Who'd have thunk a Rhino

**dannyb** · August 16th, 2015, 07:11 AM

My wife has decided to join me at the range for some shooting practice. Because she hasn't regained strength in her left arm and hand after a serious break (she has a plate that stretches from her elbow to her shoulder holding the bone together), she really doesn't like the effort of racking a slide. So she's been trying out some of my revolvers. Mostly I have S&W in J, K, L, and N frame. The J frames (Mods 37 and 442) give her recoil problems. The K frames (Mods 10, 13, 19) make her stretch for the trigger. Forget the N. So, I'm wondering what to try when she sees my oddball Chiappa Rhino sitting in its holster in the safe. I got this one when they first came out. It's a 2 in. barrel DAO. She picks it up and finds that it fits her hand as though it was custom made for her. She found the trigger a bit stiff (it hasn't been fired much), but could dry fire without much effort. We'd have gone to the range then and there if we hadn't been saddled with a social engagement. We'll try for a session during the week. If there's any interest, I'll post a range report.

**philadelphia patriot** · August 16th, 2015, 07:56 AM

Hickok did a nice review of the Rhino a few months ago.

**dannyb** · August 16th, 2015, 09:39 AM

Boy does he harp on the "ugliness." On the other hand, it seems to be fairly accurate. We'll see how my wife does. If she likes that one, I'll look into a 4 inch with better sights.

**R.A.D.** · August 16th, 2015, 09:43 AM

very strange looking guns, always wondered who designed them... reminds me of guitar makers who try to come up with a new design that doesn't look like a Les Paul or a Strat

https://www.google.com/search?q=Chia...w=1600&bih=775

**Brick** · August 16th, 2015, 05:32 PM

I think she'll like it and with the barrel configuration the moment arm between the center of her hand and the barrel centerline should go a long way in reducing muzzle-flip.

Just make sure her grip is correct and she doesn't have any part of her hand below the gap between cylinder and barrel!

**Pilot321** · August 16th, 2015, 05:40 PM

I am not a revolver guy, but I can rack the slide on a semi auto, but I like it, and I like the concept of the lower barrel, and less muzzle flip. With .38 Spl loads, it would be a solid, indoor, home defense pistol.

**dannyb** · August 22nd, 2015, 06:32 PM

Finally made it to the range with my wife. This is the outdoor range to which I belong. It was a beautiful day, and the pistol range was just in the shade. Temperature in the low 80s with a cooling breeze and low humidity.
This range is strictly 25 ft. I put up a B-27 with the head folded back for her so that she would have a large but unintimidating target to start with. Out came the Chiappa and a box of 148-grain wadcutters. I showed her how to open the cylinder (less obvious than a Smith or Colt) and some of the oddities of loading this revolver. She has shot a couple of times before, but, as mentioned in the original post, the J-frames were too snappy and the K-frames didn't fit her hand so she wasn't really able to hit the target more than once or twice.
The first cylinder's worth was a bit like the other times, except that she hit in the black twice. She dumped the brass into a container (I'm less concerned about combat and more about keeping her interested) and reloaded. The second course of fire resulted in a hit in the 9 ring, a hit in the 8, two in the 7, one in the arm, and one in God's country somewhere. The third course resulted in a 9, two 8s, two 7s, one on the periphery - all 6 shots on the paper. Nothing like a group here, but more hits in 18 shots than in her first two whole sessions. She was really getting a bit excited. In the end, she did 36 shots with the Chiappa and stopped after 5 shots with my model 442. She was tired and the 442's recoil jangled her a bit.

Net result: A beautiful day at the range (I did some of my own shooting as well), my wife is actually excited and wants to go again. So, how many husbands can say that they gave their wife a rhino?

**borekfk** · August 23rd, 2015, 08:41 AM

The Rhino does have an interesting lineage, being the last gun designed by Emilio Ghisoni who started the Mateba company which sold several odd looking .22 LR target pistols, and revolvers featuring the low bore concept.

http://matebafan.com/rhino.html