My First Spanish C&R - Astra 600

[Capybara]

Finally took delivery of my first Spanish gun, a 1945 Astra 600. I scored a very good deal that I couldn't pass up on Gunboards. This model has a very interesting history, the Spanish manufactured them for the Nazis after the success of the Astra 400. Astra was able to ship the first 10,450 to the Nazis, but as soon as they manufactured the next run, France fell and all of the dynamics of the war relegated most of these to sitting in a warehouse. They were later sold to the West German police as well as the Portuguese Navy. This sample is well used but my gosh does the action feel precise and it is a heavy beast. I have not weighed it yet but it feels heavier than my SA 1911-A1. The magazine is serial number matched to the frame and the frame and slide serials match. Bore is nice and shiny with minimal debris in the grooves.

I have not cleaned it or shot it yet but I am looking forward to doing so and will post a range report.

 

[9 fingers]

Pretty cool, what is the caliber?
9 fingers

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Too cool.

Always wanted one if only as a nod to my childhood viewing of Mission Impossible.

Preferred Baddie gat.

 

[Capybara]

It's regular old 9x19 9 Fingers. Yes, very well utilized in Mission Impossible, I think I can recall watching that show as a kid and seeing these.

It's just a cool, funky old pistol. The craftsmanship on it is amazing, very much feels like a 1950s Colt or Smith in the hand. The slide to to frame fit is amazing, absolutely no slop, smooth as silk.

 

[Pelo801]

Very sweet. Yours is in better shape than mine, at least in the looks department. They are solid guns and yes heavy beasts. But I'm sure you'll enjo shooting it.

I showed mine to a couple of guys at the range once and they refered to it as "the shop project". I think I've actually heard them called the pipe wrench.

Congrats on a fun gun and enjoy.

 

[jmace57]

Be aware that there is a "trick" to re-assembling one that will save you a ton of time/heartache. (lining up the collet)

Watch this Youtube video (especially at 9 minutes 40 seconds for the trick)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Yc3ByJhEY

Congratulations. I sold mine to my bro-in-law, and have regretted it!

 

[GyMac]

I've never owned one, but I've always thought they were cool. They're very nice guns.

 

[Capybara]

Thanks for the tip jmace57, I will watch that when I break it down for cleaning and inspection tomorrow. I have been eying one of these for a couple of years, they do look a little weird, which I like. Just like the CZ52, a little unusual and a little weird. You should buy one GyMac, there are several on Gunbroker, I scored this one for under $400.00, but I need to buy a spare mag, which will cost me $35.00 to $50.00. Amazing craftsmanship, they were trying to impress the Germans and as we all know, the Germans didn't issue any junk.

 

[il.bill]

Pretty neat!

Having a C&R 03FFL has certainly opened up my handgun collection to examples of firearms from around the world. It is a hoot when a fine old piece like that shows up right at the front door.

Congrats on a good looking Astra 600, and happy shooting!

 

[Capybara]

Consider yourself lucky you can have these old beauties shipped to your door. I can still have C&R long guns shipped to my door but I then have to pay the State of California to register them. As far as C&R handguns, still have to have them shipped to an FFL01 and we have to DROS them and pay the FFL01 a transfer fee, although at least we with FFL03s can take home the same day, no 10 day wait. Whoopee!

All of my other C&R handguns I have bought in person, out of state, this was the first I have had shipped here. It was still a PITA to take delivery.

 

[gc70]

Congratulations on your 600. They are very well built guns and particularly interesting as a straight blowback design in 9mm.

Be careful removing the barrel bushing. Before I learned a safe technique, I let mine get away from me and succeeded in embedding it in my ceiling.

 

[bannockburn]

Capybara

As jmace57 posted, be very careful (and take your time), when you go to disassemble the gun. The recoil spring around the barrel can be quite a handful when you take it apart and when you put it all back together. I would also recommend wearing some sort of shooting glove as the recoil from a straight blowback 9mm., even one this heavy and solidly built, can be rather brutal after an extended range session. I had an Astra 600 very similar to yours and it was surprisingly accurate, thanks to a rather light and clean trigger pull. I also found that it was also somewhat painful (mainly to the web of my shooting hand), to shoot more than 50 rounds at any visit to the range.

 

[kBob]

That is a nice looking gun. Do I see some damage to the barrle bushing coller where some one tried to use a wrench on it? That is very commonly found on these style Astras of various models.


Ha! I just commented on another, later, Astra handgun up in revolvers.

I liked the 600. One of the guys in my Infantry platoon in the mid 70's had one as a Privately owned weapon. I got to shoot it a bit at our club and the one time he was allowed to take it to a Pershing Combat Alert Site before an incident involving our 2LT and a Browning High Power put a stop to us being allowed to do so. It was there that I fired the shot that allowed us to learn that an M1967 Fragmentation Vest "Flack Jacket" would in fact stop a Geco 9x19mm FMJ fired from ten feet.........in the rear panel after having penitrated the front panel. Did not give us a lot of confidence in the body armor!

This pistol always attracted attention at our shooting club (Neu Ulm King's Privalaged Shooting Organization) and two members claimed to have seen them during "the War" one of whom said his father a Party Civilian had one "Exactly like it". This was intersting as the owner had inlet the large enamel and copper NSDAP round pin in the right grip. This upset some folks and made others happy but had no effect on the way the gun shot.

I was rather surprised that for me the straight angled grip allowed very good point shooting including in low light.

I have heard them called "Water Pistols" and "Spanish Pipe pistols"

If I had been a WWII Kraut being offered the Astra 600, a P08, or P-38 I would have sanatched up the 600 so fast it would make your head spin. And yes I did shoot them side by side during that time. The Budeswehr was still using the P-38 in the P1 version then so I shot that a lot in project partnership Training and Competitions and would have picked a 600 over the P-38 even then.

I actually liked the dreaded Astra 400 magazine release Dagger over the 600's mag release, though I imagine if I had to carry one on my hip for any amount of time I would have rounded the edges on that 400 hip pokafier. I had a bit of 9mm Largo for the 400 I breifly had but this was before anyone on this side of the pond made ammo for it so when ammo got low the gun got gone........just about a year before CCI/Speer did their run.....dang it.

Oddest thing about the 400 was that when I was about 14 someone I think one of school buddies a year behind me gave me an odd magazine that fit nothing I had until 20 + years later when I found it fit the 400. Pack rats RULE!

-kBob

 

[kBob]

Oh for an alturnative look at history take a look at where your Astra was made......400s were made there as well even during the Spanish Civil War......ask your highschool or college history or political science teacher if the Germans had any reason to bomb that infamous city.

-kBob

 

[Storm]

I had a 600 and still currently own a 400. You should consider replacing the recoil spring with one from Wollf Spring. Recoil on this gun is punishing enough with a fresh spring that I can't imagine what it would be like with a worn spring. No matter, a great gun and a piece of history. Enjoy.

 

[tark]

Very nice, and a lot of fun to shoot, but before you do get some springs for it, (at least that monster recoil spring)for they are almost certainly worn out or weakened somewhat. A somewhat useful test I have discovered to determine the strength of the recoil spring is to compare it's length to the slide. If it is as long as the bottom of the slide it is still serviceable. If it is much shorter (it probably is) it's time to replace it! If it is as short or shorter than the top of the slide it is weakened and shooting the gun will pound it very hard.

Wolff has spring packages for the gun, or you can only buy the recoil spring, which is around 12 bucks, I think. They offer 10% extra strength springs for some guns. They don't for the 400 but they might for the 600. If they do, I,m sure it would be for +P ammo use.

The squirt gun Astras are amazing guns, beyond their very high quality. No other blow back pistol that I know of has ever been chambered for a cartridge as powerful as the 400s Largo round. I occasionally shoot factory 38 Supers in mine ( I have a later one, so that semi-rim fits the bolt face), or at least that weak loaded factory stuff that passes for Supers these days. I have chronographed CCis 124 gr. load and it showed 1260FPS. That's hotter than the Super load in the same bullet weight. This statement does not stand for some of the custom loaders like Cor-Bon. Their stuff can be a lot hotter.

I'm sure you already know not to shoot anything you suspect as sub-gun ammo in the gun.

Shooting it can be a bit painful if you plan on shooting more than a box of ammo in it. The recoil is very sharp and the backstrap can bruise the web of your hand after a while.

It will throw the empties almost as far as it will throw the bushing if you are not careful in stripping it. But you have no doubt discovered all of this by now, for yourself!

Damn thing is a lot of fun....ain't it!!!

 

[tark]

Well, Storm's post snuck in before I finished mine. He is quite right, new springs are a good idea in any old pistol and now you know where to get em'

As an aside, if you want to know anything and everything about any Astra pistol, the book "Astra Automatic Pistols" by Leonardo M. Antaris is a good place to stare. Be warned, the book isn't cheap. I think I paid about 80 bucks for mine, but it is autographed by the author so that might have raised the price a bit. Library of Congress # 88-81962.

Have fun.

 

[Dframe]

I have an identical one. I have not attempted to strip it. I merely locked the slide back and did as much cleaning as I could with q tips then reoiled sparingly and took it out to shoot. Mine shoots quite well and is surprisingly accurate.

 

[Capybara]

Thanks for all of the tips and suggestions guys. I am familiar with Wolff, I recently bought a set of springs for my P64 so I will check into that. I am a reloader so I would tend to make up some soft shooting loads for this pistol. Same with my P38. I love shooting it but I don't shoot it often because it is old. If I want to pound out a lot of shots, I used my modern plastic pistols to do that. For shooting this gun and my P38, I would bring perhaps 50 rounds of powder puff loads to just plink with and have fun.

 

[kBob]

tark,
re 400

I guess it depends on what you call powerfull

If you are talking momentum rather than energy I wonder if one of the several .45 ACP blow backs might be considered more powerful, Like the Stallard or the more current MKS pistols.

One has to admit it does have some snap though when shooting it.

I never tried .380 , 9x19, .38 ACP or Super, or even 9 mm Styer in the 400 though I know folks that claim to have done so sucsessfully........ but I had no desire to experiement. There were folks in the 70's and 80's that wrote of handloads with .38 Special bullets and ballistics to include 158 grain lead round nose and various jacketed and semi jacketed hollow points. Not having the ability to turn down rims of .38 Special and trim to length or swage the bejebers out of trimmend .223 and inside turn I stuck to the corrosive Spanish 9mm Largo Berdan ammo I found at the show I found the gun. The Idea of a semi auto that might reliably shoot 158 grain Lead SWC at decent velocities was appealing though.

With that in mind I tried to talk a manufacturer friend into making a suppressed 400 with the suppressor just the diameter of the forward part of the slide...... sort of a long slide 400.......he guffawed at me but every now and then I bring it up and hope one day he gets bored.......

-kBob

 

[Capybara]

A suppressed 400 would look really nice kBob. Wish I lived in a free state where I could have them.

 

[tark]

Capybara, you may find that reduced loads don't always work in an Astra. That monster recoil spring likes fairly warm loads.

That's why you keep the old one! My 400 loves powderpuff loads with the weakened spring it came with. It loves my target load of three grains of B-eye and a 148 gr wadcutter. Yes, you read that right. You will discover that the 600, like the 400, will feed and chamber almost anything! My 400 will feed empty cases out of the mag!

Don't worry about shooting all the full power loads you want through the gun, it is very rugged and Astra used the highest grade steel available at the time. My 400 is pretty well worn, it has obviously had thousands of rounds run through it, possibly tens of thousands. I had it magnifluxed at the shop a couple of years back and it passed with flying colors.

 

[Sarge]

I have both the 300 and the 600 pistols. While not my favorite handgun I like both of them.
Sarge

 

[Gun Master]

Astra Model 600 vs Model 400

Please let us know how well it shoots.
My Astra Model 400 (AKA- Modelo 1921) has a mean kick to it in the 9mm Largo.
I'm interested in all 3 (300, 400, & 600).

 

[md2lgyk]

Yet another gun I owned and now wish I had back. I bought an Astra 300 in the early 1990s from a secretary at work who found it when cleaning out her deceased father's house. Wrapped in a towel, it looked like it came home from WWII and sat unused ever since. She knew nothing of guns and just wanted to get rid of it. Sold it to me for $25. Don't recall what I sold it for years later, but it was a whole lot more than that.