Mateba MTR-8 revolver

[danish21]

Hey members i found this revolver intresting on the net so i am sharing with you.



Mateba MTR-8 revolver

Type - Double Action revolver
Caliber(s) - .357 Magnum / .38 Special
Weight unloaded - 1230 g
Length - 265 mm (10.4")
Barrel length - 76 mm (3")
Magazine capacity - 8 rounds

The Mateba MTR-8 revolver is one of most unusual weapons of its class, developed during early 1980s for sport shooting, especially for rapid fire events. To achieve minimum shot-to-shot time through minimized barrel rise, designer of this weapon, Emilio Ghisoni, decided to put the barrel as low as possible. To do so, he put the cylinder in front of the triggerguard, rather than above it. He also used a high-capacity cylinders, which contained 8 rounds of .357 or .38 caliber ammunition (model MTR-8), 12 rounds of .32 caliber ammunition (model MTR-12) or 14 rounds of .22LR (model MTR-14). Revolvers with capacity of up to 20 .22 caliber rounds were proposed in this lineup, but supposedly not built. Very limited manufacture of these finely made and unusual weapons was made by Macchine Termo Balistiche (Mateba) company in Italy. It is believed that MTR line of Mateba revolvers is no longer in production.
Obviously, these revolvers had limited use outside of shooting sport, as they were way too heavy and too long for everyday concealed or open carry, especially considering their relatively short barrels.

Mateba MTR-8 revolver is a double / single action revolver of all-steel construction. 8-shot cylinder is located in the frame ahead of the triggerguard, and swings out to the left for reloading. Cylinder release latch is located at the front of the cylinder, on the cylinder crane. For faster reloading, special flat clips were developed for these revolvers. Trigger unit design was also unusual - hammer is fully concealed within the frame and is located in the grip, with the long firing pin passing above the trigger towards the rear of the cylinder. Hammer can be manually cocked and de-cocked using a thumb lever, located on the frame above the left grip panel.

http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg185-e.htm

Danish

[Mark]

I saw something similar once, where the barrel actually lined up with the lower cylinder instead of the upper. Again, the idea was to lower the recoil induced muzzle rise but5 that idea never caught on either.

[HSharief]

Mark, you must be thinking about the Mateba Model 6.

http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg186-e.htm



That website is a treasure trove of information.

[mehulkamdar]

Danish,

I have handled one of these monstrosities (not shot one though) so my observations are those of a non user. While in theory the Mateba revolver would recoil straight and reduce felt recoil, it was never chambered for any hard recoiling rounds. When I picked it up, it did feel too long because of the forward cylinder placement and the balance was ridiculously front heavy. Also for such a long overall length the barrel ended up being very short, which would have meant reduced performance from whatever ammunition was used.

I am not at all surprised that the design flopped and is no longer manufactured. Mateba went into producing a Colt type pump action rifle for the cowboy action market and then their website, too, disappeared. No idea if they are still in business.

The revolvers were well amde but the design was flawed from a handling point of view for day to day use I think.

[danish21]

Mehul

Although its a flop gun but the person who is behind the idea of designing a stuff like this should be a genius. Is this revolver still available in used gun's market ?

Danish

[Grumpy]

"Although its a flop gun but the person who is behind the idea of designing a stuff like this should be a genius."

WRONG ! The man was an idiot. The pistol was a response to a problem that had been solved with semi-auto target pistols and was an expensive load of rubbish. Hopelessly balanced, unreliable and VERY pricey.

[Edmond]

MATEBA went belly up in 2005. Their automatic revolver was accurate and comfortable to shoot, it existed in

* .357 Magnum
* .44 Magnum
* .454 Casull

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