French MAB Brevete Model D 7.65mm

[cwo4uscgret]

The wife and I spent the weekend at a gun show in the small resort town of Houghton Lake, MI, north of Saginaw off I-75. Sold one rifle and bought yet another smaller "pocket" pistol.

This is an interesting French MAB Brevete Model D chambered in 7.65mm aka .32 acp. An interesting history this model; MAB stands for Manufacture d'Armes de Bayonne and was made (in .32) from 1933 till 1963. It was also made in .380. During WWII when the Germans occupied France one of the cities that the laid claim to was Bayonne, mainly for the MAB factory.

Due to the war, there were several manufacturing runs that resulted in duplicate serial numbers; the real distinguishing clue to when a particular gun was made is the type of pistol; there are two variants. Type I pistols have a take down lever on the bottom front of the slide that fits into a notch on the barrel nut. Serial numbers for the Brevete Model D started in 1933 at serial number 10750; mine is 38648 so I assume it was pre-WWII made. Type Is were made until 1945; Type IIs until the end of production. My gun is a type I; not sure of the manufacture date; many of the German WWII guns have Waffenamt acceptance marks and usually the French government issued guns (Police, Bank of France), etc. were marked with alpha characters such as BF for the Bank of France…mine is devoid of marks other then serial number and model info. The holster has an unreadable name inside the flap and a stamped number. The magazine is interesting; it isn't a MAB factory magazine; it is marked in a script inside an oval FN 7.65.

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