The MTR-8 was Emilio Ghisoni's first revolver design, predating the more popular and better known Mateba semiauto revolvers and the Chiappa Rhino. The MTR-8 was designed for competition shooting, and made in a variety of calibers and configurations, including long carbine versions, different barrel lengths, and calibers including .22LR, .32 S&W, .38 Special, and .357 Magnum. Ghisoni's design puts the recoil force in line with the shooter's arm as would all of his later designs, but it does this by moving the entire cylinder down and firing from the top chamber. This has the side effect of decoupling the cylinder from the lockwork and allowing a quite narrow and handy frame with a large cylinder. The .38 and .357 models hold 8 rounds, while the .32 caliber ones have 12-round cylinders and the .22 rimfire guns 14 rounds. The carbine types have even larger capacities. It should be noted that unlike his later Mateba revolver, the MTR series are tradition DA/SA guns, not semiautomatic or self-cocking. A total of only about 500 were made.