Cheepie auto's ?? (Lorcin/Raven)

[lbmii]

Yeah the FIE Titan has a cast zink frame and a lot of other things that count against it for importation.

I flipped the safety around to the other side so I could quickly flip off the safety with my trigger finger. I wore it cocked and locked in a holster attached to a web belt I wore under a button front shirt with the middle button undone. Very fast draw with this set up. My Titan did duty back when I had this terrible minium wage evening/night time retail job next door to a Quick-Trip. This was before legal CCW days and no one ever knew I was armed.

Good lil' pistol. I wonder if the larger 32s and 380s are any good.

I really do want to stress that if you need a very small auto and you are like I was and only have 50 to 75 bucks then go with the FIE Titan over any Jennings or other "Ring of Fire" brand pistols.

 

[Manedwolf]

My opinion is still if you want a .25 ACP...just bite the bullet (so to speak), save up a bit more, and get something like a blueing-gone-but-clean Beretta 950 Jetfire .25 ACP. 8+1, +P fine, and can be fired so fast and reliably it sounds almost like full-auto.

If you're going to carry it, you only get once chance if you need it...

 

[magnagunz]

With all due respect...... (my wife hates it when I say that!)

I'm not looking for advice on what cheapie to buy or if I should be afraid it will blow up.. I'm looking for advice on how to make the action more reliable. IE; feedind and ejecting, can it be improved and how.

Untill then, I'll tape them over my vital organs and use them as shields.

 

[lbmii]

Oh ok. The key is to find all of the spots where any steel part rubs against any zink part. The zink is often chrome plated. Make sure the steel is not cutting into the zink. Try layering the zink rub area with some grease.

Then use a hack saw and carefully cut the pistol into two even halves and then carefully discard only the first two halves.

Basically your sort of screwed when it comes to getting these things to work. They really are not intended to last many rounds. I bet a very high percentage of these type of pistols are never even fired one time but ride out their lil' pistol lifes in someone's bedside drawer.

 

[Zero_DgZ]

Zinc!

Crikey.

I don't like being a spelling nazi, but that one was bugging me.

I found that while my .25 was incredibly greasey out of the box (so to speak) the stuff that was evidently slathered all over it to prevent corrosion during the boat ride from Brazil wasn't actually a very good lubricant. After dousing the thing in WD-40, blasting clear and dry with the air compressor, and then giving a good dose of silicone oil the action, trigger, and hammer felt a lot better on mine.

I never had any feed issues, really, but found that the magazine lips were thin and easily bent to correct (or create!) feeding misalignment problems.

 

[lbmii]

Yeah I kept looking at my spelling of zinc and thinking; "Boy that just aint right. I sure hope one of them spelling nazi comes along".

 

[magnagunz]

So i cut the gun in half and only throw away the first two pieces? Are you sure?

I really did laugh out loud at that one thank you.

I have shot my little raven .25 a few times now and found that a really firm grip pretty much fixed my problems. I really like how small it is. I got an Uncle Mikes pocket holster and you can hardly tell it's there. I can tell though as even though the gun is small it's quite heavy and pulles my pants down.

I gave the Lorcin .25 to my brother as a cruel joke. He went to the range with a few buddies, it jambed on every shot, heh, heh, heh. He's a machinist kind of guy and will probably make the work just fine eventually.

 

[MCgunner]

The Raven's ain't THAT bad. The .25 was designed for small pocket guns and tends to be reliable. Steer clear of any compact .22, however. I like my little Phoenix Arms cheap POS, amazing accuracy and it's relatively reliable. It's a rimfire. I might consider this thing for last ditch self defense if I didn't have anything better, couldn't afford anything better, and it was in .25 and not .22.

Thankfully, I have better. The zinc alloy guns are plenty strong for the puny rounds they're chambered in. The barrel and chamber, after all, are steel as well as some of the other parts like extractors, ejectors and such. They will wear quicker than steel guns if you put a lot of rounds through 'em.

My opinion is still if you want a .25 ACP...just bite the bullet (so to speak), save up a bit more, and get something like a blueing-gone-but-clean Beretta 950 Jetfire .25 ACP. 8+1, +P fine, and can be fired so fast and reliably it sounds almost like full-auto.

Biggest POS I ever owned was a Baretta .22 short single action. I could not make that thing feed more'n a couple before a failure and it'd only cap off about half the rounds on the first hit. I did, however, make money reselling it. I'll never buy another one. At least I won't lose much money if I get a Raven that doesn't work, not like I'm going to actually buy one or anything. I've got no use for that small a caliber.