![Image](http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/images/80356.jpg)
The lower-barrel-axis I get, and it makes lots of sense, but it just seems like those grips are about as ergonomic as a piece of PVC-pipe. Still, a very interesting concept.
Why not grips more like this...????
alnitak wrote:I handled one a couple of weeks ago at the LGS. Actually balanced well in the hand and had a decent trigger. Ugly as sin, though.
Thanks - that's the kind of feedback I was interested in; I KNOW they're 'ugly' (you should read some of the scathing commentary on the 1911's when they first came out to replace the 'pretty' revolverswecsoger wrote:Have you seen the linkage work they had to do to make the trigger actually pull the (sort of) hammer? It hurts my brain just to look at it. But if it shoots, go for it. Ugly guns need love too.
Quick: is this Rhino cocked, or not?
As it happens, it is. The "hammer" that you see isn't a hammer at all. Since the gun fires from the bottom chamber of the cylinder, the hammer is buried deep within the frame. Since the hammer is inaccessible, to cock it for single action requires that something reach down into the works. That something is called the cocking lever, and it's connected to the thing that looks like a hammer but isn’t - but which, confusingly, is called the external hammer.
To cock the gun, the external hammer is pulled back; it pushes the cocking lever down, which certainly looks like it’s connected to the internal hammer - but it's not! The cocking lever actually works by forcing a piece called the hammer spring lever down. The hammer spring lever in turn rotates the hammer back, thereby cocking the gun. When the gun is cocked, a spring on the external hammer returns it to the rest position, pulling the cocking lever back up with it while the other parts stay in the cocked position. A red flag on the left top of the frame (which was cleverly not shown in the first picture) is pushed up by the hand (which they call a ‘lifting lever’ ) to let the user know the gun is cocked. You can see that part if you look carefully for the red line just under and to the right of the external hammer.
When the Rhino is cocked, the external hammer is held in the forward position under spring pressure. To decock the gun, it is pulled back and held while the trigger is pulled. Then the user allows the external hammer to slowly and carefully return to the rest position.
What's interesting is that the key to this whole operation is the cocking lever. If one wants to render his/her Rhino double action only, it's a simple matter of removing the sideplate and pulling out the cocking lever:
It simply lifts out of the works. The sideplate is replaced, and the gun is now DAO. The external hammer can still be manipulated (remember that it has its own spring to keep it in the forward position), but since there is nothing connecting it to any other part of the gun it performs no function. Actually, that's not quite true - since the rear sight is a notch machined into the external hammer, it still serves as the rear sight.
Next time we'll take a look at the Rhino's very different single action sear (bet you can’t spot it) and how it works. It’s anything but straightforward!