Unique Corsair .22LR

Speedo66 · May 11, 2022

This was given to a friend after the owner passed away.

It’s a Unique Corsair, made in France, in .22LR. It has adjustable sights, front and rear, the front, when loosened, pivots front to back to adjust height.

You can see that the grips are destroyed, turns out the plastic they used self destructs with no help needed. Every thread I’ve read mentions this. Wonder if they were Tenite?

The rest of the gun is flawless to the point I’m not sure the gun was ever fired. Blueing perfect, not a scratch. Gun appears to be very well made.

They were imported by Firearms Int’l. out of DC, long gone. Also sold under the J.C. Higgins brand (Sears), and M. Wards.

I found original grips listed with a parts dealer, but feared the same result, so ordered polymer repros from Triple-K. Let’s hope their magazine reputation doesn’t extend to grips.

I hadn’t seen this gun before, figured I’d put it up here for your perusal.

Like to hear about anyone’s experience with these guns.

Rule3 · May 11, 2022

Nice!

I Tried searching and searching for info on Unique firearms, hard to find anything.

CoalCrackerAl · May 11, 2022

Interesting pistol you have. If you can't find grips. Might be time to test your wood working skills.

Speedo66 · May 11, 2022

CoalCrackerAl said:
Interesting pistol you have. If you can't find grips. Might be time to test your wood working skills.

As I mentioned, it now belongs to a friend.

The grips are one piece, I'm certainly not talented enough to make something like that out of wood.

These are the grips I ordered for him: https://vintagegungrips.com/shop/unique-escort-corsair-pistol-1-piece/

CoalCrackerAl · May 11, 2022

I miss read it was a friends. Good to see you found grips too.

Speedo66 · May 11, 2022

CoalCrackerAl said:
I miss read it was a friends. Good to see you found grips too.

I can see where the ownership could be mistaken. It was just given to him few days ago by a relative of the deceased. Looks to be the typical dresser drawer gun, just surprised the blueing held up so well.

Speedo66 · May 11, 2022

Another picture, back of the one piece grip, and some more documents that came with the gun. Notice there is no zip code on the guarantee, they started in July of 1963, so I figure this gun was made before that.

Small pieces of the grip were breaking off even as I was handling the gun.

Edit: The yellow paper is the certificate of testing from the Paris proof house.

easy · May 11, 2022

Price on the triple K grips has gone UP in the last year! Don't loose the grip screws, they are more than $9 each!

Worked on one for a friend not too long ago. Mag release is really tough if the hammer is cocked. Gun is ok just not great. Your new grips will require a little fitting.

doubleh · May 12, 2022

Speedo66 said:
This was given to a friend after the owner passed away.

I though that sentence made it pretty plain that you weren't the owner. Thanks for the post as I got to see a firearm that I have never heard of before.

Speedo66 · May 12, 2022

easy said:
Price on the triple K grips has gone UP in the last year! Don't loose the grip screws, they are more than $9 each!

Worked on one for a friend not too long ago. Mag release is really tough if the hammer is cocked. Gun is ok just not great. Your new grips will require a little fitting.

Question about removing/replacing the grips: is anything going to fly out when the balance of the grips are removed? Based on your experience with this gun, anything else I should know about what's under the grips?

Thanks!

I found the magazine catch spring to be pretty strong, hard to move the catch just to insert the magazine. Also found out it has a magazine safety, i.e., cannot drop the hammer with the trigger without a magazine in the gun.

Monac · May 12, 2022

If ytou search for unique corsair magazine on Ebay, there are a couple of spare magazines for this gun. Neither of them match the ones in Speedo66's photo above, so they may be reproductions. One is $50 and one is $96 (!). There are also a couple of pages from magazine published in 1959 with ads for Firearms International, the importer of the Corsair. They give a price of $64.50 for the Corsair, and $50 for the Star Model F (Star's fixed sight 22 target automatic).

There are more spare magazines on GunBroker, at slightly lower prices, but they are all explicitly Triple K repros.

NIGHTLORD40K · May 12, 2022

Uniques are just that, quirky, yet generally well-made guns. A number were issued to German pilots, military police, and other rear-echelon troops after the occupation of France.

easy · May 12, 2022

Speedo66 said:
Question about removing/replacing the grips: is anything going to fly out when the balance of the grips are removed? Based on your experience with this gun, anything else I should know about what's under the grips?

Thanks!

I found the magazine catch spring to be pretty strong, hard to move the catch just to insert the magazine. Also found out it has a magazine safety, i.e., cannot drop the hammer with the trigger without a magazine in the gun.

No surprises. Grips are just cover for the frame. Take down is a little odd by US standards but is really pretty simple.

FL-NC · May 13, 2022

My first guess was that the gun was in/near a fire and the grips melted.

Speedo66 · May 13, 2022

easy said:
No surprises. Grips are just cover for the frame. Take down is a little odd by US standards but is really pretty simple.

Thanks, glad to hear there will no attempted escapes by springs.

They give the take down info in the flyer that came with the gun, have to go over it with the new owner.

Speedo66 · May 13, 2022

FL-NC said:
My first guess was that the gun was in/near a fire and the grips melted.

When I first saw it, I thought fire, a bad drop, a dog ate it, etc. But from the first I read about it, everyone mentions cracked grips from just aging.

gobsauce · May 13, 2022

Speedo66 said:
When I first saw it, I thought fire, a bad drop, a dog ate it, etc. But from the first I read about it, everyone mentions cracked grips from just aging.

Probably not stabilized, as it looks like polymer.

Carl N. Brown · May 13, 2022

Unique Corsair Model D2E2
"UNIQUE A firearms manufacturer located in France from 1923 to 2006."
aka Manufacture d'Armes des Pyrenees

. Wonder if they were Tenite?
I have heard horror stories about plastic stocks warping or disintegrating if left in the sun. Mostly the very early Koons Snake Charmer .410 shotgun.
But I have a late 1940s Savage/Stevens 94 shotgun with a Tenite stock and it is still pretty sound. I have seen a broken Tenite stock on a Savage .22/.410 but it was a clean fracture, no crumbling.

"Mag release is really tough if the hammer is cocked."
It looks like the hammer spring powers the magazine catch, so if the hammer is cocked, there's extra pressure.
The Unique Corsair parts schematic is at https://www.gunpartscorp.com/gun-manufacturer/unique/corsair

Jimbo80 · May 13, 2022

I have handled some Uniques but have never owned one. I would love to own that gun. It's cool that you can get grips. I have TK grips on a few guns and they are fine. Walnut repros would look really good on it. Wonder if anyone makes them?

Speedo66 · May 14, 2022

Jimbo80 said:
I have handled some Uniques but have never owned one. I would love to own that gun. It's cool that you can get grips. I have TK grips on a few guns and they are fine. Walnut repros would look really good on it. Wonder if anyone makes them?

I looked, was hoping to find wood, by no success. They make them for other Unique models, but not the Corsair.

Probably has to do with the 3 sided one piece design.

PzGren · May 15, 2022

The original model designation was Unique D.2 to D.6, they were named Corsair by the American importer and they are traditionally manufactured firearms that are sturdy and pretty well made. I have had quite a few pass through my hands and, while I had cracked grips, have not had one with a grip that was crumbling away when handled.

Those guns shoot surprisingly well and the longer barreled versions, D.6 called Brigant by the importer, can be considered entry level match guns.

Slamfire · May 15, 2022

Speedo66 said:
View attachment 1077932 View attachment 1077933 View attachment 1077934
Small pieces of the grip were breaking off even as I was handling the gun.

Grips were probably made of cellulose. Incidentally, gunpowder is also cellulose, (plus herbs and spices!) but of a higher nitration level than the cellulose plastics used in billions of products. Unfortunately, due to acid not completely being washed out, cellulose plastics deteriorate and crumble.

That black spot in the cellulose handle of this stockman is due to cellulose deterioration. And there is nothing that can be done to reverse or stop it.

this is my Dad's slide rule

and the cellulose plastic ends to the indicator all crumbled in a mushy fashion. Luckily I was able to buy replacement parts before those all disappeared. Hoping the replacements last longer than me, don't know what I will do if they go away.

This is a very long document on the problems of keeping cellulose nitrate objects from deteriorating. And bursting into fire!

The Use of Cellulose Nitrate in Art Conservation

Dr. Charles Selwitz Getty Museum

Maybe you are old enough to remember silver nitrate film fires in movie theaters?. Surely you are old enough to have been around when this one happened

Disaster Strikes the National Archives: The 1978 Nitrate Vault Fire

Still a problem with the storage of old films.

Speedo66 · May 15, 2022

Monac said:
There are also a couple of pages from magazine published in 1959 with ads for Firearms International, the importer of the Corsair. They give a price of $64.50 for the Corsair,

Inflation calculator shows $64.50 in 1959 would equal $650.74 today, so not an inexpensive pistol.

Slamfire · May 15, 2022

This was $57.00

this was $100.00

So the French pistol was just between these price points.

Speedo66 · May 15, 2022

PzGren said:
I have had quite a few pass through my hands and, while I had cracked grips, have not had one with a grip that was crumbling away when handled.]

That's exactly what is happening, every time I touch it, another piece breaks off. See the original photo in the first post for the difference now. What's funny is they refer to the plastic grips in the brochure as "unbreakable". They did offer walnut grips as an extra cost option, would have been money well spent.

They refer to the short barrel version, which this is, as the "defensive" model, as opposed to the target versions. It reminds me of a 2/3 version of a Walther P-38.

Here's a copy of the take down instructions.

Unique Corsair .22LR

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Similar threads