1922 FN Repair

[clandestine]

A church member brought this to me after service in a baggie and asked me to fix it. Even though I was trained by a master to work on and fix just about anything, it's been quite a while since I touched anything but an AR.

This pistol was rusted inside and out, internals were gummed up, striker spring was weak, the firing pin was broken, and the firing pin spring follower was missing. I installed a replacement recoil spring for good measure.

The owner will get back the original parts.

After carding and cleaning it, I had to fit the replacement firing pin, dress the recoil spring ends, and remove some damage to the feed ramps so it would feed properly.

Feels nice to get back to my roots and help a good man get his old pistol running like new. Now back to my AR's...

 

[CaptainAwesome]

Unusually nice looking handgun. 100yrs old too.

 

[Old Weasel]

Nice example of a FN 1922 made under German Occupation. Probably a WWII bringback by a GI.

 

[Threeband]

A beautiful classic pistol.

It's common for full size pistols to be made into compact versions, like the Glock 17 developing into the G26.

This one went in the opposite direction: a slim and compact pocket pistol, the Browning 1910, being made into a larger belt or holster pistol.

Good on you, Chad, for doing a good turn and getting it back in shape.

 

[Overwatcher]

Very nice work. It's very satisfying to work on a peice of history.

 

[somd_mustangs]

These are pretty slick pistols, and a bit simpler inside than its cousin, JMB-designed Colt 1903 Model M.
Kudos for getting it back up and running.

Where did you source the parts?
JackFirst has all those parts as repros... so far everything I've gotten from them has been high-quality and dropped-in for me.

BTW that pistol is a little more special, it's a commercial "E/N" and not a military contract pistol.
A lot fewer commercial pistols were made under German occupation.
If you look on the rear of the frame there should be an inverted triangle mark that's unique to the commercial pistols.
If it has a retailer logo like the AKAH "Shooting Policeman", Geco logo, or Noris logo that's pretty uncommon and even more desirable.

 

[clandestine]

These are pretty slick pistols, and a bit simpler inside than its cousin, JMB-designed Colt 1903 Model M.
Kudos for getting it back up and running.

Where did you source the parts?
JackFirst has all those parts as repros... so far everything I've gotten from them has been high-quality and dropped-in for me.

BTW that pistol is a little more special, it's a commercial "E/N" and not a military contract pistol.
A lot fewer commercial pistols were made under German occupation.
If you look on the rear of the frame there should be an inverted triangle mark that's unique to the commercial pistols.
If it has a retailer logo like the AKAH "Shooting Policeman", Geco logo, or Noris logo that's pretty uncommon and even more desirable.

View attachment 373004
View attachment 373005

I found an original FN firing pin on ebay. The other parts I found front Jack First. I usually had food experiences with them and their parts in the past.


It has the triangle looking stamp on the frame but not the heck stamp on the slide.

What value would the pistol have?

Thanks for the info about the pistol. I'll definitely pass it on to the owner.

 

[clandestine]

Very nice work. It's very satisfying to work on a peice of history.

Thank you. Indeed

 

[clandestine]

A beautiful classic pistol.

It's common for full size pistols to be made into compact versions, like the Glock 17 developing into the G26.

This one went in the opposite direction: a slim and compact pocket pistol, the Browning 1910, being made into a larger belt or holster pistol.

Good on you, Chad, for doing a good turn and getting it back in shape.

Thank you very much Threeband

 

[somd_mustangs]

I found an original FN firing pin on ebay. The other parts I found front Jack First. I usually had food experiences with them and their parts in the past.


It has the triangle looking stamp on the frame but not the heck stamp on the slide.

What value would the pistol have?

Thanks for the info about the pistol. I'll definitely pass it on to the owner.

The commercials usually run around $600-700 in excellent condition - which this looks to be now! - there's not much (if any) premium over a WaA140-proofed military even though it's "more rare." I like 'em though. The AKAH-marked ones are a lot more, usually over $1k. The FN 1922 is one of those under-valued WW2 pistols, someday they'll catch up. Maybe when Anthony Vanderlinden's new huge edition of FN Browning Pistols book ships this fall we'll see some more interest

 

[clandestine]

The commercials usually run around $600-700 in excellent condition - which this looks to be now! - there's not much (if any) premium over a WaA140-proofed military even though it's "more rare." I like 'em though. The AKAH-marked ones are a lot more, usually over $1k. The FN 1922 is one of those under-valued WW2 pistols, someday they'll catch up. Maybe when Anthony Vanderlinden's new huge edition of FN Browning Pistols book ships this fall we'll see some more interest

Thanks somd_mustangs.

They are neat guns. I haven't worked on many of them in my career. Not that I would modify one, but the barrel bushing would make it a very easy gun to suppress if you made a silencer that attached like the barrel bushing.

The owner has no plans to sell, but I'll definitely pass the info on to him. Thank you very much.

 

[gtodave]

Interesting gun. It looks like the side of the slide opens up? Is that how you take it down?

 

[clandestine]

Interesting gun. It looks like the side of the slide opens up? Is that how you take it down?

It's a neat design. You remove the barrel bushing up front (no tools needed) then rotate the barrel 90 degrees to allow the barrel and slide to come off the front of the frame.