My Second Ruby

[Aragorn243]

Thank you for the clarification, you are correct. Mine would appear to be an early French military pistol with added rivet.

"Some of the French ordered pistols got a rivet in the slide like Rubys did to prevent the safety from being disengaged when put in the holster"

The military pistols also had the simplified line after the first batch ran out.

[Aragorn243]

I actually have a book that these are mentioned in. Shows several different variations including mine except for the grips but records are sketchy. Apparently pretty low numbers accepted by the French military, around 18,000 most in the 400,000-420,000 serial range. That puts mine in one of the last 4000 made before the Germans took over. Not all of the 18,000 got the rivets but these ensure this was part of the military contract as there are no other markings for French acceptance. The Germans produced another 30,000 and then a further 20,000 with an exposed hammer.

[Aragorn243]

My Unique is now complete. Sarco had original magazines and the one I ordered came yesterday. Oddly enough, their photos of the magazines show very rough example, pitting, rust, missing finish. What I got was a used but very good one. Some light finish loss, no pitting, a tiny bit of orange rust that came off with two swipes of steel wool. If I'd known they were actually in that condition, i might have bought two. The Ruby mags work so I'll just keep them.

[Sapper740]

Isn't this discussion akin to arguing a German Pistole 640(b) isn't a Belgian GP35 which isn't an Inglis BHP?