MY LITTLE PISTOL

I just found an article on UGLY guns at lewrockwell.com that was partly about one of my guns. This is a tiny .22 revolver I inherited from my uncle way back when. My uncle worked as a civilian for the Department of Defense. The family story goes that during during the Vietnam war, all the employees at my uncles office were told they should get a gun for personal protection. My uncle did not like spending money but he liked new things, so he bought the cheapest handgun he could find.

This was a Rohm .22 caliber revolver. The article above puts it in the list of UGLY guns, guns that were so ugly, cheap or unreliable that they are kept as a novelty. The one in the article above was an RG 10 shown here, taken from the above article:

My gun is an RG14. This one has a fairly long barrel and can shoot .22 Long Rifle cartridges. It is a little more famous that the RG10, since it was used by Hinckley in his assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan. Article in Guns.com

Now the one that Hinkley used has a very short barrel, while mine has a more normal barrel.

Fairly normal looking gun, shown with a key for scale.


Mine was supposedly made in Miami Florida. Rohm is a West German company that still makes guns as well as being involved in a lot of other manufacturing.


This pin needs to be removed to allow the cylinder to rotate out for loading.


The barrel is steel, pressed into what apears to be aluminum. Maybe plastic. The web says Zinc.


The breach is a bit odd, definitely does not look durable.


Although I have shot the gun with proper ammunition, I feel more comfortable using Rat Shot, as shown here. Out of a gun like this, the rat better be pretty small..... And close.

I looked up the value on one site and found it was worth $3.99. Maybe if it was loaded.

Lew Rockwell Article in PDF format In case the link above goes away.

Guns.com Article in PDF format In case the link above goes away.