Author Topic: More pawn shop adventures  (Read 3860 times)

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Offline Blicero

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More pawn shop adventures
« on: October 31, 2016, 05:13:36 PM »
Have I ever mentioned how much I love pawn shops? I just strolled out of a local shop with these two 32acp pistols.

First up is the FN Model 1900, a Browning design. This is a sleek, finely crafted & beautifully marked Belgian military gun. It's a very low serial number, 348, I guess making it part of the earliest run in 1900. I'm assuming the m1900 commenced production in the same year as its designation?

I'm definitely no student of FN stuff...yet...but the grips automatically struck my eye as being wrong. The mottled/pearly pattern does not feel correct, and I can find no example of these pistols with a similarly marked grip. Also you can see where another set of larger grips has worn the part of the frame on which they sat. What I'm not sure of is, if these grips are modern repros or possibly period correct on another FN model. If, and this is a whale-sized if, I have my FN1900 minutia correct, then the correct grips on a gun this early would be either the all-checkered/no logo type, or the FN logo-with-image-of-gun-on-top design.

Grips aside, this gun is exactly how I love one- healthy enough to still show its own original beauty, but far from mint. You can still see the fire blue on the trigger. The mag is original, or at least correct, unmarked as it should be on a pre-1907 pistol. I love this slick little gun!














Next up is just a good ol' wartime cz27 with waa76, built during the German occupation. Based on the serial and finish, I'm guessing this was made in 1943. Nothing fancy or special here, but it is nice to finally snag one of these. It was interesting to stack it up next to Capt. Cordes' cz24 & note the changes to the design and drastic contrast of fit and finish between the two. It looks like GI Joe carved his initials on the frame here. Whatever. They were cheap.







"I reject your suggestion."
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"You would last about an hour in Charlotte before the police were called bc you were walking around outside with a bottle of scotch and a g43."
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"I don't appreciate you showing Nazi images. My old lady's granddad died at Auschwitz."
"I'm sorry to hear that..."
"Yeah...he fell off a guard tower."
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Offline Phosphorus32

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Re: More pawn shop adventures
« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2016, 08:14:53 AM »
Nice pair of pistols you found!  8) Only one local pawn shop here and I see the same over-priced beat to heck milsurps in there every time  bat1

I see what you mean about the indicators of old larger grips, but the ones that came with it sure are attractive. I bet you could find the correct ones and not lose anything selling those...especially if you can figure out what they belong to.

Is your safety lever poised right between safe and fire, sūr et feu?

The Böhmische Waffenfabrik CZ27 sure has a sexier profile but a rather drab utilitarian wartime finish when placing it beside that turn of the century blued FN  :))

Great pick ups!  thumb1

Offline Blicero

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Re: More pawn shop adventures
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2016, 10:49:30 PM »


Is your safety lever poised right between safe and fire, sūr et feu?


Great pick ups!  thumb1

Oui.
And that's the extent of my French, except for Sancerre, Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Chateauneuf du Pape.

I found out that this is a commercial marked gun, not military as I'd previously thought.

I was going to spend some time inside the guts of this pistol. I've read about how this design came to be, looked at some exploded views of the internals, and am frankly intrigued by how it functions. I'd like to see it in the flesh but for now I'm tempted to just leave it alone. I did pull the slide off just to get a pic of the barrel marks, snapped this quick pic. Maybe it will make sense to somebody.




While scavenging the web trying to make sense of these guns, I found out that a ton of these were sold to German police units, who stamped them with their unit marks. I'd love to stumble onto one of those some day.
"I reject your suggestion."
-Ramcke

"You would last about an hour in Charlotte before the police were called bc you were walking around outside with a bottle of scotch and a g43."
-Ty O

"I don't appreciate you showing Nazi images. My old lady's granddad died at Auschwitz."
"I'm sorry to hear that..."
"Yeah...he fell off a guard tower."
-You Know How I Get Thomas

Regional Spelling Champoin, 6/6/2012

"Why the hell does it look like you turned into some weird trendy libtard?"
-LooseCannon

Online Loose}{Cannon

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Re: More pawn shop adventures
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2016, 02:47:01 PM »
Nice...   Your turning into a pistol freak eh?
      
1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms... It doesn't matter how many Lenins you get out on the street begging for them to be taken.