[royke]

Ran across one at the Dallas gun show. Regretted parting with the one I had back in the
1970s so I got it. Outside decent, bore not...Ther was some discussion about these not
long before board changeover which I would like to see again. I have heard that the French government has pretty well stopped selling surplus arms and is instead destroying them so
I am curious if anyone knows how many were sold in US?

 

[royke]

According to French Sevice Handguns, a small quantity of these were imported from Vietnam and sold in the early 60's, by Ye Olde Hunter Division of Interarms. The ads are reprinted in this book.....

Other than the supposed Cao Dai Army sale, and the ones brought back from Nam by Vets, I know of no other source of these. The French Army still uses this gun, having declined to buy the Sig 9mm. I do not think they will sell them to the US collector market, account the penultimate French Cabinet signed some kind of idiotic UN non-proliferation bed wetter agreement on small arms sales....I do not know if the current PM, Sarkosy will abide by this, as they could make some big bucks selling them here....Kelt or one of the French Guys will have to straighten me out on the current state of affairs in France..

IIRC; they only imported 100 or so of these guns in the early 60's. It is hard to say how many were brought here from Vietnam by returning Vets..

I have some original mags if you have some money...they cost me a lot!! (Other than the ones MOBLOT sent me, which were mint and new in the wrap...)The Triple K mags do not work well, the plastic follower disintegrates with use...

Dale

Thanks for the information, a spare mag or two might be nice, but with its bore condition (bad)
I don't plan to shoot it much. Any idea what these are worth in US.

 

[royke]

This gun is so hard to find that the prices are either high or the seller has no idea and sells it cheap. I paid Doug Kerley for a good one, a reasonable amount, I do not recall what exactly, but I sold a French Rolling Block 8mm Rifle to pay for it.

If you want a guess, $400.00 with shot out bore, $900.00 for one with a nice bore...This is just an offhand guess, so do not get too excited over it..I have only seen 3 in my lifetime for sale, including two tours in Nam...

Like the Mle 44, you have to find someone who knows what it is to sell it...

Dale

I am not likely to want to sell this one any time soon, are spare barrels available?

 

[royke]

I am trying to get one now, and if I can get it, I will sell one...If this deal comes off, I will post the news here. Barrels are controlled in France, and none are here that I know of. It would be nice to be able to buy the parts, but I have not seen any, except repro grips and triple K mags. I think that I bought a recoil spring from Wolff Spring, IIRC, I had to send them the original and they came up with a replacement, BTW: unless you are an experienced armorer or gunsmith, do not disassemble the recoil guide rod/spring assembly....I had to examine it for several hours just to determine the method.....this was before I had access to the drawings of this fine pistol!! The same warning applies to the Mle 35 A & S pistols also..

Dale

Thanks for the warning about spring disassembly. Fortunately, the only thing that appears to be wrong on my pistol is bore condition.
The springs all feel quite strong, and the finish doesn't look too bad, a little faded, perhaps,
but no pitting. The grips look decent too.