New Toys! Ruger GP100 and Chiappa 200DS .357/9mm combo

[P01135809]

Two new purchases this week from two great members!

Snubby comparison pics

 

[P01135809]

Rhino range report:
50 rounds of 38 special 130 grain
25 rounds of .357 158 grain
50 rounds of 9mm 115 grain
Easy to keep in 4" circle at 7 yards. Double action trigger is pretty smooth. I liked the grip angle. Easy to find sight picture. Not easy to cock. I only shot a few single action shots and they were fine.

Recoil reduction was real...I had a chance to shoot some .357 from the rhino and an LCR back to back and it was night and day! I'm never going to go out and drill through 200 hot .357 rounds, but would easily do 50...something I've not really wanted to do with the SP101...
Felt recoil .357>9mm>38 special

You can see from the pics that it's really equivalent in size to traditional snubbies yet brings an extra round and handles .357 with ease.

I tend to be a capacity whore and gravitate towards semi-auto for edc, but this may get some time...

Seems very functional to me and is more than just a novelty.

 

[P01135809]

GP100 was excellent!

Something about the Ruger double action trigger lets me "stage" it back more easily than my 686 making me a little more accurate slow firing. Single action is not quite as nice as the smith, but w the six-inch barrel it was simple to put 6 through a 0.5" hole at 7 yards.

Might be selling my 686...will have to do a same day range test.

 

[BigWaylon]

Always been interested in a Rhino.

I assume there's a cylinder swap for the 9?

 

[P01135809]

Always been interested in a Rhino.

I assume there's a cylinder swap for the 9?

Yes. this comes with two cylinders. 38/357 and 9mm. simple to swap out (2 minutes, about the same as my revolver reload speed...LOL)

I shot both without moonclips. no trouble getting the rounds out. I had a 9mm LCR in the past and the 9mm cases would get stuck in the cylinder pretty good sometimes.

The one thing I didn't like about the rhino was that the cylinder didn't "pop out" when you hit the cylinder release to eject/reload. I needed to nudge it from the right side.

 

[BigWaylon]

Cool. I saw the BST ad for it. Neat setup. Thanks for the review.

 

[Ferrisfan]

Did you have any issues with gripppng the Rhino? I've heard of some burnt fingers until you get used to firing from the bottom of the cylinder.

 

[Coltdefender1911]

Nice looking Ruger. Good post on the snubby comparisons.

 

[P01135809]

Did you have any issues with gripppng the Rhino? I've heard of some burnt fingers until you get used to firing from the bottom of the cylinder.

I didn't really have any problems at all. Of course I was aware that I wanted to keep my fingers away from the cylinder gap. It's really ugly but you can get a nice high group on the gun.

I can imagine it would be bad using a hot 357 load if you put your fingers in the wrong place. that's still pretty much the same with just about any revolver though.

 

[GregB]

Like the Rhino. I've been thinking hard about adding one, but some many other guns I want more first.

 

[Skeeter190]

GP100 was excellent!

Something about the Ruger double action trigger lets me "stage" it back more easily than my 686 making me a little more accurate slow firing. Single action is not quite as nice as the smith, but w the six-inch barrel it was simple to put 6 through a 0.5" hole at 7 yards.

Might be selling my 686...will have to do a same day range test.

I traded my 686 after some trigger time with the GP100.

 

[mazer]

Had a Rhino for years, it's a great shooting wheel gun, especially with a longer barrel! I'm going to get a snubby, the looks of the Rhino tends to grow on you.

 

[dalek]

Had a Rhino for years, it's a great shooting wheel gun, especially with a longer barrel! I'm going to get a snubby, the looks of the Rhino tends to grow on you.

So, it starts as a snubby and then grows into a 6"?