My $70 "Saturday Night Special"

[Erik88]

My wife's Grandma is getting up there in years and her daughter(my MIL) asked if I wanted to buy this gun. No one knew what it was other than to say it was a .22lr revolver. She only wanted $50 and would include all the ammo they could find which ended up being around 150. I ended up giving her $70 but I'm still not sure who got the better deal. 

@Garufa helped me identify it as a Herbert Schmidt Ostheim. Then I figured out it's a Model 10. 

I dug a bit further to figure out more info and this is what I found. The internet wasn't kind to this gun.  

"It's a rebrand or a copy of the Rohm RG-10, historically one of the worst revolvers ever made.I believe they were $12 brand new, made of pot metal and barely able to function.

Those types of guns were specifically targeted in the '68 gun control act, banning the import of cheap 'Saturday night specials'. It's a little piece of history now.

In excellent condition with the box it could bring $100 or so.
Keep in mind those types of guns are infamous for spitting lead and cracking apart under pressure, don't expect to get more than $50 out of it easily."

I test fired it in their yard and it worked!

So, does anyone have any experience with H&S revolvers? I've been unable to figure out when this one was made.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Erik88

[MacGyver]

That’s a neat piece of family memorabilia.

My only advice would be to shoot it sparingly.

The metal alloy on those wasn’t much more than basic pot metal.  It’s really soft. It work until It doesn’t - and your options are pretty limited at that point.

 

[Chucktshoes]

34 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

That’s a neat piece of family memorabilia.

My only advice would be to shoot it sparingly.

The metal alloy on those wasn’t much more than basic pot metal.  It’s really soft. It work until It doesn’t - and your options are pretty limited at that point.

 

Like reconstructive surgery or amputation?

[MacGyver]

1 minute ago, Chucktshoes said:

Like reconstructive surgery or amputation?

I do know someone who got to have fragments picked out of his hand because he just had to shoot the old rohm .22 his grandad kept in his tackle box all those years.

Luckily he shot the .22 first because he had a .38 from his grandad too.

[Garufa]

I’d stick to standard velocity or shorts in that thing.

[mikegideon]

Not sure I would shoot it at all. Cheesy revolvers are scary to me.

 

[Erik88]

Good to know. When they handed it to me, it was loaded and half the rounds had been fired. Apparently Granny had fired it off her back porch a few times. 

I was told that they inherited it from her husband's aunt. I'm assuming it's pretty old.

[Ronald_55]

I have one of the Rhom RG 10s. Mine is a .22 Short only. I bought it for giggles for $20 and a no name set of plastic AR takeoff furniture. I probably paid too much. lol I have shot it, but I would say I had stouter feeling cap guns as a kid. My barrel even wiggles a bit. 

 

Since yours has family history, I would say that trumps any money. I would suggest you write up the info on it and store it with it so future generations can appreciate it. When my Dad cleaned out my Papaw's house he found guns he had never seen, but has no idea if they were war bring backs or just something he bought at the flea market. 

[RED333]

I am with Mike,do not fire it. Make a display, lock and key shut, put the history on a card and display the pistol. Embellish the history with something like "She once fired off a few rounds to scare off a rabied dog".

[gregintenn]

They were made to shoot.....a few times.

I'd hang onto it because it was in the family, but would choose something else for shooting. The cleaning tools are an interested addition. 

[Erik88]

I will say that the bluing is a little nicer than I expected. They seemed to get that right at least. The fact that it doesn't have any rust is also a surprise. 

[bvarnell]

On 4/8/2021 at 8:00 PM, Garufa said:

I’d stick to standard velocity or shorts in that thing.

Or CB's

[derf]

It would make an excellent starters pistol or train bird dogs with it. I love the back story. Those are the best. That bluing may be paint. Very nice. 

[monkeylizard]

My dad has an RG-10. It's a piece of crap. It's not terrible to shoot, but it throws lead particles or something off to either side so we can't shoot it at a range when anyone is in a neighboring lane.

 

It's worthless, but we keep it as the family joke. I'm sure I'll "inherit" it some day . . . lucky me.

[Quavodus]

My mother had a RG14 .22 revolver. You had to take out the cylinder to load or unload it. Somebody broke into her house and stole it, and other more valuable things years ago. I hope it blew their hand off.

[Jeb48]

I bought a similar quality .22 but a semi auto, from my sister inlaw that was in her husbands family and no one wanted it. When I bought it I didn't realize how cheap it was. After reading about it and having it slam fire when chambering I wrote a description of it's history and gave a description about how it should not be used and why it wasn't safe. I put the pistol and note in a ziplock bag and stuck it in a back corner of my gun safe for my son to worry about someday. I would suggest a similar note to go with your revolver.

[i1afli]

I paid $90 for a Rohm 10 .22 at a gun show around 2010 or so.  I had never heard of them.  It never failed to fire but it did shave lead that you could feel hitting your hand.  That was the first time I experienced that and it took me a while to figure out what was going on.  Sold it to another unfortunate soul for the same amount ($90) a couple of years later. Felt lucky about it. 

[Grayfox54]

Years ago I bought a RG .22 from a co-worker for $10. I took it to the range and usually four of the six rounds would fire. At 7 yards, I probably would have gotten a better group throwing rocks.  A week later, I took it to a gun buy back in Memphis and got $75 worth of grocery and gas gift certificates for it. See, they do have their uses. 

A few years ago, my disabled lady friend asked me to look at her gun. It was a RG .38. You had to hold it a certain way to get the cylinder to advance and the timing was so bad, I didn't dare shoot it. I traded her a well used, but completely functional S&W Model 10 for it. I was going to destroy it, but a dealer friend convinced me to sell it to him for $75. Believe it or not, he sold it for $100 and the buyer knew exactly what it was and what was wrong with it. 

[gregintenn]

These were designed to fore once and toss into the river. I think Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded a song about them.