French Unique Pistol

[ChefJeff1]

My roommate showed me a pocket pistol, a french unique semi-auto. Can anyone tell me about this/ What caliber is it? How much is it worth? Is it a decent gun? Could it have an inter4sting history?

 

[Moonclip]

Can you get a picture, you are not giving us much to work on. Uniques have come if different models and calibers, 2 that come to mind immediately are 32acp aka 7.65mm and 22lr.

 

[albanian]

You should at least be able to tell what caliber it is if you can see it again. Without more info, we can't tell you much. I can tell you that it is a high quality pistol and not a POS. Unique made some nice stuff and they still do. Now they mostlymake high dollar target pistols that cost about $1500 but back in the day, they made mostly medium framed autos that were chambered in either .380acp, .32acp or .22lr. The .22lrs are a personal favorite of mine and I would buy one if a nice one at a good price popped up.

For a while, Sears was actually selling Unique pistols under another name (it escapes me).

Without more info, it is hard to tell you much but if I had to guess, I would say it was probably either a .32acp or a .22lr made in the 1950s-1970s. The only reason I say this is because the vast majority of the Unique pistols I come arosss fall into those dates and calibers.

 

[ChefJeff1]

I'll try to get pics, all I have is a camera phone. It is very small, smaller than a kel-tec, it says a bunch of french and 6-35 caliber or something like that. It's hard to read. It has a pretty good weight to it and some rust. I'm trying to get him to sell it to me for $50. He's never shot it and he thought it was a .22 but it's not.

 

[Moonclip]

6.35 mm will translate to 25auto cartridge. So we at least know that now! Keep info coming. G should be decent quality and for $50 would be worth buying barring any major issues.

 

[Onmilo]

Unique produced a pistol from about 1930 to 1940 called the Audax.
It is the only .25acp pistol that this Company produced that I am aware of.
All their other offerings are in .22LR, .32acp and .380acp
Magazines and spare parts are extremely difficult to come across in the US and if you break something on the gun while shooting it you will have to have the parts custom made and frankly, this will cost way more than the $30.00 you will spend for the gun.

It may, or may not, function well anyway. (most likely,not)
Early French semi-autos were a guess and hope proposition as to whether they were going to work correctly.
Heck the French contracted with Spanish cottage industries to produce enough pistols to go around in WW1 and most French soldiers preferred the Spanish guns to their own domestic products and things weren't any better in the thirties.

My suggestion is to buy the pistol if you want an interesting version on the Browning designed vest pocket semi auto pistol but don't buy it as a serious defense or shooting pistol. HTH

 

[Ron James]

Manufacture D'Arms Des Pyrenees, " MAPF"- "UNIQUE", Unique has been making the 6.35 (.25ACP) since 1923 with at least a half dozen ( or more) diffrent models and under dozens of trade names. The early Uniques have parts that were supplied from the Eibar region of Spain( in fact some sources say whole guns were made in Eibar). They are decent pistols but nothing to write home about. Some of the early ones are no better than the Rubys. In fact they also copied Mr. Browings design, just as their over the border friends in Spain did. With out more information it would be impossible to say just what model you have.

 

[Jim K]

I have read in a dozen places that the French and Spanish .25 autos were "copies" of the Browning design. That is true only in general, since the old Colt/FN .25 pistols are striker fired with safeties that act on the sear. All the Spanish/French .25 pistols I know of are hammer fired and have safeties that block the trigger.

Jim

 

[panzermk2]

just so the rest of us know what your talking about. Any pics in general?

 

[ChefJeff1]

Thanks for the info. I shot the pistol today in .25. It was fun! Good bank, light recoil and it shot where you wanted to most of the time. Is misfired 4 or 5 five times out of 50 rounds so I don't reallly trust it. I think I'll continue my search for a pocket pistol. Either kel-tec( I like the pocket clip thing) or an NAA. It's a tough decision.

 

[albanian]

Only 4-5 misfires out of 50? That is better than the Kel-Tec P-32 I owned.

If you want a .25acp, the Beretta Jetfire is very well respected and is probably the best around. If you are looking for really small autos, you have a very short list of quality and reliable guns to choose from. The Kel-Tec does not qualify as either quality or reliable.

Look at Beretta or maybe a S&W snubby. They make some light framed guns.

 

[Cliff47]

I found a Unique .22lr pistol at a gun show with the original box, owners manual and a nice holster for $150. According to the test target, it was manufactured in April 1954. The marking on the side indicated it was a Western Field (Montgomery Wards, if I'm not mistaken) Model 5. After a strip down and clean (don't think it had ever been cleaned), it shoots passably. Found some after-market mags for the pistol (Corsair Model D), from an outfit on the I-net.

The only other Unique pistol I have seen was in 9 m/m Short at a gun shop.

 

[R.W.Dale]

I found a Unique .22lr pistol at a gun show with the original box, owners manual and a nice holster for $150. According to the test target, it was manufactured in April 1954. The marking on the side indicated it was a Western Field (Montgomery Wards, if I'm not mistaken) Model 5.

HEY I have that exact same model, I absouletely love mine. If you don't mind I'd like to know where you got your mags

 

[Moonclip]

I'd buy one for $150 also, problem is mag and parts availabilty. I want a French pistol for some strange reason. I see one very occasionally, but the asking prices are too high and comparable to guns such as a Ruger MKII which makes me pass on them.

 

[Cliff47]

Moonclip and Krocus -

I found the after-market mags at www.ammoclip.com. Checked this morning and there is one in stock for $30 (looks like factory), and another model for $32. Mine were made by TripleK, and function just fine. There I go being a bad influence again. Must be my task in life to provide this kind of information.

Shoot safely and enjoy.

Cliff

 

[El Mariachi]

Sorry to pull up an olde threade, but I just bought this little number last night for a hundred and fifty bucks. JC Higgins Model 85----Armes Des Pyrenees. Best info I've come up with so far is that it's a French made Unique Model D.

Am I close?........

 

[VA27]

Unique produced a pistol from about 1930 to 1940 called the Audax.
It is the only .25acp pistol that this Company produced that I am aware of.

Don't forget the Mikros. They made it in 25ACP and 22 short. It is unusual in that it is a very small pocket auto with an external hammer, much like the Beretta 950 (which I consider to be the best of the 'mouse guns').