View Full Version : The ugliest gun I love
First some dialogue then some pictures. My mentor was a great collector and was a infantry member of the big green machine know as the Berlin Brigade in the early 60s. His name was Joe Rothwell, he was a friend, a fountain of knowledge and move me to collecting WW1WW2, Korea, and Vietnam.....But ...he ...was mainly a friend. I would come over and Joe would drag out 4 or 6 guns and watch me squirm trying to figure what it was. He'd led me he'd tease me and eventually I got most. He would make coffee so strong my tongue rolled up and wouldn't work for minutes. Once he pulled out a beat up Steyr Hahn Model of 1912. He grinned big....bet you don't know what this is....Joe that is a Model of 1912 Steyr Hahn made in 1914 based on stamps.....silence....you know it replaced the Roth M7. Silence. You can have it. What. I'm dead inside three months, you are the only person that ever knew what it was I want you to have it and take care of it like your other stuff. yes sir and I'd be honored....we had went from joking to serious as it can get in 10 seconds.
On the gun:
The gun is a Steyr Hahn Model of 1912'. The year of manufacture was stamped on the left frame at rear. Serial numbers match and are 6269f. Wood grips worn, finish gone, survived pre WW2 German rebuild to 9mm. This is still in its original 9mm Steyr. Gun works and fires when the ammo can be found. One of main pistols used by Austrian Hungarian Empire. By all accounts it was well received and worked great. They had no faith in removable box magazines and stayed with a en bloc type system. Heavy and reliable but no 1911. Pictures:
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As for shooting it the grip angle is a little straight for my liking and one can see the one hand shooting style designed in it. The stripper clips must be polished for the roads to feed. The trigger has little take up but them breaks at 9 lbs. the gun is accurate. The 9mm Steyr is a little anemic but just gets the job done. From the side view it looks like the stripper clip bridge would interfere with sight picture....it does not. It is not as front heavy as I thought it would be, nevertheless it is front heavy.
Major Tom
11-22-2017, 08:04
Life is good with good friends! Well done!
It does have a cock and lock feature like the 1911 since its single action only. Lever up locked, lever down can be fired.4250542506
Kind of suspect that kind of stuff and the assorted low end 'pocket pistols' might be the last collector stuff.
Neat old guns... I just never came across one I could afford. I have been messing with Star Modelo Super's in 9MM Largo for 30 years and have owned a couple of Astra 400's. The Steyr should handle the same ammunition the Largo tolerates. The difference in rim diameter is .005 and IIRC the Largo case is also .005 shorter. They all shoot .355 bullets at about 1100 FPS. Largo cases are available or you can use .38 Super cases with largo data.
Another alternative is factory .38 super factory Product #: 111535 Fiocchi #: 38SA UPC #: 762344001791 from Midway... ammo that is loaded with 125 gr FMJ's to 1,180 FPS... that was the standard Spanish military loading for the 9MM Largo. My Star Modelo Super spits them out at 1100FPS over the chrono at 10 feet. It is nowhere near the .38 Super +P velocities of a few years ago. 7.0 grains of Unique will pretty much duplicate that. If you reload, I would recommend you start at 6.0 grs. of Unique and work up.
Thanks for your posts.
Neat old guns... I just never came across one I could afford. I have been messing with Star Modelo Super's in 9MM Largo for 30 years and have owned a couple of Astra 400's. The Steyr should handle the same ammunition the Largo tolerates. The difference in rim diameter is .005 and IIRC the Largo case is also .005 shorter. They all shoot .355 bullets at about 1100 FPS. Largo cases are available or you can use .38 Super cases with largo data.
Another alternative is factory .38 super factory Product #: 111535 Fiocchi #: 38SA UPC #: 762344001791 from Midway... ammo that is loaded with 125 gr FMJ's to 1,180 FPS... that was the standard Spanish military loading for the 9MM Largo. My Star Modelo Super spits them out at 1100FPS over the chrono at 10 feet. It is nowhere near the .38 Super +P velocities of a few years ago. 7.0 grains of Unique will pretty much duplicate that. If you reload, I would recommend you start at 6.0 grs. of Unique and work up.
Thanks for your posts.
Funny you mention the Astra 400 and the Stars. Joe had seversl with a ton of old surplus Spanish ammo. The guns were very accurate. The ammo was very hit and miss. We would shoot some that all went bang. The next box about one in three had dead primers. What we were shooting He bought it all at once at a gun show. He always claimed he ran into a lot of primer issues with the older Spanish stuff. Wonder if it was a storage issue or quality control issue. Joe liked that 9mm largo/9 Steyr stuff and was into them when ammo was dirt cheap. Some of the aluminum framed Stars bring pretty good coin now.
JB White
11-22-2017, 08:03
A. No ugly gun.
B. No wonder you love it.
Astra 400/600. Had one in 9mm 08. Now that's an ugly gun and ugly to shoot. Took less than a box of ammo to give me a sore wrist. I could handle a lot more 44 mags than I could with that 9mm.
jaie5070
11-23-2017, 05:21
Some times the best things are the ones with the memories and stories tied to them.
free1954
11-23-2017, 07:33
i always wanted one of those steyr pistols. as to the astra 400, I like to hand mine to someone to shoot and watch them try to cock it.
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Some times the best things are the ones with the memories and stories tied to them.
amen. I have a couple like that.
Former Cav
11-23-2017, 02:50
all my friends would go deer hunting with their nice and shiny Remingtons, Winchesters, Weatherbys, Brownings etc. A couple of them were "civilians" as in one fellows brother in law.
I brought my M1A springfield because it was all I had at that time.
They said "whats that?" I said "it is my UGLY stick but it works very well"
I had them shoot it and they fell in love with it, with the surplus stock (beat up) as I replaced the E-2 pistol grip stock I ordered it with back in 80.
A kid fired it and hit the target and says "wow, what is this?" GRIN
it is still one of my FAVORITE rifles.
And of course, "old slabsides" 1911 is my FAVORITE pistol and is my CCW.
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