Spanish .32 ACP Who made this?

[tark]

I picked up this little fellow at Simpson's yesterday. It is a copy, I think, of an Astra patent. I was immediately impressed by the very high standards of polish, fit and finish. The gun breaks down easily into five parts, not including the magazine, which holds nine rounds!!
I especially like the captive recoil spring. The sights are worthless and the trigger is atrocious, but the safety is well positioned and easily manipulated with the hand in the firing position.

The left side of the slide bears the following markings: AUTOMATIC PISTOL "REPUBLIC" PATENT. Below that, Cal 7.65. The right side bears no markings. The serial # is stamped on the right side of the frame above the trigger. The numbers appear to be hand stamped one number at a time. They are not all level but they are evenly spaced. There are no other markings on the gun. The magazine is not numbered.

I have seen many a cheap, poor quality Spanish copies of other peoples guns, but this gun is neither cheap nor poor quality. It functions smoothly and shoots very well. I put 50 rounds through it when I got it home and it ate em' all without a bobble. The slide does not lock back after the last round. ( by design.)

Anybody out there know anything about this gun?

 

[lysanderxiii]

Hijos de Calixto Arrizabalaga of Eibar, Spain (Calixto Arrizabalaga and Sons, Eibar)

This company was contracted by France during WW1 to provide "Ruby" pistols, independently from Gabilondo y Urresti, the "original" Ruby pistol maker.

The quality and finish of these pistols is all over the place. Even in the Gabilondo y Urresti contracts there were eight different sub-contractors, with varying degrees of finish. France contracted another 40 or 50 other small firearms companies for these pistols, contracts were for a few hundred to a several thousand.

EDIT: One of the Arrizabalaga sons, or grandsons is still in business making bespoke shotguns

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

When you've got some time, check out this video:

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby!

Deep dive into one of Chappie's many perversions, namely his obsession with French Ruby pistols. Despite their somewhat undeserved tarnished reputation, they...

www.youtube.com

Also for grins, there's a cheap used copy of Zhuk's encyclopedia for sale right now on Amazon:

Amazon.com

I think he included more drawings of different Ruby variations in this book than anyone else.

 

[Bazoo]

When you've got some time, check out this video:

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby!

Deep dive into one of Chappie's many perversions, namely his obsession with French Ruby pistols. Despite their somewhat undeserved tarnished reputation, they...

www.youtube.com

Also for grins, there's a cheap used copy of Zhuk's encyclopedia for sale right now on Amazon:

Amazon.com

View attachment 1195649

I think he included more drawings of different Ruby variations in this book than anyone else.

Thanks for the suggestion, I've not seen that book before.

 

[5-SHOTS]

Looks like pistol number 37-276 to me.
That type of grips with that horizontal decoration, even on other models, always correspond to the name reported in the legend: Retolaza Hermanos o Gregorio Bolumburu.




Source: https://www.earmi.it/armi/atlas/atlas.htm#indice

 

[5-SHOTS]

37-308 is the "Republic" model from the Historical Atlas of hand guns by Edoardo Mori.



The slide serrations are different from the OP pistol, so are the grips. The tie ring, at the base of the grip, matches.


In my opinion the model listed as 37-276 made by Retolaza Hermanos o Gregorio Bolumburu, that I posted previously, is more matching to the OP pistol.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

One could collect nothing but Rubys for years and still probably never aquire every variation and manufacturer.

My Dad has a Gabilondo-marked example of nice quality. Being a rather large and heavy .32, it shoots very softly, eats anything, and is surprisingly accurate.

 

[lysanderxiii]

"Republic Patent" Cal 7.65" was the slide stamp for Arrizablaga, grip serrations vary within manufacturers

Might be a mash-up of parts, the French did keep them in service a long time....

 

[Jim Watson]

The Zhuk book is very handy.
Triple K clip and grip print catalogs showed a lot of uncommon pistols too.

 

[5-SHOTS]

"Republic Patent" Cal 7.65" was the slide stamp for Arrizablaga, grip serrations vary within manufacturers

Might be a mash-up of parts, the French did keep them in service a long time....

That corresponds 100% to the 37-308 pistol. Still slightly different from the OP pistol.

 

[tark]

"Republic Patent" Cal 7.65" was the slide stamp for Arrizablaga, grip serrations vary within manufacturers

Might be a mash-up of parts, the French did keep them in service a long time....

Looks like it is. The slide and the barrel have different numbers from the serial #

 

[Speedo66]

I had one of those style pistols, a Gaztanaga “Destroyer”, # 37-280 in the illustration in post #5 above.

Seemed well made, fired every time.

However, after a slam fire, and a discharge when dropped, I decided not to give it a third chance to kill me and sold it to a collector after making him aware of the issues.

 

[EMC45]

When you've got some time, check out this video:

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby!

Deep dive into one of Chappie's many perversions, namely his obsession with French Ruby pistols. Despite their somewhat undeserved tarnished reputation, they...

www.youtube.com

Also for grins, there's a cheap used copy of Zhuk's encyclopedia for sale right now on Amazon:

Amazon.com

View attachment 1195649

I think he included more drawings of different Ruby variations in this book than anyone else.

This book is AWESOME. It covers a lot of ground. I reference it frequently.