C&R pawn shop find: J.P. Sauer Model 1930

[carguychris]

Found this interesting little jewel at a pawn shop last week... It's a J.P. Sauer & Sohn Model 1930 in 7.65 Browning aka .32 ACP.

I'll admit that I don't know much about these pistols, and the info I've found online isn't terribly detailed, but this pistol is apparently a development of the Model 1913 differentiated by the oval rather than circular trigger guard, the serial number above ~163,000, and the elimination of the rather notorious slide stop located inside the trigger guard.

The Model 1930 is apparently similar to the more well-known Behördenmodell or Behörden Pistol but lacks the Glock-ish trigger safety "dingus" that characterizes that model. The Model 1930 has a thumb safety and a magazine disconnect only. Interestingly, some online sources claim that the Behördenmodell is the first of the series with a separate sear in the sear housing block, rather than a sear built into the trigger bar, and online Model 1930 parts diagrams show the old-style sear; however, my pistol has a separate sear and trigger bar!

The serial number of this pistol is 1885xx (digitally obscured for privacy reasons).



The thumb safety doubles as a manual slide stop. The gun has no last-round slide-hold-open feature.



As you can probably tell, the pistol has little original finish left. When I got it, it was really rusty, but it has cleaned up well. The only deep pitting is on the port side, with a spot on the slide near the muzzle, and an old scratch across the frame and slide above the grips (the scratch is not lined up in the second picture because the slide is locked back).

When I bought it, the pistol was missing the pin through the sear housing block behind the grips, but both sear housing block pins (the other is under the grips) are the same diameter—0.108", almost exactly 7/64"—and I was able to make a new pin using a shortened 7/64" drill bit.

The pistol is striker-fired and comes apart in an interesting manner. The slide has a large checkered and threaded cap that is held in place by a tab on the rear sight. To field-strip, you depress the rear sight and turn the cap counter-clockwise; after about 1/2 turn, the rear sight tab pops up through a notch in the cap so you can release the sight. The cap has a riveted post that holds the striker spring, which fits into a separate breech block that holds the striker and also incorporates the extractor. The striker can be shaken out of the breech block for cleaning, although I've left it in place in the picture. The barrel is fixed and uses a separate hollow bushing to hold the recoil spring; the bushing was left in the white.

The pink finish on the front sight is fingernail polish applied by me so that my aging eyes can see the ridiculously narrow front sight more easily.



When I bought it, the barrel was filled with crud and surface rust, and I was concerned it would be pitted. However, it cleaned up like new.



The trigger is surprisingly crisp, although it's somewhat heavy, and has a smidgeon of takeup and generous overtravel. Overall, however, it's darn good compared to the other old-school striker-fired pistols I've tried.

I'll try and post a range report later.

To be continued...

[carguychris]

Other observations:

• The slide-to-frame fit is near-perfect and almost unbelievably tight; the amount of side-to-slide slop is barely perceptible. You can just barely feel it move but the amount of movement is too small to see. This is reportedly typical of these guns; since the breech block and slide only have to move in a perfectly straight line, both during firing and takedown, the factory typically fitted the slide and frame very tightly.
• The machine work inside the pistol is impeccable. True old-style German craftsmanship.
• The steel seems very hard and of the highest quality. The pistol feels unusually heavy and solid despite its small size, somewhat like a Walther PPK. This is one of those pistols that feels like you could leave it on a railroad track and it would probably derail the train.

The best part is that I paid the princely sum of $75 for the pistol. OK, $81 and change after sales tax.

[mcb66]

Cool find. Can't beat that price!

[James K]

Wow! How come I never luck into deals like that.

FWIW, that is another pistol that should not be dry fired without good snap caps; replacement firing pins are expensive and very hard to find.

Jim

[azasadny]

That is beautiful! Great find there!!!

[Mike Irwin]

Last one of those I saw for sale in similar condition a few years ago was around $500, IIRC.

You got a REALLY good deal.

[carguychris]

Originally Posted by James K

How come I never luck into deals like that.

That's how I tend to feel. I think this was pure dumb luck. I think the pawn shop staff didn't have any idea what it really was, but it was ugly and it was small-caliber, so they assumed it was some cheap SNS and listed it for $100.

The lady who checked me out asked me if I knew where to find ammo for it, and I responded by asking her if she realized that "7,65m/m" is the same thing as .32 ACP. She had no idea!

Originally Posted by James K

FWIW, that is another pistol that should not be dry fired without good snap caps; replacement firing pins are expensive and very hard to find.

That's what I figured. A quick search of the Interwebz suggested that this pistol is categorically hard to find parts for, period, and the striker is rather complex in shape and doesn't look easily duplicated.

Unfortunately, I've determined that dry fire practice with snap caps is rather tedious, because unlike most modern striker-fired tactical plastic, the slide has to be drawn almost all the way to the rear to recock the striker, thus ejecting the snap cap. I have to repeatedly remove and reload the magazine.

I took the pistol to the range and was a little disappointed.

Problem #1: It repeatedly misfed, with the bullet jamming against the top of the barrel. Strangely enough, it's the first time I've ever had a European pistol that ran better on WWB than S&B or Aguila. However, my stash of .32 ACP ammo is almost completely depleted, so I only tested a few rounds of each. I think the problem may be magazine-related, with the rounds coming out of the mag too soon, so I'm going to gently bend the feed lips slightly inwards and see if that helps. Of course, another possibility is that the magazine spring is worn, in which case I'm probably SOL. I'm considering buying a Triple K magazine for the pistol, since they seem to be well reviewed.

(As an aside, the magazine is a true PITA to disassemble, as the floor plate doesn't come off and the body has witness holes on only one side, making it difficult to insert a tool through the mag to hold the spring down while shaking the follower out. IOW I might be better off with Triple K mags anyway.)

Problem #2: The pistol shot several inches low. This likely involves some shooter error since it's tough to hold the pistol in my large hands and I haven't had much trigger time; however, it generally grouped well, so I think this may be one of those old European guns that's intended to be fired with the front sight sticking up slightly above the rear sight notch. The gun has no provision whatsoever for sight adjustment.

[James K]

The trick with snap caps for hammerless autoloaders is to cut away the part of the rim where the extractor grabs it. That way, you can work the slide without extracting the snap cap. Of course when you are done dry firing, you have to punch the snap cap out with a pencil or cleaning rod, but that is a minor irritation.

Jim

[carguychris]

^^^ Such a simple and elegant solution. Why didn't I think of that?

Yet another reason to appreciate this forum.

[FITASC]

Or buy a 6 pack of them and just manually work the slide

[carguychris]

Originally Posted by FITASC

Or buy a 6 pack of them and just manually work the slide

That's what I've been doing, and it's tedious.