Finally found them

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The FN looks like it has NOT been converted to 380 ACP. That is good, IMO. 9mm Browning Long is not as easy to get as 380, but it's not as bad as 8mm Nambu or 7.65mm French Long. PRVI Partizan seems to manufacture it, and there is a lot of Norma ammo from the 1980's* still around.

The grip shape is nothing special, the sights are small, and recoil is greater than you would think because of the heavy slide, but they are good guns. To me, their main flaw is that the magazine only holds 7 rounds, the same as a 1911. If you're going to accept a smaller, less powerful round in a pistol nearly as big, at least you should get more of them. :)

*Fun fact: The Swedish Army discovered that Lahti frames were cracking in the 1980's. Therefore, the Swedes retired them and put the 1907's back in service for a few years while they decided on a new pistol. So they made a bunch of fresh ammunition for them, then sold it on the US surplus market when they got the new pistols.
 
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Monac said:
The FN looks like it has NOT been converted to 380 ACP. That is good, IMO. 9mm Browning Long is not as easy to get as 380, but it's not as bad as 8mm Nambu or 7.65mm French Long. PRVI Partizan seems to manufacture it, and there is a lot of Norma ammo from the 1980's* still around. The grip shape is nothing special, and recoil is greater than you would think because of the heavy slide, but they are good guns.

*Fun fact: Lahti frames began cracking in the 1980's. Therefore, the Swedes retired them and put the 1907's back in service for a few years while they decided on a new pistol. So they made a bunch of fresh ammunition for it, then sold it on the US surplus market when they got the new pistols.
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It has been converted to .380.
 
Lahtis go for a fortune now. I remember seeing ads in Guns and Guns& Ammo years ago ('60s?) advertising them for less than $40.
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
Hope my kids are that grateful when I turn 50!

Your Dad must have been a great guy, Jeff.

I gave my Dad an INA Tiger .38 last year, suddenly I dont feel like such a good son.......:confused:

Oh well, he seemed to like it. At least it was something he didnt have yet, which is tough as he also has a large collection, lol.
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I didn't know anything about them back then. It was a deal to me. Otherwise he was going to get another A5. I thought 2 were better than one. Besides, I still owed him for the Sako he gave me on my 16th birthday.
 
Monac said:
The FN looks like it has NOT been converted to 380 ACP. That is good, IMO. 9mm Browning Long is not as easy to get as 380, but it's not as bad as 8mm Nambu or 7.65mm French Long. PRVI Partizan seems to manufacture it, and there is a lot of Norma ammo from the 1980's* still around.

The grip shape is nothing special, the sights are small, and recoil is greater than you would think because of the heavy slide, but they are good guns. To me, their main flaw is that the magazine only holds 7 rounds, the same as a 1911. If you're going to accept a smaller, less powerful round in a pistol nearly as big, at least you should get more of them. :)

*Fun fact: The Swedish Army discovered that Lahti frames were cracking in the 1980's. Therefore, the Swedes retired them and put the 1907's back in service for a few years while they decided on a new pistol. So they made a bunch of fresh ammunition for them, then sold it on the US surplus market when they got the new pistols.
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Isn't 7.65 French long the same as .32 long?
 
Jeff olson said:
Isn't 7.65 French long the same as .32 long?
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No, after the First World War, the French wanted to replace pretty much all their small arms, including pistols, and they wanted to replace the ammunition too. So they developed a new 7.65mm/32 caliber automatic pistol cartridge. Oddly, it seems to have been based the cartridge the US Army developed for the "Pedersen Device", a secret weapon that never saw action. It was longer than 32 ACP, aka 7.65mm Browning, aka 7.65x17mmSR (the SR stands for Semi-Rimmed - the Pedersen cartridge and the resulting French cartridge were rimless) and fired a heavier bullet at a higher velocity, but it was nothing to write home about. It is called 7.65x20mm in the European system.

Nobody else thought it was a good idea, so hardly any other guns were made for it, and all the ammo went to the French military and police. The French sold the guns on the US surplus market decades ago, but nobody has ever mass produced the ammo since, so it is pretty hard to get.

There is a thread going on in the Automatic Pistol forum now about the TT-33 Tokarev pistol. It is odd that the pistols the Soviets and the French adopted in the 1930's had a number of similarities: both were 30/32 caliber, both were derived from the Browning 1911 design, both of them ditched the grip safety and the sear safety (the French put in a hammer block safety catch, the Russians had no safety at all), both of them had "packaged" removable firing mechanisms. Quite strange.
 
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Monac

Fun fact: The Swedish Army discovered that Lahti frames were cracking in the 1980's.
Click to expand...

In J.B. Wood's book "Trouble Shooting Your Handgun", he makes mention of the fact that the Lahti made use of an accelerator so the gun would function in extreme cold weather conditions. He suggested that in warm weather climates (or with the use of hotter loads), the accelerator wasn't really needed and should be removed. He wrote: "At very low temperatures, thickened oil and retarded ignition can cause ejection problems. To offset this, Lahti added a small pivoting lever at the forward lower edge of the barrel extension. At the instant the rear movement of the extension unlocks the bolt, the lower arm of the accelerator strikes a shoulder in the frame, causing it's upper arm to deliver a sharp rap to the forward edge of the bolt". It was his contention that the continued use of the accelerator over time would cause a crack to form in the barrel extension.
 
Jeff

Two great looking and interesting pistols to have gifted to your father 30 years ago! Oddly enough I can remember seeing both those particular guns in a gun shop that I use to frequent back then! I especially liked the clean, stylish lines of the FN Model 1903/Husqvarna M/1907 and the matte blue finish they used on it.
 
Coyote3855 said:
Lahti AKA the iron stove.
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Known to who, Coyote3855? The Swedes, the Finns, or both?

If they were complaining about the Lahti's size and weight, I understand. I had one for a while, and I always thought that while it would have made a nice .45, it was just too big and heavy for a 9mm. It is startling to put one side by side with a Luger. Beautifully made, though. Mine was Swedish.
 
I bought myself a new carry pistol for my 50th, wife bought me an AR. Not nearly as cool as what you have there.

-jeff
 
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