R.G. Industries ?

[handgun357]

Anyone ever hear of R.G. Industries?
Is there a website?
Are they even still in buisiness?
My father came across a handgun made by them and was wondering if it had any value.
Thanks for any info............

 

[7th Fleet]

RG Industries

They made cheap and I do mean dirt cheap handgunswith pot metal frames back in the 50's and 60's. My first handgun was an RG-10 which was a 6 shot .22LR revolver. To extract the fired rounds you uncrewed the center pin that held the cylinder in place and punched our the fired cases with the center pin. They aren't worth much because they weren't much even back then.

7th

 

[Koolau 2]

IIRC RG Industries was the Miami-based US subsidiary of Rohm (Roehm?) Industries, a German-based gun manufacturer. (the word "Rohm" has that funny "umlat" character over the "o") I believe they stopped importing firearms to the US in 1986. Part of the reason might be that John Hinckley used a R6-14 in his attempted assasination of President Reagan.

I believe that they are still active in Germany (at least I have a link to a website that has their products - my high school German is a bit rusty).

I agree with 7th Fleet - the RGs I've seen were very cheaply made - and cheap to buy. The few references to them I have found in gun bluebooks valued them at 50 bucks or so in excellent condition. I had the chance to fire an RG38 (38sp version) once. I looked at the revolver, dry-fired it a couple of times, and handed back to the owner. Wasn't worth the risk...

My advice - hang on to it. You will probably get more for it during the next gun buyback program.

 

[7th Fleet]

RG's

Back when Rg's were relatively common, people used to say that RG, stood for "Rotten Gun". They weren't wrong.

7th

 

[Doc Hudson]

re; RG= "Rotten Gun

I don't know if I'd go quite that far.

Granted, the RG M-10 was what the wordsmiths had in mind when they coined the term "Piece of S**t". But the old M-66 single action .22 LR/Mag that I've had for over twenty years was a pretty good one.

It gobbled up the lion's share of 60,000 rounds of .22 LR ammo in a three year period in the late 1970's with nary a bobble. I learned point shooting with that old junker and it will still put bullets where I point it. Let's not talk about where the bullets go when I aim rather than point.

It was well worth the $40.00 I paid for it almost twenty-five years ago.

Doc Hudson

P.S. RG USA was sued out of business by the Bradys and some other shooting victims. LMH

 

[MADISON]

Shot with a 4 inch H&R

President Reagan was shot with a 4 inch H & R. If Hinkley had used a 6 inch barrel the bullets would have expanded and neith Reagan or Jim Brady would be alive today.

In the mid 70's H&R made a 44 magnum revolver. The cyclinder was so large that you could not resize the brass.

 

[Hutch]

Mine too, 7th Fleet

My first handgun was a POS just like yours, sailor. IIRC, though, it was limited to 22 shorts. The enterprising and stoooopid 11 year old could take a file to the nose of an LR hollow point and reduce the length of the case enough to get it to chamber. You could keep the first 3 or 4 shots of the day in a playing card at 5 yards or so. After that, you couldn't hit your hat at arm's length.

 

[Ala Dan]

I agree with 7th Fleet

I once had the opportunity to shoot along side of a city
park ranger, who was poorly paid, under trained and didn't
know doodley squat about firearms. He appeared at our
police department firing range with what I believe was an
RG-33? Anyhow, after firing a cylinder full of
recycled .38 Special reloads, the cylinder locked up tighter
than Dick's Hat Band. The R/O asked him where he got that POS; and he replied he bought it from a gunshop. The
R/O then ordered him off the range with instructions for him
not to return until he had himself a decent firearm!!! The R/O said, " This POS might blow up and kill everybody out here.

Moral of the story is, he returned the next day with a 6"
barrel Smith & Wesson model 66. Needless to say, he did not
experience any further problems.

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, Life Member N.R.A.

 

[James K]

Arguably, one of the good things about the Gun Control Act of 1968 was to stop the importation of that junk. I worked in a shop that sold them for $9.95, bought them for $7.50. Heaven knows what the factory cost was, probably a couple of marks. They all had passed German proof, but they came apart in various interesting ways. Barrels unscrewed, loading gates blew off, springs broke, etc., etc. The term POS does not begin to describe them.

They were also the guns that gun people called "Saturday Night Specials" because so many turned up in the less desireable neighborhoods during Saturday night fights. We all know the result of the anti-gun gang picking up that term and applying it to all handguns.

Jim

 

[Chindo18Z]

Madison: FWIW, the attempted assasination of President Reagan involved .22 LR "Exploder" brand ammo which was produced by Bingham Ltd (in Atlanta) during the early 80's. The ammo was quite simply a hollowpoint with a small or large pistol primer (depending on the caliber you purchased) inserted into the cavity and covered with a glob of fingernail polish. It was a very cheap alternative to more pricey frangibles such as Glaser. This was extremely low-tech stuff. It apparently worked rather well. Watch the shooting film and notice how many people collapsed after being hit. The company went out of business (driven out by ATF attention?) some time later. Regardless of barrel length, I don't think the rounds would have expanded unless they failed to explode. They were reputedly short on penetration, tending to fragment after detonation (at least in the .22 LR variant). I'll take ammo trivia for $200, Alex...

 

[Longshot]

I once owned a .38 RG snubby. It's hard to say which was more accurate - Carefully aimed shots at the 10 yard range, or just taking six rounds out of the box and throwing them at the target one by one.

 

[ckurts]

I had an RG .22 around 1973, I can't remember the model number. It had an odd barrel length, 3-1/2 inches or something. A spring went flying out of it (?) during dry firing and it never worked again.

Before that, I had killed a big, fat cottonmouth with it. The snake had dropped into the 12 ft flat bottom boat I was fishing out of. 6 holes in the boat, 1 in the snake. Actually, the snake's head was torn up pretty bad. Either the bullet expanded or keyholed and tumbled. Made a believer out of me as to the surprising power of a .22.

 

[Doc Hudson]

I GOTTA ASK!

Ckurts,

Did the boat make it to shore or did you have to get in the water with the other snakes and swim for it?

Fear of shooting holes in te boat are why I use snakeshot in centerfires rather than a .22 with solids or HP bullets.

Doc

 

[handgun357]

ckurts,
I was wondering how the boat came out too.
I think it is against the law to shoot a perfectly good fishing boat. LOL

 

[handgun357]

Thanks for the info everyone.
Happy handgunning.................

 

[Oleg Volk]

Huge cylinder gap on the 38spl variant I've seen, loud and not accurate. I actually fired 6 through it and then decided that was dumb and moved away.

Then again, a friend just bought an old Astra 38spl for $30 and I fired that one after it failed to KB in his hand. The cylinder was asymmetric enough that the gap-flash only came out on the left. Surprisingly accurate though the group was a horizontal stich of overlapping holes at 20ft. Still, I wonder about the wizdom of being anywhere near that device now that I've thought about it.

 

[handgun357]

Oleg Volk,
Good observation.
"Gap" issue is an important possibility that I did not realize.
These posts serve a great purpose.
Maybe these birshot rounds would be better used in a sngl shot rifle?!?
Happy Handgunning................

 

[ckurts]

Doc & hg357, not to get too far off topic, but for some background: The boat was about a 12 or 14 ft flat bottomed aluminum john boat, powered by a whopping 15 or 20 horse motor. Boat did not belong to me, BTW. If memory serves me, we were on a canal out in the Everglades off Alligator Alley or US 27. Memory's a little fuzzy- we're talking 26-27 years ago.

We were only 3 or 4 miles from the ramp where we'd put in. No problem getting back; 20-25 minutes. Holes were all in front, which was where the snake dropped in when we drifted up against some brush on a high bank. I was more or less in the center of the boat, my buddy (the owner) was in the back manning the engine room I don't think I was more than 4 feet from the snake which gives you some idea of what happens during stressfire.

Boat was fixed with a few squares of sheet metal, rivets, and some Duco cement within a week. I carried snakeshot at friend's request after that, the old fashioned kind that was a crimped extra-long .22 LR shell, not the kind with a plastic carrier.

PS:
There was an old guy who used to post here under the screen name of "FUD", things of this nature were always happening to him. Must be some kind of South Florida thing. (I've lived in Texas for over 20 years now.)