Astra 300 - A Pocket Pistol Bought Mostly By Germany 

rokorokero even if you're not into firearms it's important to understand the effects your countries manufacturing and innovation had on the world.

Agreed, i don't even own any guns nor even support unnecessary conflict. Sadly there's times when some people just don't even want to understand others and aggressive intervention is the only way left. I do however appreciate the engineering and technology of firearms, and now thanks to Ian i can appreciate their history too!

Yes, absolutely. I don't believe in this idea of firearms (or any other thing, in fact) as "killing machines". Sometimes they are, saldy, used for that, but so are hammers, cars, ropes... Even the human body. To me firearms are beautiful pieces of engineering and, usually, historical artifacts that tell us about how the world has come to be the way it is nowadays. It's always sad to see how some people try to sweep under the carpet part of the history of a country out of shame, fear, political interest, ignorance... In any case, fortunately, here's Ian to save the day

@@rokorokero I don't think its out of fear, but out of experience. Last time spanish people had easy access to hand guns we were shooting each other on the back of the head.

@@Rammarkostein El cainismo español

This is an integral part of my morning routine.

IKR! Gun Jesus is the reason to log on.

Now THIS is E P I C

Thrashgu I Shouldnt it be "cigar"?

Viacheslav Rakhmalov little cigar to be exact.

jose el empecinao Esa es, olvidé el diminutivo

"El Puro" era el modelo 400, esta al ser más pequeña le pusieron de sobrenombre "Purito"

@@joseelempecinao89 sea "pipa o purito,parecese que echar ,écha humo! jajj ,ok

Yeah true story and the favourite for the combat pilots

P.Piccaso painted "Gernika" but it a lie,because he make it about the death of a "matador" who was his friend,later "La 2ª República" buy the picture called Gernika (I dont know speak english,Im sorry)

Wait, you're not spef.

Probably the case, better to give RU-vid as little leverage as possible.

Correct.

I figured as much. Oh well. It is easy enough for us to find Rock Island’s page through our preferred search engine, if necessary.

I mean they do look rather similar.

During 1960’s up to the late 1980’s they were commonly found in gun shops In the eastern US, in some cases they were labeled as one of the “Saturday Night Specials” as an inexpensive alternative (as they weren’t a high status pocket pistol such as a Walther or Mauser or Colt) and far more common than something like an FN or other pistol) as not all Saturday Night Specials were cheap revolvers. In recent years, it seems as the supply of these and the Astra 400 have dried up. I wonder where they all are?

In peoples collections likely.

Andre Krumins, yeah, well maybe, but in the US, collections especially for somewhat odd handguns tend to have a LOT of change. In over 40 years of collecting and seeing how firearms change hands it’s just strange how thing come and go. For example! I’ve been looking for a real good Mauser HSC for over 25 years at a good price. Checking web auctions and watching gun shops in 4 states, they’ve been rare up until the last 18 months - now I’ve seen like 15-16 in the SE US, of course prices are pretty high. I wonder how things like Forgotten Weapons prompt people to go get Grandpop’s old pistol he brought back from WWII and sell that old Astra?

I HAVE A ASTRA 300,FROM 1935,IN MY HOUSE IN TIJUANA,READING THAT WAS COMMON TO FIND IT IN AMERICA BACK THEN,I DOUBT IF MINE CAME FROM AMERICA OR WITH THE SPANISH REFUGEES DURING THE CIVIL WAR OR THE REGIME....I PAY IN 2001 AROUND 180 BUCKS,REALLY SMALL GOOD TO MAKE RUN THE THIEFS

Matthew WH not sure, I’m in Australia, pretty sure you can still buy them here.

My exact first though

Alexandre Velhinho Was going to make the same comment. Ian, I love you and your work a lot, but as a Spaniard I almost hissed. If you had said that in public in Spain, you would start a riot.

It was also somewhat disappointing that Ian kind of skipped over the part that makes the bombing of Guernica even more noteworthy; that it was done on behalf of Franco by Hitler and Mussolini.

Counter-correction! The italians also helped transport the troops in Morocco to the peninsula, but the bulk of the Army was actually transported by sea; the so-called "Convoy de la Victoria" (the Convoy of Victory).

Los "republicanos", golpistas y comunistas revolucionarios JAMAS pueden ser, por definición, ni leales ni nacionales. Cae por su propio peso. Son siervos de la internacional comunista y demás engendros de la alta banca internacional con sede en Nueva York.Son todos revolucionarios y destructores de naciones. Los nacionales SI que eran leales a la nación, como su propio nombre indica. Y ganaron la guerra con todo en contra precisamente, porque la mayoría de españoles captaron rápidamente quiénes eran los verdaderos "loyalists" La guerra empezó cuando la situación de caos, crímenes, traición, golpes, revoluciones frustradas, asesinatos, quema de iglesias y conventos, terror , checas y otras cortesías de los "demócratas" se hizo insostenible y los españoles reaccionaron. Técnicamente la guerra no fue realmente una guerra civil, sino una cruzada (así la consideró la Iglesia Católica oficialmente) Y no podía ser una guerra civil desde el momento en que un bando no lucha por España sino por otra cosa. Pero el cáncer jamás se ha ido de casa... ni de España ni del resto de países. Alerta...

Marina Pino Los republicanos eran fervientemente anticomunistas. Tanto es así que se esforzaron en aplastar las colectividades construídas por los anarquistas. Su alianza con la URSS era puramente circunstancial. En realidad, yo diría que fueron más bien los "nacionales" los destructores de naciones: arrasaron con cualquier identidad nacional que no fuese la española; la gallega, la catalana, la asturleonesa, la portuguesa en Olivença, etc. La guerra empezó porque las élites eclesiástico-militares y burguesas no querían un gobierno de izquierdas. El golpe se preparó con motivo de las elecciones del 36, en caso de que la derecha las perdiese (aunque hubo otros intentos antes). Y no estuvo apoyado por la mayoría de los españoles, todo lo contrario; fueron los civiles los que frenaron el alzamiento en la mayoría de la península, mientras que de parte de los sublevados prácticamente los únicos civiles en sumarse fueron los carlistas, que eran más bien paramilitares. Allí donde triunfó el golpe lo hizo por represión militar, no por aclamación popular, y siempre con resistencia (los maquis en Galicia, por ejemplo), resistencia que por cierto se extendió de una forma u otra a lo largo de toda la dictadura, muestra de la oposición popular al franquismo.

güernica xD

haha my first thought when Ian pronounced it. In my american high school years I always heard it pronounced without the u.

Para ser inglés no lo hace nada mal...

Guernica o Güernica? what is the correct pronunciation? Internet does not help.

Guernica (en vasco sería Guernika)...Ian la pronuncia con diéresis o sea usando la ü...

Thrawnmulus Guardia Civil

mogaman28 my dang

Devin Overmeyer I would guess something like that PTRD-41 blooper video.

Yes, it's about drop safety. Also, in pocket pistols, it can save your balls. Literally.

+Joaquin Andreu. Damn u sir, i just felt a chill running up from my balls.

It's only complicated for non-Germans.

I’m disappointed that I read tomatoes both ways, but you’re right

There were stukas involved in the bombing of Gernika. A handful of them. The larger number were level bombers though. And those couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from inside unless used for area saturation bombing. Keeping in mind that the Kondor Legion used even Ju52s as bombers, accuracy is not an excuse - it was a real consideration, because those planes had taken part in bombing raids before aimed at pinpoint targets and they knew all too well that, other than the stukas (which again, were a handful only), those weren't easy to hit with level bombers.

champimuros sorry we dont give a fuck. Were english, not native speakers.

Deep South Ok but at least don't butcher foreign words so badly.

m I'd say more like 2.5. I'm from Santiago de Compostela, so I speak 3 languages, but most people from Madrid, Paris or Lisbon probably speak only 1 or 2.

1 or 2? Compañero, aqui en Marbella se supone que la peña debería hablar inglés casi perfectamente por la cantidad de giris que tenemos, y aún asi habitualmente cuando se necesita a un anglohablante lo mas seguro es que el único en un radio de por lo menos 500m sea yo, a menos que esté con mi familia claro.

They are gone.

Unfortunately, it died back in 1999, but in 2008 an italian entrepeneur called Massimo Garbarino revived the company under the name "Armas Astra S.A" and bought all of the old Astra's patents.

It is, it works the same as the 400 and 600.

Thanks! It seems obvious, but the unexpected is part of what makes these older guns so interesting.

Hi. I am really interested in both items. If you give me a way to contact you we can talk more.

The Stoned Videogame Nerd yes I do , they make good pistols. One of the things that my nation can be proud of I guess 🤔

The Stoned Videogame Nerd and it's not Canik , it's Canık , ı is pronounced like the i in pencil

At the time, Astra's products were very well made. Bordering on overbuilt. that aside- Germany could not produce sufficient arms for all it's military/police, and bought and impressed a large variety of foreign arms and material. E/g, the Polish Vis ("Radom") was known as the P645(p) in German service.

The Axis forces were allied with the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War, and when the Nationalists won in 1939, it would make sense to buy weapons from Spain, as they themselves were already operating at full capacity during a war. Not a lot of countries would trade with the Axis because the US was on the Allied side, and getting in trouble with the US on trade wouldn't be great. So Germany buys from wherever they can during WWII, as long as the equipment works.

Well... In the early XX century Spain was making top quality shotguns, pistols and revolvers, mostly overbuild due to the high standars of Spanish troops at the time and the civil market, after the civil war with the autarchy the quality dropped to "well, at least it shoots and doesn't explode" (except our beloved CETME), and now... well, Santa Barbara builds cheap quality G36 and the rest is imported mostly