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.