A very little bit. I found this Colt .25 Automatic at the gun store the other day.
When the pistol was first introduced in the late 1950s, it was manufactured for Colt by the Spanish company, Astra. This arrangement lasted until 1968, when the federal government banned the import of non-sporting arms. After 1968, parts were imported from Spain, and the pistol (which had now dropped the "Junior") was assembled for Colt by Florida-based FIE. The line was discontinued in 1973, although FIE continued to manufacture them under another name into the 1980s.
The pistol I bought is clean as a whistle; I'm not sure it was ever fired. It has what are obviously after-market plastic "bone" grips, which make the little gun easier for me to latch onto. I haven't taken it to the range, yet, due to the rain we've been having, but when I do, I'll report back.
In keeping with my hobby of taking photos of abandoned buildings and other structures, we took the back road home to Southport from Wilmington because I wanted to get a couple of shots of something I have seen many times before. The road (hwy 133) runs, for the most part, between large tracts of pine forest, which have been partially cleared, here and there (I think the land is owned by a paper company). One drives for mile after mile, the land on each side fenced in, and the occasional grass-covered or gravel road that turns off of 133 is always gated, and the gate locked.
I suppose some of the land was once used for something besides harvesting pine trees, because I found this dilapidated old barn (click to enlarge)...
I've never fired a .25 ACP, but (having seen the cartridges) I expect it's similar to a .22LR; your report should be interesting! As a self-defense weapon, I have my doubts, unless one is shooting at the tender parts of someone's anatomy ......
ReplyDeleteOn the barn ... ... looks quite old (duh!), but I'd guess it was built just before or after WWII. That's from the condition of the wood, assuming you have a higher humidity there. Barns here, built before WWI, are still standing, but not very well.
Driving past old abandoned homesteads (and there are a LOT of them in the west), one has to wonder who lived there, and how they faired trying to make a home. Sometimes there are newer homes near by, so that's an easy guess. But sometimes they are out in the middle of nowhere, and look quite forlorn. One may never know ....
It's a nice piece, I mostly buy guns I think are cool too, but... If you shoot someone with that, you'd better hope they don't find out.
ReplyDeleteThis guy has the same hobby
http://everybodyhastobesomewhere.blogspot.com
It's a cool blog with pictures of middle and western Canada.
I like the pics of roads and abandoned schools and churches even though that last two are sorta depressing. At one time, those buildings meant a lot to people, now they're just sitting there.
Jeff: There's just no recoil at all on my other little .25 pistol (the Colt 1908 Vest Pocket); I imagine this one will be the same. Definitely not a primary defensive firearm; maybe it could be a backup to a backup.
ReplyDeleteVeeshir: Cool web site! Thanks for providing the link.
V: Incidentally, the grain silo ("Paradise Hill") looks almost exactly like one that stands along a road that runs from Emporia to Virginia Beach (Hwy 58, I think). It used to have a big hand lettered sign at ground level that read "For sale: dog food, deer corn, shotgun shells". Everything you need!
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of places around here that I wish I had thought to take pictures of before they disappeared forever. I still remember them (for the most part) but the younger folks who never saw them will never know about them, or what they looked like. On the other hand, most of them probably have no interest in what happened in the past, so it probably would have been a wasted effort.
ReplyDeleteIn 1960, my hometown was named in a nationwide promotion campaign by Ford Motor Company as "Ford Town USA". Every resident had the chance to get a new Ford car to drive for a week. Now, they have an annual car show and other activities to commemorate the event, but I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be much interest from the younger people. I guess it's "ancient history" to them.
Yes, there were several old homes around Brunswick County that I had intended to take pictures of, but he who hesitates is lost, as they say, and the things were torn down before I knew what had happened.
ReplyDeleteA free new car to drive for a week? What a sweet deal! I guess it wouldn't be so sweet now, unless they threw in the gasoline.
Well, they were all 1960 Fords, so....
ReplyDeleteWasn't 007's first pistol a .25 Beretta? A gun guy schooled Ian Fleming and he changed it.
ReplyDeleteOhio is a great place to find old barns and old houses. They're everywhere, and some of them are still in use, especially if you go north toward Amish country.
ReplyDeleteI had been readIng Daniel Silva's thriller and espionage series that focuses on Israeli intelligence. Gabriel Allon is the main protagonist, an assassin and art restorer, he uses a .22-caliber Beretta pistol. I don't really know guns, but his kills tended to be tap-tap, two bullets in the head at close range.
ReplyDeleteGeorge: Right you are!
ReplyDeletetom: I read somewhere that assassins like .22 pistols and revolvers for "close up" work: quieter, easier to conceal, and, in the hands of an expert, deadly at close range.
Of course, this doesn't always work out the way hitmen plan. I saw a true crime show on tv in which a gangster was set up by somebody for a hit, the shooter came in, shot the target in the head, and the target got up, took the gun away from the guy and either killed him or knocked him out (can't remember). The bullet had gone in the back of the man's head, skirted his skull, come all the way around to the front, and lodged in the fleshy part of his forehead.
To be clear, it was a .22lr.
ReplyDeleteThe .22LR is most effective when fired into a specific point on a skull, other the bullet will lose much of its energy. Ask anyone who butchers cattle.
ReplyDeleteThat’s how I learned it. Watching cattle being butchered in our pasture, I mean.