somd_mustangs
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- Jul 1, 2012
- 5,742
A what? you say... which was my first reaction too.
This finally arrived over the weekend; it puts checks in the blocks for weird, historic (sort of), Spanish pistol, and early semi-auto.
It was just too cool to pass up...
The Spanish company of Charola y Anitua started making these in 1897 and received a patent for the semi-automatic, locked breech design in October 1898.
Even though it looks like a shrunken-head version of the Mauser C96 it is actually different in design.
It was originally chambered for the anemic 5mm round and between the low-powered round and the 6-shot magazine, the Spanish military wanted no part of it.
The pistol was beefed up slightly and chambered in 7mm but still wasn't any competition for the C96 or Luger and it saw poor sales.
Sr. Anitua apparently bailed early on as the "C y A" company lasted only a year or two before becoming just Charola.
All told it seems like production only lasted a few years, from 1897 to the early 1900's (1903/5?).
The last variants of this pistol (like this one) didn't have any identifying marks other than the winged bullet logo
(reminiscent of Webley and Scott) and the "Best Shooting Pistol" which is stamped across the top of the barrel.
Probably wishful thinking... and interesting that this is in English, not Spanish.
According to the well-written Steven Fox article on these in "The Gun Collectors Digest, Vol 4" production is estimated at:
~ 3000 guns in 5mm (with 4 variations) S/N 1:3000
~ 2000 in 7mm (with 2 variations). S/N 10001:12000
This one is the later 7mm variation with fixed magazine, and it is not in the best of shape unfortunately (but didn't break the bank either, like a nice one would).
A quick function check revealed some potential Bad Things, so I decided to disassemble it... needless to say there are no manuals on how to do so.
I took a leap of faith and unscrewed the two large screws in the side of the receiver, which actually screw into two posts - just like the post-style binders.
Lo and behold that unlocked the receiver from the grip frame assembly.
It slid right off to the sound of multiple parts falling to the floor.
Fortunately between studying it and consulting the patent diagram I figured out where those pieces parts go.
Unfortunately, there's one flat spring that's broken (locking block/cam) and one that's missing (sear).
An enterprising soul had inserted a standard coil spring jammed under the sear to get it to "work" resulting in trigger pull of about 30 pounds.
The grip screw head is destroyed so I'll have to grind that out carefully.
I haven't figured out yet how to <properly> get the bolt separated from the barrel assembly and receiver though.
Anyway, here's some pics of an interesting and virtually forgotten turn-of-the-century pistol.
Compared to a replica C96 for size reference - it's tiny.
This finally arrived over the weekend; it puts checks in the blocks for weird, historic (sort of), Spanish pistol, and early semi-auto.
It was just too cool to pass up...
The Spanish company of Charola y Anitua started making these in 1897 and received a patent for the semi-automatic, locked breech design in October 1898.
Even though it looks like a shrunken-head version of the Mauser C96 it is actually different in design.
It was originally chambered for the anemic 5mm round and between the low-powered round and the 6-shot magazine, the Spanish military wanted no part of it.
The pistol was beefed up slightly and chambered in 7mm but still wasn't any competition for the C96 or Luger and it saw poor sales.
Sr. Anitua apparently bailed early on as the "C y A" company lasted only a year or two before becoming just Charola.
All told it seems like production only lasted a few years, from 1897 to the early 1900's (1903/5?).
The last variants of this pistol (like this one) didn't have any identifying marks other than the winged bullet logo
(reminiscent of Webley and Scott) and the "Best Shooting Pistol" which is stamped across the top of the barrel.
Probably wishful thinking... and interesting that this is in English, not Spanish.
According to the well-written Steven Fox article on these in "The Gun Collectors Digest, Vol 4" production is estimated at:
~ 3000 guns in 5mm (with 4 variations) S/N 1:3000
~ 2000 in 7mm (with 2 variations). S/N 10001:12000
This one is the later 7mm variation with fixed magazine, and it is not in the best of shape unfortunately (but didn't break the bank either, like a nice one would).
A quick function check revealed some potential Bad Things, so I decided to disassemble it... needless to say there are no manuals on how to do so.
I took a leap of faith and unscrewed the two large screws in the side of the receiver, which actually screw into two posts - just like the post-style binders.
Lo and behold that unlocked the receiver from the grip frame assembly.
It slid right off to the sound of multiple parts falling to the floor.
Fortunately between studying it and consulting the patent diagram I figured out where those pieces parts go.
Unfortunately, there's one flat spring that's broken (locking block/cam) and one that's missing (sear).
An enterprising soul had inserted a standard coil spring jammed under the sear to get it to "work" resulting in trigger pull of about 30 pounds.
The grip screw head is destroyed so I'll have to grind that out carefully.
I haven't figured out yet how to <properly> get the bolt separated from the barrel assembly and receiver though.
Anyway, here's some pics of an interesting and virtually forgotten turn-of-the-century pistol.
Compared to a replica C96 for size reference - it's tiny.
That has to be one of the oddest looking guns I've ever seen. It makes me think of some kind of sci-fi prop gun assembled from firearm-looking parts!
