It’s not about how many guns you have.  It’s more about how much ammo you’ve got. (Part 1)

My interest in firearms doesn’t follow the traditional enthusiast path.  Most are people focused on a certain period or a specific manufacturer,  maybe guns from historical events, maybe even the purist following the evolution of the Boom-Stick. 

I don’t look for any firearms in specific, instead, they sort of find me.  Different manufacturing nuances, sometimes ties to history, always quirky and curio. The best are the ones that pop up on my radar when I’m falling down the rabbit hole chasing something else.

As such, I end up with a lot of different calibers.  So before we get into my favorite pieces that I find fun and funky, let’s explore the calibers that feed my mostly C&R friends.

Let’s start with pistol ammo from small to large. Note: I’m using mostly metric, and ammo size nomenclature is the diameter of the bullet x the overall length of the cartridge.

7.62×25

Commonly called Tokarev ammo. Because that is about the only pistol I know that uses it. The Russians first introduced the Tokarev as their standard military sidearm with the TT33 (in 1933). But it was more for convivence, as the 7.62×25 was the standard for the Russian’s suite of submachine guns and it was only natural to have one round for everything. Kind of obsolete, but still used a lot by the Chinese.

The T33 was cloned by every satellite country in the Soviet block. I’ve got a Romanian example true to the original, and a Yugo M57 which runs a little larger in the frame and clip (and is still in production with a 9mm barrel). Both are circa the early 1960s.

9×18

Once again leave it to the Russians to come up with a round that is uniquely Soviet and one millimeter shorter than the world standard. Know as the Makarov, it was introduced in the early 1950s to insured not one of their soldiers would be using any NATO spec ammo. It was used primarily by the police and KGB and is still in use today.

I have both a Polish P64 (which is basically a Walter PPK clone). along with a Czechoslovakian CZ82 (former police sidearm). The former is super compact and only holds six rounds. The latter fat and doubled stacked at 13+1. The P64 is from the mid-1960s and the CZ82 is from 1982 (kind of intuitive from the model naming nomenclature). This is one of those cases where you can have a C&R-eligible firearm that is not the mandatory 50 years old to quality per the ATFE.

9×19

Most common pistol and light machine gun cartridge in the world, produced from 1902 to the present. And the NATO standard. It goes by many names: 9×19, 9mm, 9mm Luger, 9mm Para, and 9mm Parabellum. Parabellum is the second half of a Latin phrase: ‘Si vis pacem, para bellum.’ Which translates to If you want peace, then [prepare for] war. So, parabellum on its own means prepare for war.”

For the most common caliber in the world, I have only one piece that chambers it. It’s a mid-1950s Star Super A that was originally chambered in 9mm Largo that I swapped a 9mm Para barrel into. That will be a fun post.

9×23

Normally called 9×23 Largo because Spain was the only country that adopted this round when it came out in 1905. The technical name is 9mm Bergmann–Bayard, but Largo says it’s longer than a standard 9mm with a Spanish flair and fewer letters. The Spanish had the Danish making firearms for them in this round until the mid-1930s when they went local with arms manufacturer Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A.

Star folded in 1997, but made many small arms and I’m happy to own several examples. I have several Star Super A’s in a couple of configurations. All from the mid-1950s. I’ve had two of them professionally hot-blued and they are really beautifully made pistols. You’ll see they are kind of a merge between a Colt 1911 and the Browning Hi-Power. Just wait.

380 ACP

Now we are back to inches. The round is .380 in diameter. ACP stands for Automatic Colt Pistol (a standard, like VHS, was because it beat out Beta). I have one pistol in this caliber which is a Star SS. Interestingly enough the person I bought the pistol from incorrectly read the date code under the grip. This was manufactured in 1992, just before Star went bankrupt over in Spain. Didn’t fall under the 50-year C&R rule, but not my mistake. Compact, all metal, has great grips and is easy to carry.

45 ACP

45 caliber says it all. Go big or go home. The clip doesn’t hold much, but this round makes up for it in knockdown power. As an American, I almost felt required to have one in the stable.

I also went with a big name: Kimber. The actual model is called a Custom Defense Pro II (CDP2). Kind of a package thing with upgraded tritium night sights and rosewood grips. The serial number decodes to an October of 2001 production date. This was a private purchase from a law enforcement friend. Very few rounds thru it, but you need to hold it pretty tight when throwing lead downrange. Leaves big holes in the paper.

26.5mm

And although they are not technically firearms, I do have 26.5mm European flare guns in the collection. I have examples of Yugoslavian, Czechoslovakian, German, and Polish flare pistols. It’s really fun shooting military surplus parachute flares on New Year’s. Makes the neighbors wonder what goes on in my house.

But I also have the rare RV85 ‘flare rifle’. These were allowed to be imported as a normal 26.5mm flare gun. Just over 2500 were made at the BRNO factory in the Czech Republic in 1985-86. They were contracted by Romanian special police forces to accurately fire a concrete barrier-penetrating grenade (to the great detriment of whoever was on the other side).

About 1000 got into the States before the ATFE figured it was more than a ‘flare gun’ and was just begging to be misused. I will have many, many posts about the RV85. It is just plain scary looking, with some of the best machine work I’ve ever seen.

Here is a little video so you can put images to some of these rounds.

The post is getting a little lengthy, so I’ll save long gun ammunition for another time.