Bought some new guns

[Jcordell]

Originally Posted by Nyles

Oh, so they're almost twins! Mine's also standard velocity only (as is my Hi Standard, actually). I prefer to use that stuff anyways, even if the guns could shoot it I'd probably only ever use it when it was all I could get.

Back before the Great 22 Panic I used to buy a brick or two of 22LR just out of habit. I have about 3,000 rounds of 22LR. None of which I can shoot in my Woodsman. I have 200 rounds of subsonic 22LR and I was lucky to find that. So the Woodsman is relegated to Safequeen status, but then many of my pieces are. They go to the range once or twice a year for six to twelve rounds. It's more about owning the classics. If you're a collector it makes sense. I have a few pieces that are Real World and go more frequently, but I don't consider myself to be an Operator.

[Nyles]

Yeah, I'm very much the same. Honestly I'm lucky if I can make it out to the range once a month in the summer - to saying nothing of actually finding ammo for some of the more obscure stuff in my collection.

[Jcordell]

Originally Posted by Nyles

Yeah, I'm very much the same. Honestly I'm lucky if I can make it out to the range once a month in the summer - to saying nothing of actually finding ammo for some of the more obscure stuff in my collection.

Yeah. I would really like a MAS 49/56 in 7.5mm French (instead of one of the .308 conversion jobs), but ammo is like non-existent. One of the big reasons that I try to stick to .38 special revolvers.

[Nyles]

Picked up a couple of guns this month that, believe it or not, I've been looking for since 2009. They're both WW1 French issue "Spanish 92" revolvers, from when the French were desperately short of handguns and bought anything they could in 8 x 27mm M1892 from the Eibar gun trade.

The first is one of the best, a Trocaola S&W M&P knock-off. It's actually mechanically closer to a Colt on the inside, and has a couple clever improvements over a real S&W - a much wider rear sight notch than found on contemporary Smiths, better suited to combat shooting, and a wide hammer spur for the same. It's obviously not a S&W in terms of fine workmanship or materials but is still quite decently made, enough so that I wouldn't feel terribly badly armed with it.




The second is one of, and probably the, worst. It's marked "mle 1915" (modele 1915) and is obviously a knock-off of a Pieper revolver, but quite badly made and there's no record of by whom. It's covered in rough hand-cut tool marks and has just an awful trigger, and requires a bit of fiddling to open. The French didn't buy many of these and passed apparently passed them on to the Romanians as soon as they had anything else on hand to use instead.



Any of these French WW1 Spanish 92 revolvers are very hard to find in Canada - I got a screaming deal on the Trocaola in an auction and probably overpaid for the Mle 1915 from a dealer, but I figure together they balance out.

I also picked up a couple of bayonets from a local antiques store, the first of which was a rather large and impressive Portuguese M1885 yatagan sword bayonet for my Kropatschek (note how its side-mounted):



The other, though missing the scabbard, is a super-rare Finnish M27 made by Fiskars (they probably made your scissors). You won't find many Finnish Mosin-Nagant bayonets as Finn soldiers apparently preferred to fight with their hunting knives and often ditched their bayonets. Oddly this doesn't fit on my Finn M27, I'm not sure why.

[Jcordell]

I like the mle 1915. Reminds me of the Spanish S&W breaktop DA revolvers in 455 that they made for the Brits in WWI. The Spanish knock-offs are a hoot. My local gun shop had a 1930's Spanish M&P that was fun, but nothing spectacular. What was spectacular were the genuine ivory grips that were on it. The shop owner took those grips off and sold them on Gun Broker for almost three hundred dollars! The revolver he sold for $100.00. He made like a $250.000 profit.

[Nyles]

WOW. I didnt realize ivory brought that kind of money, but I suppose it makes sense. The Mle 1915 is definitely neat. What really fascinates me is that a great power was desperate enough to actually use something like that. Not all Spanish guns are bad, I'd probably even use that Trocaola in preference to my M1892, but the Mle 1915 is every bit as bad as their rep suggests!

[Jcordell]

Originally Posted by Nyles

WOW. I didnt realize ivory brought that kind of money, but I suppose it makes sense. The Mle 1915 is definitely neat. What really fascinates me is that a great power was desperate enough to actually use something like that. Not all Spanish guns are bad, I'd probably even use that Trocaola in preference to my M1892, but the Mle 1915 is every bit as bad as their rep suggests!

My good friend (and best man at my wedding many years ago) owns three handguns, a rifle and a shotgun. His rifle is a Remington model 700 in .308 Winchester and the shotgun is Remington 870 Wingmaster in 12 gauge. He hunts deer, elk and ducks. Good guns. He spent some money.

His handguns are all Astras. A 4" bl Astra .357 Magnum, an Astra 680 snubbie in 38 Special and an Astra Constable in 380 ACP. I teased him about those handguns when he first purchased them about seventeen years ago. But they're solid handguns and they work. The 357 Magnum goes with him on his hunting trips. The 680 is his CCW piece and the Constable is just something he liked so he bought. They might not be as refined as a S&W, colt or a Walther, but they're solid and honestly made. And they cost him less than a S&W, Colt or Walther.

[Jcordell]

Originally Posted by Nyles

WOW. I didnt realize ivory brought that kind of money, but I suppose it makes sense. The Mle 1915 is definitely neat. What really fascinates me is that a great power was desperate enough to actually use something like that. Not all Spanish guns are bad, I'd probably even use that Trocaola in preference to my M1892, but the Mle 1915 is every bit as bad as their rep suggests!

Pre-ban Ivory is very pricey in the U.S. He said that there was a bidding war for the grips.