Did I miss something? Please let me know.
Are you a collector or do you shoot yours?
It used to be that military surplus pistols were very well made and could be had at bargain prices, though supplies of them are dwindling and prices skyrocketing.
I've shot every one that I have brought home. And yes, the initial purchases were to get a well-made gun at a good price; however that has changed into the "collect for shooting" part.
I have 5 in 9x18 Makarov, 4 of which were surplus: East German Makarov, CZ 82, Polish P64, Hungarian PA 63. The 5th is a commercial doublestack Makarov.
Also have several variants of the CZ 27 in 7.65 (.32 acp), one marked with Czech writing and a DR (for German Railways), one with German markings, and one marked 'fnh'. Going to assume all are surplus WW2 from Germany.
A PHP MV9, the 'ugly duckling' P-38/HP hybrid from Croatia.
Have a Norinco T-54 Tokarev, with the aftermarket safety and a 9mm barrel, but with the wider ejection port and takes standard 7.62 magazines. I've heard both commercial and surplus/repurposed from the Chinese on that. That was my 1st pistol, gave me a working 9mm at $150, and the design at least got me interested in the surplus market.
What are we considering the police trade-ins? I have a pre-B CZ 75 that the vendor said was a Czech police trade-in, does that count? Also a couple of Berettas- a 92FS that was made for and shipped to the LAPD, and one of the recent 92S variants that was reputed to be Italian police trade ins.
Got a Star B Super, which came with manual and cleaning rod. I've heard this also was surplussed out, and has military acceptance stamps. For that matter, I most recently got in on the Star BM run, which were from the Civil Police in Spain. Not sure what to make of my Star 30MI from Interarms, I've heard that they were an over-run on a contract that was bought and marketed here.
Also- regarding Israeli stuff- all the various pistols coming in from there? Got a FEG 9HP, another CZ 75 pre B, and a Zastava CZ 99. I've heard those were Israeli PD, IDF, stuff like that. Heck, I have a W German Sig P226 in rough cosmetic condition, without a story but so rough that I wonder where it came from.
oh yeah, have a Mauser 1914 in 7.65, have little to no knowledge about it's original purpose. It's a fairly early one, I think when I dated it, it was 1916 or so. And yes, I've shot it and it shoots quite well. Feeds and cycles Fiocchi and PPU like butter, but Azoom snapcaps jam into the barrel. I guess it counts.
The one common, unifying theme: these are all metal (most are steel) framed guns, they work reliably, and they were designed to be a duty gun, if they didn't serve.
