[AZshooter]

My Dad has long regarded my arms accumulation as so much milsurp junk. He's still living in the 40's music-wise, so I'm sure visions of the 60's $12.99 Mauser still stick in his head. Anyway, if it's not a Smith, then it's junk & he's not much of a rifle fan (yet).

When I showed him my Llama Mini Max a few years ago, he proclaimed it money ill-spent. He finally & begrudgingly acknowledged my favorite Caspian / Series 70 build to be the finest 1911 he'd ever fired, and later built me a set of grips for it, using some old walnut from Great Grandad's iron foundry floor. But the Llama was just another low-end import to him.

He really didn't want to fire the Mini Max, since anything with a barrel "That Short" can't possibly be accurate enough to merit the waste of ammo thru it. about 50 rounds later, he had changed his mind (I'm guessing he did, since he kept asking for more ammo).

... After he fired it, and later that evening, he spent about an hour disassembling it and looking it over. For Christmas I got a set of foundry walnut grips for it.

Sure, accuracy isn't on par with my G-21 or one of several finely tuned 1911's, but it's awfully close - enough to get me another set of nicely made grips

 

[Bob In St. Louis]

Thanks for the story! It just goes to show you - it is often an uphill battle fighting the well entrenched myth of "soft Spanish steel".

 

[criticalbass]

Those grips are really something. Just the appearance alone is super, plus the family connection makes them incredible.

I wish my dad was still around to rag on my milsurp stuff. CB

 

[kidao35]

At least in my neck of the woods, you rarely see those "junk" Spanish pistols in shops and on gunshow tables.

You'd think if they were undesirable, there'd be turnover. I often see cheaper pistols like KelTec, Taurus, and Bersa being resold. I even see more Lorcins and Jennings being peddled, from dealers that dare to resell those bombs.

Maybe the owners of those "junk" Spanish pistols know something the "experts" don't?

 

[davidkachel]

The trick to acquiring junk, soft Spanish steel is to:

1. Perpetuate the myth whenever you can outside this forum
2. Haunt gun shops where the myth is very popular
3. Haunt pawn shops where the myth is also popular (look for breakage which is fairly common, easily fixed and can cut the price in half because they don't know there are parts available)
4. Don't eschew overpriced large sporting goods stores that sell used guns. Sometimes they get a soft steel believer doing the pricing who grossly underprices these guns. I got my last two in mint condition for stupidly low prices this way. The last one was so cheap, I sold the poorer condition example I already owned for $50 more than I paid for the pristine one they had. Got a much better condition gun AND put cash in my pocket. I love it.
Spanish steel is soft, dangerous and no good. (Pass it on!)