Here's my candidate for ugliest handgun. It's sold under the Chiappa Firearms Ltd brand and it's called the "Rhino". It's a 6 shot .357 mag. that fires from the bottom cylinder and lists for $889.00.
Don

I believe the scientific term is Fugly.

but look its got picaninny rails all over it, and..and .. and holes in the side of it to tie a sling on!
but seriously it is fugly. or should that be seriously fugly??

Down here in Dixie that's butt fugly.

An interesting, but certainly not new, concept. The Russians designed a pistol back in the mid 50's for target shooting (debuted it at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 from memory) and it too fired from down low...didn't last though.

When you think about it, having the gun fire from the bottom chamber instead of the top, puts the barrel in line with the hand on the grip which should reduce muzzle flip significantly and allows a quicker and more accurate second shot.

HOWEVER...it is one ugly mutha...in fact its a Supa Mega FUGLY.

Cheers, Vince

Butt Ugly.

That is ugly...but I still think at least honorable mention goes to the defunct Dardick. Even worse, it fired "trounds"...triangular ammunition. Gee, wonder why it never caught on.

The Rhino is a redesign of the Mateba from the '80's.

I handled the Mateba and the balance wasn't too bad by it wasn't cheap. I didn't get to fire one.

Forgot to add, that they are designed by the same guy.

BigBlue wrote:

Here's my candidate for ugliest handgun.

Ok, I'll be the first to stand up and say I see beauty in this gun! Wow, the functionality they designed into this revolver is excellent and innovative! This is the revolver of the future.

I seen one of the earlier models D2 something from Rhino that a guy had at the range back in August. The first thing I noticed besides the fugliness was the lack of recoil that the gun produced. After talking to the guy, he told me the 2 things he didn't like about the gun was extremely high DA trigger pull and the crappy small hammer for setting SA mode.

The frame of the gun was aluminum alloy, barrel and cylinder were steel. He said what sold him on this gun was that lack of muzzle flip and it enabled him to keep the gun pointed where he wanted it and to keep firing.

Omi, what about the hot gasses escaping at the gap between cylinder and barrel? They come very close to the best hand now. I've seen what these gasses can do and I don't want them near to my fingers...

Aloy, he never complained about that. Hmmm, good thought.

O K Slimjim...Get off the sauce!!

A buddy of mine wants one of those Rhinos so maybe someday I can give you a first hand report. He loves all things .357 Mag!

Cylinder gap is now at 6:00 o'clock. Bottom of frame actually blocks more gas that way. Shoot normally and carry on. Keep yer digits where theys posed to be! People that shoot finger fwd of the gaurd are asking for an ND on an autoloader or blasted off finger on a revolver- never do this! It's not a good grip and it violates a rule!!!

Most small DA triggers come in after a few boxes. My M605 .357 is sweet now and I'll I did was shoot it. It was sitff at first. Not so much no more! My Alaskan was good at first but wow- is that trigger slick now. How fast can you pull it?

I like the Rhino, want one too!