Michael Zeleny
member
I am very happy to own a MAB P-15. It is a delayed blowback operated, all steel semi-automatic pistol built like a bank vault in the French tradition of massively overbuilt sidearms, exemplified in the Chamelot Delvigne 1873 revolver acquitting itself in its dotage with .45 ACP smokeless powder loads.
The P-15 uses a rotating barrel locking mechanism in the manner of the 1906 Savage, the 1911 Steyr-Hahn, and the 1934 Sistema Obregon. It first appeared in 1952 and gave up the ghost in the late 1980s, after failing in its intended purpose to get the standard model adopted as the French military sidearm. (Only the long slide competition model was issued to army target shooting teams under the designation F1.) It is a very accurate, robust, and reliable gun capable of outshooting and outlasting a tag team comprising its immediate predecessor and role model, the Belgian GP35, and its muchly imitated successor, the Czech CZ-75.
The MAB P-15 pistol has a frame mounted safety of the M1911 and GP35 type, as well as a pivoting trigger with a magazine disconnect in the manner of the GP35. Countless S&W M-59 magazines have been adapted to fit the P-15 in lieu of the scarce original MAB magazines that can be recognized by their sturdy milled floorplates.
The P-15 features a rotating barrel that neither tips nor reciprocates through the recoil cycle. The barrel has two lugs. A contoured lug on its top fits into and follows in the track of a curved slot milled in the top of the slide. Another lug on its bottom is milled parallel to its circumference and nests in a slot cut in the hardened steel block attached to the recoil spring guide and incorporating the feed ramp, pinned to the frame by the slide stop. This arrangement leaves the barrel free to rotate but not to move back or forward. When the pistol is fired, the bullet riding in the rifling torques the barrel, countervailing the blowback force of the slide by bearing on the sloped stage of the slide slot. As soon as the bullet leaves the barrel, the slide is left free to rotate it, retracting to cycle the action. The loading cycle dispenses with the Browning controlled feed principle in favor of push feed with a snap-over extractor, at no discernible detriment to reliability.
The P-15 is fitted and finished to the functional standard of the GP35 rather than the meticulous level of the SIG P210. It duplicates the Browning-Saive dual slide rail arrangement, engaging the slide from the inside of its lower edge, as well as from the outside of the recoil spring shroud. The slide and its pin are both wider and thicker than those of the GP35. The slide and the barrel with its pivot block, and various small parts, are numbered on the inside with the last two or three digits of the frame's serial number.
Recent asking prices are all over the map, ranging from $275 to $800:
http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976468875.htm
http://www.auctionarms.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=5743876
http://www.gunbroker.com/auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=18545289
The P-15 uses a rotating barrel locking mechanism in the manner of the 1906 Savage, the 1911 Steyr-Hahn, and the 1934 Sistema Obregon. It first appeared in 1952 and gave up the ghost in the late 1980s, after failing in its intended purpose to get the standard model adopted as the French military sidearm. (Only the long slide competition model was issued to army target shooting teams under the designation F1.) It is a very accurate, robust, and reliable gun capable of outshooting and outlasting a tag team comprising its immediate predecessor and role model, the Belgian GP35, and its muchly imitated successor, the Czech CZ-75.
The MAB P-15 pistol has a frame mounted safety of the M1911 and GP35 type, as well as a pivoting trigger with a magazine disconnect in the manner of the GP35. Countless S&W M-59 magazines have been adapted to fit the P-15 in lieu of the scarce original MAB magazines that can be recognized by their sturdy milled floorplates.
The P-15 features a rotating barrel that neither tips nor reciprocates through the recoil cycle. The barrel has two lugs. A contoured lug on its top fits into and follows in the track of a curved slot milled in the top of the slide. Another lug on its bottom is milled parallel to its circumference and nests in a slot cut in the hardened steel block attached to the recoil spring guide and incorporating the feed ramp, pinned to the frame by the slide stop. This arrangement leaves the barrel free to rotate but not to move back or forward. When the pistol is fired, the bullet riding in the rifling torques the barrel, countervailing the blowback force of the slide by bearing on the sloped stage of the slide slot. As soon as the bullet leaves the barrel, the slide is left free to rotate it, retracting to cycle the action. The loading cycle dispenses with the Browning controlled feed principle in favor of push feed with a snap-over extractor, at no discernible detriment to reliability.
The P-15 is fitted and finished to the functional standard of the GP35 rather than the meticulous level of the SIG P210. It duplicates the Browning-Saive dual slide rail arrangement, engaging the slide from the inside of its lower edge, as well as from the outside of the recoil spring shroud. The slide and its pin are both wider and thicker than those of the GP35. The slide and the barrel with its pivot block, and various small parts, are numbered on the inside with the last two or three digits of the frame's serial number.
Recent asking prices are all over the map, ranging from $275 to $800:
http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976468875.htm
http://www.auctionarms.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=5743876
http://www.gunbroker.com/auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=18545289
