Videos tagged with Esperanza y Unceta

This review of the Spanish Astra 400, presented by Mae, highlights its physical specifications, including a weight of 2.31 lbs and an 8.9-inch length. The pistol uses a stiff-to-rack slide, an 8-round magazine in 9mm Largo, and features both a grip safety and a manual lever. The presenter notes substantial recoil and a heavy trigger break, concluding that the Astra 400 illustrates the advantages of locked-breech designs over heavy blowback pistols.

This video provides an expert-level deep dive into the rare Ecia Model 1930 family of Spanish pistols, presented by Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons. The Ecia pistols were designed by Juan Esperanza as direct competitors to Astra models, featuring double-action-only (DAO) and striker-fired mechanisms, contrasting with Astra's single-action hammer-fired designs. The video details their technical specifications, visual identification markers, and the reasons behind their commercial failure, highlighting their extreme rarity today.

This review details the rare Alkar Cartridge Counter pistol, a .25 ACP vest pocket pistol produced by Alkartasuna SA. It highlights the unique mechanical cartridge counter visible through grip windows and an unusual grip safety that requires manual resetting. The pistol's history is tied to former Astra employees and its production period around 1919-1920.

This review delves into the rare French Union automatic pistol, distinguishing it from Spanish variants and highlighting its high-quality construction from around 1925. The video focuses on unique configurations, including selective-fire models and the exceptionally rare 35-round horseshoe magazine patented in 1930, with very few believed to exist. Technical details, markings, and ergonomic considerations of this unusual firearm are thoroughly examined.

The Campo-Giro M1913 was Spain's first domestically produced self-loading service pistol, designed by Venancio Lopez de Ceballos y Aguirre and adopted in 1912. Despite its historical significance, it was complex to operate and maintain, featuring a unique half-cock safety and a difficult disassembly process. Production was limited, and it was soon replaced by the Astra 400, making the early 1913 pattern a rare find.