Grandma's Pistol

Hello world.  Long time no see.  The good news is my PhD should be complete within a month (knock on wood).  For the past 6 months I haven't really had a spare moment.  But now I have a quandry for the masses out there that know so much more than I.

My husband and I are down to visit family for the holidays and were talking firearms and such, as you do.  This afternoon, grandma brought down this little guy for us to check out.  It was brought back from Belgium by my grandfather after WWII.  She doesn't remember ever firing it.  She much prefers her .22

I'm hoping y'all can help us ID this little guy.  It's simply gorgeous!

No serial number we could find.  The markings say A. Francotte a Liege.  Which matches with origins in Belgium, but my googling is finding my mostly long guns and a few larger revolvers by Francotte.  Heck, I'm not even finding dates they manufactured.  Definite search failure for me.

So, can anyone tell us more about this little gun?  It's about 3.5 inches long, folding trigger, pearl grips...  I'll let you see the rest in the pictures.  Not the best, but it gives the basics.  I can take more or different pictures if they would be helpful.

  

Jayne Austen Book and Gun Club!

It's been a crazy summer with no time at the range or do more than just dream about shooting.  But I couldn't resist posting this after if made me giggle this morning.

Found on Facebook, original by leshoward on Flickr

What's not to love?  The orange hats, historical costuming (I have mentioned that's another crazy hobby of mine right?), and firearms!  Complete awesomeness, now to find my local chapter...

A day of going thunk

Several weeks ago husband and I went on a date.  It was glorious to get out and enjoy the sun and good company.  We headed south to check out the archery range at the game preserve.  This time with bows in tow!

Despite it being a Saturday with weather to die for, we had the place to ourselves.  And what a place it is!  The front/static range has 10 targets ranging from 10 to 60 yards.  As neither of us had gotten much string time in the last year we started at the 15 and 20 yd range.  Just to make sure things were going well and to knock off the rust.  We did well, hitting the targets at least, if not precisely where we hoped.

Then we headed over to play at the the 40-60yd ranges.  Well...this is where the rust started to show!  My first bolt fell well short and the husband didn't fare much better.  My second gave a resounding thunk.  Unfortunately it wasn't the nice soft thunk of a good target bag hit.  Rather the hard, worrisome think that meant I had hit the wood frame.  At that point, I expected to lose a tip at least, if not have a broken bolt. 

And then I fell in love...

So, in actuality, this was the third gun I shot on ladies night, but the story goes better if I tell you about it last.  Here's what you've been waiting for!

Isn't it pretty?  Ok, I know pretty isn't really important, but in addition to pretty, this gun fits perfectly in my hands.   In fact, it's the first single stack pistol I've every had fit my hands well.  The magazine was easy to load.

Thinking about it just now, I don't know that I've ever read anyone else commenting on the differences in magazines.  Maybe it's just me, but some of them are not so simple to load.  Take the M&P for example, after I get the first round in it's no real problem, but that first round is a struggle for me! 

Right, so back to the EMP.  Yes, that's a Springfield EMP.  It's their scaled down 1911 for 9mm rounds.  Others far more knowledgeable that I have gone through how Springfield modified the 1911 basics to make this little guy, so I'll let you read those for more detail.  Here, here, and here.

All I can tell you is what I saw and felt in the 5 shots I got.  The sights were fabulous, easy to see and aim.  The trigger was smooth, soft, and easy to pull.  More so than perhaps anything I've shot I found that I didn't think about the trigger pull.  I'm not sure how my grouping was, since the targets were pretty well used...but my last round I aimed for an un-marred part of a target and lucky shot of not, that bullet went right where I wanted it to!

But, no matter how much I loved it, I can't justify the price right now.  Especially considering that I can get two other guns for that price.  Sigh...I'll put it on the dreaming list and rent it if I get the chance. 

Girls Night - The Toys

 

So, I know you've been anxiously waiting to hear about the guns I played with at Ladies Night right?  No?  Well, I'm going to tell you anyway.


Glock 19: Yes, I've shot several Glocks before.  They feel very comfy in my hand, I'm reasonably accurate with them, etc.  I started with this for those exact reasons.  It gave me a base to compare everything else to.

Kahr P9: I knew picking this up that I wasn't going to love it, but I keep trying small things and figure one day I'll be better with them.  It had some pretty descent kick, not terrible, but not something I'd consider fun shooting either. 

S&W Lady Smith .38:  Yeah, not my cup of tea.  LONG double action only trigger.  It wasn't heavy, just long.  The grip just felt all wrong in my hands.  Don't know why, just felt awkward.  I'd definitely like to try other revolvers in the future, but this little pink thing is not for me. 

XDm 9:  I'd shot an XD compact previously that belongs to M's husband. I knew I liked it, so tried out the XDm full size just for kicks.  It's super comfy for me and easy to shoot, but definitely larger than I want in my everyday gun.  The XDm compact is on my short list though.

#5: The mystery gun... 

So, which gun did I fall in love with?  I think that can wait one more day don't you?