Rhino Time:
Chiappa’s 10mm 60 DS Beast
The Rhino 60 DS features a 6" barrel and unconventional looks. But it sure is comfortable to shoot.
Feet can be a pain in the well, you know…
A couple of years ago, I had to buy some new tennis shoes. Normally, no big deal. Pop into Kmart and grab a pair. Done. But my feet were giving me trouble. So someone talked me into going to some schmantzy athletic shoe store where they analyze your feet and recommend the ideal shoes for whatever is ailing you.
They ran me through a battery of tests (lasers, phasers, tasers, antimatter mass spectrometers, and I think a TSA scanner to make sure I didn’t have any four-ounce liquid containers. At the end of all this, they brought me a pair of shoes and said, “Try these on.” I did. And it changed my life. They looked like double-wide gondolas, but boy, were they comfortable!
Today, I had a similar epiphany but was able to skip all the probing and body scanning. I tested a new Chiappa Rhino. It looks somewhat… OK, a lot, non-traditional, but boy was it comfortable to shoot. Yeah, I know. These aren’t new, but somehow I just hadn’t yet crossed paths with one. Their new 10mm beast was a great excuse to rectify that omission in my catalogue.
Something is upside down here... Doesn't the upper rib remind you of a single-barrel trap shotgun?
Upside Down
I can’t get Diana Ross’s song outta my head as I describe the Rhino this way, but it’s the best short description I have. Apparently, her 1980 hit is about a tumultuous relationship, but my relationship with the 10mm Rhino was only tumultuous for about a minute, owing to my ingrained habits. Hold that thought for a second.
The idea behind the rhino is interesting. Traditional revolvers are built with the barrel on the top of the grip and frame assembly. Seems intuitive, as the sights have to be on top, and having them directly on the barrel seems to make sense. However, when you consider recoil and its vector straight back, that high placement of the bore creates torque as the force vector is above your hand and arm bones. With the Rhino design, the barrel extends from the bottom of the cylinder. And kind of like a competition shotgun with a low barrel, there’s an upper “rib” for the sights, and in this case, an upper accessory rail.
Just to be really clear, the cartridge in the bottom of the cylinder, at the 6 o’clock position, is the one that will fire.
This whole setup does a marvelous job of moving the recoil force more in line with your arm bones and, by extension, your body mass.
A Ruger Rhino 60 DS 10mm handgun with wooden grip, surrounded by bullets and ammo packaging,
emphasizing firearm and ammunition details.
Rhino 60 DS
The model I’m looking at today is a new 10 mm version of the Rhino. It sports a 6” barrel and a capacity of six rounds of 10mm.
It’s made from 7075-T6 alloy, except for the steel cylinder and frame, presumably to keep the weight reasonable. Given its upside-down design with upper and lower accessory rails, there’s a lot of metal in this gun. But unloaded weight is still less than a pound.
Everything about the Rhino is a fresh look at a revolver design. The cylinder release is a bit more like a cylinder unlocking lever. Push it straight down and you can press the cylinder out of position past a light detent. And the hammer is a rebounding design. Cock it for a single-action shot, and a red status indicator pops up to the left of the hammer while the hammer returns to its resting position, while the trigger is pulled back, close to the rear of the guard.
This model features rail on the top and bottom. I had no problem with the "Scout rifle style" forward mount of the optic.
As for the 10mm chambering, the chambers are cut to headspace on the cartridge case mouth, so no moon clip is necessary, and there is no recessed cut as is required on rimmed caliber revolvers. However, this gun is moon clip friendly; it all just rides “outside” the cylinder. If you don’t use the included clips, you just pull the empties out one by one. If you do, the ejector will push the whole clip out.
Sights are red fiber optic up front and green in the back. The rear sight is adjustable for windage and elevation.
Even the trigger face is reconsidered. It’s wide, really wide, and mostly flat with slight rounding. I think I like it? The pull sensation is great. I measured the weight at 8 pounds for double action and precisely 2 pounds for single. For me, the pad of the finger on this wide trigger was the way to go. Your mileage may vary.
The ejector rod will miss singly-loaded 10mm rounds. They headspace on the cartridge case rim inside the cylinder.
They did pull out easily after firing. With the included moon clips, they'll eject with the rod.
Rhino Shooting
When I got to the range, I first checked the rotation direction of the cylinder as I wasn’t familiar with this gun, and I discovered it rotates clockwise. To settle the newly mounted optic, I loaded just four rounds and, based on pure thoughtless habit, carefully placed an empty chamber up top in the 12 o’clock position with the four ready to go on my first double-action pull. Now, you Rhino aficionados probably see where this is going, but keep quiet and don’t spoil the surprise for everyone else.
Note the flat cylinder face. The moon clips ride completely outside of the cylinder body
(moon clips not shown in this photo.)
So, my first trigger press got me a resounding and satisfying bang, and I thought to myself, “Wow, this low barrel really does make a difference in controlling recoil!” I continued. Press. Click. Hmm. I must’ve done something wrong with my reloads. No worries, I’ll just persevere. Press. Click. Since there was obviously no squib situation here, I went ahead and pressed the trigger again. Bang!
I’m going to apologize in advance to the Chiappa folks, but I have to be honest and confess that my first thought was that something was wrong with this gun. Thoroughly befuddled, I opened up the cylinder, and that’s when the lightbulb lit up.
New from Black Hills! The popular Honey Badger in 10mm. At just 115 grains, it's smokin' fast.
Are you getting it faster than I did? Duh! This revolver shoots from the bottom cylinder 6 o’clock position. It was working just fine. I just positioned everything precisely the wrong way out of “standard” wheelgun habit. At least I had a good laugh, and now you can mock me too. You’re welcome.
I tested three types of ammo with this particular rhino. The first was a 155-grain plated bullet pussycat load running at about 1,060 fps. The second was Black Hills’ new 10 mm Honey Badger. Awesome! These are 115-grain defensive projectiles. Last but not least was the Nosler ASP JHP 180-grain offering.
I whipped out my faithful Garmin Xero chronograph, set it on the bench and proceeded to shoot some groups at 25 yards.
Nosler's 180-grain ASP was impressively accurate at 25 yards from the Rhino. Average groups were just 1.62".
The Honey Badger 10mm was blazing fast with an average velocity of 1,588.7 fps. It delivered an average group size of just 1.51”. As for the Nosler ASP, that performed admirably as well, with an average velocity of 1,073.5 fps. As for accuracy, it delivered an average of 1.62” at 25 yards.
The bottom line? You’d never know, just shooting this, that it’s a 10mm gun. The geometry really makes a difference with the felt recoil. I shot it with both of the defensive loads one-handed, and it was perfectly manageable. It looks different, but I, for one, welcome the innovation and willingness to take a fresh look at how to design a revolver.
MSRP: $1,419.26
For more info: ChiappaFirearms.com
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