The 400, if it is original and in good condition. By a wide margin, if it is very high conditioned. ( 95% or better ) Ammo is no problem. I pull the bullets from Supers, turn off the semi-rim, drop the charge by 15% and re-assemble.Which one is worth the most?
Can tell you first hand (forgive the pun), anything in a 9mm. in a straight blowback gun like the Astra Model 400 is just a bad idea. Add to this I don't know if 9mm. Largo is still readily available, how much it costs, or how old most of it is.
Oh, sure, just THAT easy! Lol.The 400, if it is original and in good condition. By a wide margin, if it is very high conditioned. ( 95% or better ) Ammo is no problem. I pull the bullets from Supers, turn off the semi-rim, drop the charge by 15% and re-assemble.
Love my 600! Dont love it enough to bother with Largo in a 400, though.I picked the Astra 400 because I've already got a 600 and it's lonesome for its little brother.
New production 9mm Largo is available from Steinel's and reasonably priced. Sorry for your bad experience; my experience with my 600 is just fine. I needed to put in a new magazine spring to get it to function reliably, but that's a common problem with these old guns. That being said, my recommendation for someone wanting to try an Astra would be to start with the 600, which chambers 9 mm Parabellum.
New production 9mm Largo is available from Steinel's and reasonably priced. Sorry for your bad experience; my experience with my 600 is just fine. I needed to put in a new magazine spring to get it to function reliably, but that's a common problem with these old guns. That being said, my recommendation for someone wanting to try an Astra would be to start with the 600, which chambers 9 mm Parabellum.
I know weve differed on the delights of the blowback Astras before )), but I forget if you mentioned whether yours had new recoil and hammer springs installed? The first thing I did when I got mine was install a Wolff spring kit and the recoil is quite mild, IMO. The only time its an issue is when someone dry-fires it and the internal hammer is down- then its a real bear to chamber the first new round. Honestly, I think the hammer spring geometry provides the majority of the blowback resistance in those guns......I just leave mine cocked all the time.wiscoaster
On most occasions when I did muster up the nerve to shoot my Astra 600, I considered myself fortunate enough to make it to 50 rounds before my right hand wanted to call it quits. All that mass of metal coming straight back into the web of your hand is just not a fun way to spend an afternoon at the range!
Likewise your more than welcome to all the Astra 400s and 600s you can find. My last Astra was a Cub in .22 Short and that was fine with me!
No. I had feeding issues right off the bat but that's typical for old guns. I did the usual cleaning and polishing, etc and finally was able to get a magazine spring to give those rounds a little more speed and oomph up and out when picked up. That did the trick. I leave mine cocked as well; like you said, it's a bitch racking against that uncocked hammer. Otherwise, shooting is just fine. And I don't really think it's got all that much recoil, blowback considering....but I forget if you mentioned whether yours had new recoil and hammer springs installed? ...
Which one is worth the most?
I got lucky and all 3 of my magazines seem pretty healthy. One is even serialized to the gun-No. I had feeding issues right off the bat but that's typical for old guns. I did the usual cleaning and polishing, etc and finally was able to get a magazine spring to give those rounds a little more speed and oomph up and out when picked up. That did the trick. I leave mine cocked as well; like you said, it's a bitch racking against that uncocked hammer. Otherwise, shooting is just fine. And I don't really think it's got all that much recoil, blowback considering.
Here's three, NIGHTLORD40K. All three are 95% guns. The 400 and the 600 are rather unpleasant to shoot for an extended range session. A lot of recoil for a 9mm. The checkering on the grips is quite sharp and it almost chews the skin right off of your hands. Gloves greatly help. And I never did answer the OPs original question.dont know if Ive ever seen a really high condition example