortable grips...but cost a lot more. In fact, I would never buy another single-action of any type or caliber.

[Yosemitest]

I played with one as a kid, as a matter of fact, I grew up with that pistol.
It was heavy enough that even the magnums had no recoil.
It was very accurate, and very durable, because as a kid I didn't exactly take good care of it.
The only thing I didn't like was the plastic grips.
But I'd like to own another one.

[yarddog]

We used to say that RG stood for “rotten gun”. They were probably the worst guns ever imported.

Some of the German revolvers were pretty good. The various Hawes were nice guns. I still wish I had ordered one of the Herters revolvers back in the early 60s. I think the .401 Powermag was only around $30 or so.

I have seen a couple of them at gun shows and they were very well made, pretty amazing in fact for the price. They were actually manufactured by J.P. Sauer and Son. The same company which makes the Sig/Sauer guns now.

[mcmuffin]

Taurus? *spit*

Make that a "double" **spit**

[ApplegateRanch]

http://www.gunauction.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=7197073

http://picturearchive.gunauction.com/296820/7197073/f93e56a090f01c68b09d3a60a374b14c.jpg

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***We used to say that RG stood for “rotten gun”. They were probably the worst guns ever imported.***

Two other makers of trash guns were EIG, and IMP (Imperial Metal Works.

Quite a lot of the Spanish made guns were real junk. STAR pistols seemed to be ok.

Many of the Spanish revolvers looked just like a S&W. Look close and you will notice in real small letters, made for the SMITH & WESSON cartridge. Smith and Wesson is in real big letters.

[niteowl77]

I still wish I had ordered one of the Herters revolvers back in the early 60s. I think the .401 Powermag was only around $30 or so.

That's right... the Hawes and Herter's SAs were made by J.P. Sauer, weren't they? The grips were just different enough from a real SAA that you could tell by looking, but like you say, they were fairly well-made guns. IIRC, Interarms imported some of them before going belly-up.

A buddy had an RG that had arrived in his parents' mail (pre-GCA68) by accident, and I was the only person in our group that seemed to ever hit anything with it (and then only by luck). It would only take a .22LR round if the bullet had been filed down, so whenever he ran out of .22 Shorts, he'd trim LRs to fit. We. Were. Dumb.

Mr. niteowl77

[Yosemitest]

I never was nuts about single action.
There's too many old double action revolvers out there that have the cowboy look and feel to them.

http://www.gunsamerica.com/983145124/COLT_Model_1892_DA_41_New_Army_Navy_Civilian_Model_41cal_Circa_1890_s.htm#

[yarddog]

When I was around 15, a school mate sold me a PIC .22 revolver for $10. The PIC stood for Precise Imports Company but that was not a very good description of it’s quality.

I actually knew it wasn’t a very good revolver but just wanted something to say I had a hand gun. Nearly 50 years later I still have a tiny fragment of lead in one of my fingers near a knuckle. I tried to shoot it two handed when I felt a real pain.

That thing had shaved a bit of lead and sent it right into my finger. I tried several times to get it out with a needle but it was in too deep.

I think the PIC and RG were about identical.

I sold it to my Brother and I can still remember him carrying it on his hip like a gun fighter. Despite it’s horrible quality, it wasn’t totally worthless. I could hit an old chimney from around a hundred yards with it. I could see the little puffs of smoke when it hit.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

My dad had an Iver Johnson Target Sealed 8 that was like that. Definitely didn’t want to stand beside it.

[Secret Agent Man]

ruger lcr in .22

[Yosemitest]

Look at this Colt "Lightning" Model 1877--circa 1895.