Last weeked, while at my
Dad's, he passed on a Legacy firearm to me with an interesting history.
It's a Ruby handgun, which was made by the Spanish under multiple contracts for the French army during WWI. There is almost no parts standardization to speak of, to the point that buying an extra magazine for one of these guns is a craps-shoot. It may not work in a given Ruby.
The one give to me was likely a surplus purchase after the Great War by my father's great uncle, Roy.
Roy was a cop, and a colorful character, and dad says he never remembered seeing Uncle Roy without the Ruby tucked into his waistline. Roy had some interesting adventures with this little pistol, that still survive in family lore. I will keep the Ruby happily as a legacy gun, and a testament to just how basic a firearm can be, and still provide service through a century.
The Ruby was a cribbed copy of a wildly-successful-at-the-time design, the Colt Pocket Hammerless.
As I recently posted, I put one of these on Lay-away. The finish is about gone, but the counter-guy let me field-strip it, and the internals are in great shape. Someone used the hell out of it, but took good care of it, too. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, other than carry it; the Pocket Hammerless is a Grail Gun for me. Once I have it home, I'm going to get to a range and shoot the hell out of it. Once I determine that it is reliable, I plan to carry it regularly. This gun, in its condition has little collector value, and I want a shooter, anyway. It may become a candidate for a re-finish. Possibly in Nickel. I will pick up an extra magazine if I can find one, and depending on how it shoots, I may order a set of Wolff springs for it. I may end up replacing the sights, but I want to shoot it first, to see if I can acquire them okay. I have heard that the rear sight dovetail and front sight stake-hole are the exact same as on 1911's, so finding a set of sights may not be too hard.
Whatever I do to it, I'm looking forward to giving the old pony a good home, where it will have a purpose again.