Radom P-35

[chenny]

Forgive the cell phone photo, best I can do at the moment. Second model (without stock slot) Radom made under German occupation. Some finish loss on the right side consistant with what is often thought to be blood staining. Brought home by an American pilot after the war.

 

[yellowsled]

Very nice. Trade you a mosin for it?

 

[Alphabrew]

Very nice. Wish she could talk (in English)!

 

[somd_mustangs]

Nice looking, a lot of good finish left.

This has the third lever on the left side, right? (like a 1911 thumb safety). If so that's the take down lever that locks the slide in the right place to remove the slide lock.

I literally am working on a 2-lever Radom right now, cleaning up after a test session. Replaced the firing pin & recoil springs (neither is fun) last night. Anyway, I found out the hard way that to remove the lock lever for field stripping, pull forward on the recoil rod and it will drop right out. You can "encourage" it to come out without doing that, but that's why many of these levers are bent or broken. Same deal-io on the re-assemble, pull the rod and the pin will drop right in easy-peasy. Pulling on the rod isn't so easy though

These are fun to shoot but get somebody to look it over carefully first, especially the de-cocker and the firing pin area as the pin can jam and either break or slam-fire. The recoil assembly can break up too, especially the little pin that holds it together.

 

[chenny]

somd_mustangs - Yes, this example has the third lever. Interesting you mention the firing pin as mine has had the tip clipped. I'm guessing the veteran did this to prevent his kids from getting hurt. I was thinking about replacing it with an original one from gunbroker. Any advice?

 

[somd_mustangs]

The firing pin on mine had a nail brazed on as the last 1/2" or so, and was bent, and the wrong length too. The brazing was crude and caused the pin to hang up. So not safe in any way shape or form. The only reason I attempted the replacement was because this gun had been monkeyed with already and I was pretty sure I could get it apart and back together without messing it up any more... but I did. I bent the decocker spring, I think, in the process - but I could see by all the gouging on the decocker pin that the prior "mechanic" had made a mess of it and probably bent the spring first and it lost its temper (I almost did too - this job requires a lot of patience).

Getting the firing pin stop out isn't easy as it is an interference fit, not like a 1911. It also holds the decocker lever in place so it's a dance to get the stop out just far enough to allow the lever to be removed. The metal is also brittle and you have to be real careful. The guy that wrote the recent Radom book (York) suggested using a Krag tool for depressing the pin and then tapping on the top of the tool to get things moving. Since mine had been apart before, I was able to push the pin in with a correct size steel punch in the hole and drive the stop down by tapping on the side of the punch. That's really not the best way to go about it, and may not work for yours. I just gave it a light tap to see if it would move, and it did. If it didn't I would have stopped and regrouped.

Your gun looks like it's in really nice shape. Consider sending the slide to a pro with the knowledge & skill to fix it to avoid messing it up. Somebody like the Luger Doc might be cheap insurance in the long run and would probably have the parts on hand too. At the very least get a good reference for how to do it, and study carefully first. Lots of stuff on the interweb. Some of it may even be correct The York book has a good section on how to detail-strip the Radom and is a great ref in general but it's about $60 if you can find it. I vaguely recall a thread here on MDS that discusses this procedure and might have links to U-Tube, etc. I can't find it though. Maybe somebody else here can help.

There were several original firing pins on evilBay last week, too. I went with Numrich because I knew I could have it in hand in a few days at a fixed price - it's not an original pin, it's a repro, BTW (they don't mention that). The back "striker" part of their pin is slightly short, doesn't stick out of the stop as far as the original, but it works.