somd_mustangs
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- Jul 1, 2012
- 5,738
This just popped up last week (first of 2023, I made it 9 hours longer then Trepang LOL) and flew under the radar. At first glance it looks, quite frankly, like a piece of crap especially with the shiny smooth wood grips and Uncle Mike's holster in the listing. Completely "in the white" with no bluing originally (no traces inside or out) and overall Browning "patina" (apropos I guess!). Closer examination reveals no proofs, inspection stamps or standard factory serial numbers. Although there were reports of unfinished parts being smuggled out for the resistance, this pistol appears to be one of the ones assembled immediately following the liberation of the FN factory as opposed to during German occupation. The slide logo has a unique "G" that looks like a stylized "C" and seems to only appear starting around the mid 40000's C block and through the A prefix post-lib guns.
Vanderlinden shows two post-lib FN 1922's "in the white" but with German C-block serial numbers; one has no proofs, the other has Belgian proofs. He also has one example very similar to this one but it's blued. In that case, there is a "22" stamped inside the frame dust cover. Mine has a very similar-looking number stamped on the front of the frame. There are no inspectors stamps on that example in the book, nor on mine. Both Mawkie's C-block no-proofs and my C-block with proofs have an "MR" stamped on the left trigger guard (internal inspection mark).
www.mdshooters.com
www.mdshooters.com
I'm not sure where this fits relative to Mawkie's C-block no-proofs and my C-block, Belgian proofs post-lib guns, or if it's something different. The slide logo indicates to me that at least the slide itself falls in the post-liberation window somewhere, and lack of bluing supports the period immediately after liberation I think. Anyway, it's one of those cases where what looks like a piece of junk turns out to be a jewel in disguise.
Vanderlinden shows two post-lib FN 1922's "in the white" but with German C-block serial numbers; one has no proofs, the other has Belgian proofs. He also has one example very similar to this one but it's blued. In that case, there is a "22" stamped inside the frame dust cover. Mine has a very similar-looking number stamped on the front of the frame. There are no inspectors stamps on that example in the book, nor on mine. Both Mawkie's C-block no-proofs and my C-block with proofs have an "MR" stamped on the left trigger guard (internal inspection mark).
Crazy rare comes to town: Post German Occupation FN 1922 & Star 1908
-Oh the things you find digging away in the dusty corners of the auction world on the 'net. The first of these was an FN 1922 that caught my eye because of a lack of inspector marks. No Belgian or German! SN places it in a very tiny sliver of time between the German overlords fleeing the Allied...
Interesting FN 1922 Post-Liberation
This is a kind of arcane variation but it's also the kind of stuff I really dig (late-war weirdness). When the Germans got run out of Belgium, they looted a lot of the tooling and other machinery at the FN factory... but left behind all of the parts and partially assembled pistols. This FN 1922...
I'm not sure where this fits relative to Mawkie's C-block no-proofs and my C-block, Belgian proofs post-lib guns, or if it's something different. The slide logo indicates to me that at least the slide itself falls in the post-liberation window somewhere, and lack of bluing supports the period immediately after liberation I think. Anyway, it's one of those cases where what looks like a piece of junk turns out to be a jewel in disguise.
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It probably should have the dark brown plastic ones (ala Mawkie's) but those are pretty much unobtanium I think but I'll keep my eyes peeled.
