Testing 7.65mm French Long Ammo (Reed's and Buffalo Arms) 

Reed's is charging $1.50 a round for ammo that A) doesn't even cycle, and B) has over 300 FPS of velocity spread? That's ridiculous and unacceptable.

"This doesnt have a good reputation, I don't know if this is going to fire or not..." *CLINK* Your knowledge is on point.

Looks like you could play russian roulette with an automatic pistol when using french surplus ammo...

Ian’s use of ammo boxes as bookends makes me feel a happiness like no other

Ian...don't be silly. We will enjoy any content you make and beg for more...

The genuine excitement at 4:06 “OHHHH it fully cycled “

I am reminded of the pain many new Luger owners have when they start throwing any modern 9mm parabellum off the shelf through the gun and find the lighter loads just won't do. The idea that you want the hotter loads in your century-old pistol seems counter-intuitive but darned if your Luger would agree.

We made ammo for MAS from US 30 cal Carbine cases. Just need to cut them to a proper length and mill inside of the case thinner to accept a bullet. Worked pretty well.

When you've already watched the latest Q&A and know neither of the new options are going to work, at least there is light on the horizon with the run of proper brass coming.

So basically, Ian paid $1.50 per round of complete junk and wanted to let everybody know.

"The Duelist" handloaded some ammo that seemed to work fairly well. He may be of assistance.

Hey Ian, You mentioned small manufacturers making this ammo in the near future. This is right in the wheelhouse of the company I'm co-owner of. We've looked at making 7.65 french long before but it wasn't cost effective for us to make cases. Once Starline starts making brass there is a very good chance that we will start offering it. If there's any questions feel free to ask here or send me a message directly.

I genuinely laughed out loud when the 3rd French cartridge failed to fire.

So when are you going to do a post-apocalyptic themed match on InRange? You using .32acp in your French 1935 and Karl using the Medusa. You get to rack the slide every shot, Karl gets to reload from a bag of .40-ish caliber things.

Most will know this already but for people new to this cartridge it is worth pointing out the ammo was originally developed by Remington ammo and was adopted by the US Army as the .30 Pederson or .30 - 1918 (or .30 - '18) Auto Pistol. It was demonstrated in the 03 Springfield rifle outfitted the Pederson device and the French liked it so much they adopted it and then developed pistols and sub machine guns to utilize it. Bertram brass of Australia also offers brass occasionally.

Cool. I have felt your pain. Nice job handling the hangfires on camera.

Gun Jesus showing his godly flinch control

Let me get this right: there are manufacturers selling 7.5mm french reloads that don't shoot well at all in the 7.5mm weapons which are supposed to fire them. The question would be...why?. I mean if you're selling stuff that doesn't cycle the pistol that runs it (I'm more than guessing that it won't cycle the SMG either), what's the point?. Who's buying that ammo to begin with?. I'm sure I'm missing something here...which other weapons (other than french weapons chambered for it) fire those rounds reliably?. If any?. And if none...what's the point of those manufacturers selling that stuff?. I'm seriously puzzled.

Thank you for posting this video and information. I have a 1935A with Nazi production marks that my dad brought back as a war trophy from WWII. I distinctly remember firing .32 ACP rounds through this pistol back in the day when surplus ammo was scare and production rounds were non-existent. Every round fired failed to eject. Some years ago, I purchased some production rounds from Gad Custom Cartridges and was impressed with them, despite being about $1/round. Every round cycled perfectly with no misfires. I also agree with your assessment of these pistols…they are impressive in terms of accuracy and field stripping is as easy as it gets. The 7.65 Long is certainly not a “go to” choice as a defensive round, but properly loaded, my experience was that bullet trajectory was dead flat at 30 yards.

I really like how Ian keeping his books standing/separated with a box of ammos...

We just wanna see the MAS run :( :( :( we all wish you luck on your quest...

Holy crap, that commercial ammo is not just underpowered it's also incredibly inconsistent. I can understand ammo not being manufactured to the correct spec when that's unknown but you'd expect them to at least load it to SOME spec, wouldn't you?

Ian has some sneaky advertising in this video. Saw his shirt, was wondering "Who the hell is James Puckle", searched it, and now I'm watching another Forgotten Weapons video on the Puckle gun 😂

I've seen quite a few misfires in RU-vid shooting videos now, and you are just about the only person who has actually waited those few vital seconds for safety before clearing the dud round and trying again. Well done to you but it doesn't say much for the other guys!

There was so much in this video. Excellent test.

Considering I've seen entire boxes of ammo shot in the wrong Glock that still functioned (9 in a 40, 40 in a 45) .. I'm not surprised much. Glad to hear your babies will get some food finally.

Always nerve wracking watching you deal with a hang fire ...... TY for the interesting video

Hey, your Bergmann fell over

When I saw the title of this video, I thought this will be boring. I was very happily surprised to find it quite informative. Great video as usual.

When things don't go well Ian always finds a way of making it a learning experience , cracking

Love the occasional shift from the usual format!

It amazes me how well you kept your composure. I’m frustrated for you at the fact you had to wait for the MAS 38 to transfer just for the ammo available to be complete garbage. I hope the new brass deal works out, look forward to seeing that baby run!

I love that you use boxes of bullets as bookends, well played

Awesome video Ian. Love the shirt too!

Very interesting thanks for posting

Hope you work something out soon.. can't wait to see that MAS in action!

I like your bookends Ian!

Cool! progress! Can't wait for the MAS 38 experience to trickle down!

Really nice job not flinching!

Excellent work, as always - actually i came here after couple of "related" videos in search of information on .30 Super Carry which you kindly have covered in another video. I think that the observed lack of performance of the .32ACP loaded into 7.65 French Long chamber actually has less to do with the fact the cartridge is rimmed and more with the fact the brass is just too short. Short brass won't properly headspace no matter it is rimmed or not, because even rimmed cases will hang (and most of the time, fire) on the extractor. Heavy sooting of the brass is clear evidence of gas leakage and what you show looks virtually identical to straight wall/tapered cases without the rim, fired from chamber that's too long. Myself tried the .40S&W in my Glock 20 chambered in 10mm Auto and .380ACP (9x17 Browning Short) in my Walther PP Super chambered for 9x18 Police/Ultra. The result is always the same - they fire allright, bullet leaves the barrel, the good part of brass is sooted and the performance is down by 10-20% from the published numbers. A side effect worth to note it's difficult to hit the broad side of barn with these. Keep up the good work!

I was hoping you would test this to get the MAS 36 working. I love horology and love guns, that thing is like the ultimate combination of those two interests.

We had exactly the opposite problem in Canada. We used Sterling submachine guns and Browning 9mm pistols. We only had one standard for ammo, and obviously that had to be ammo that would cycle the submachine guns. Ammo hot enough to work well in SMGs beat the hell out of the pistols. I used to command a platoon of weapons techs, and we were forever fixing 9mm pistols cracked slides and cracked feed ramps. Luckily we had enough spare parts to last until the end of time.

when I bought my 1935 A it came with custom reloading dies. I have never purchased commercial ammo but Midway occasionally when in stock, sells a 20 rnd pack of (Buffalo) brass. That plus Cartridges of the world, but alas no chronograph, it was fairly easy to work up functional rounds. I have handloaded my own. Proper bullet weight and powder charge was a work in progress, I also have a 1935 S and yes, they are beautifully built pistols. Out of my reloads I have exactly 51 functional rounds that run, cycle the weapons, and have reasonable accuracy. The rest were poorly made, out of speck. ruptured on the 1st shooting (one left a brass case stuck int he chamber sans head (grumble). I consider each funtional one precious. When I first heard your info on Starline I quickly emailed them and begged for some. Here is to hope that this happens. I would LOVE to see your sub gun cycle.. talk about rare... THANKS IAN We are a small fraternity, but French weapons aficionados are a persistent cusses :)

I remember guns & ammo did a reloading article on the French long cartridge and they used M1 Carbine brass cut down. They got the guns to function and cycle. But that article as I recall late 70s early 80s when a bunch of those French guns came into the country.

Great to see something a little different. Thats what i like bout inrange channel

I may have missed it in the past, but I love the “bookends” of ammunition. Good dual purpose use of something every household should have. Lol.

I don't remember having seen a video on the 1935A pistol on the channel; was there one on yours yet? Is one planned? On another note, this was a very nice video, thank you! It had been a long time since a similarly technical (with measured numbers) one had been done on the channel... Perfect demonstration that ammunition quality and specifications is something paramount to shoot a weapon correctly.

Very interesting post. Thanks.

You might not need to cut the recoil spring of your gun. I was watching This Old Tony's video on making springs, and he mentioned the outermost, close windings being inactive. In theory, you may be able to inactivate part of the spring by precompressing and clamping it with steel wire or something similar. Then you can just loosen the clamp if you ever find proper ammo.

@5.28 If you put a loaded m9 magazine in a .40cal beretta it will chamber a round when you pull the slide back and fire and eject to 9mm brass with 70%ish success rate. Dont ask me how I know.

The cartridge must be refilled at about 340m/s(factory load, 89grains bullet) to cycle. Greetings from Europe

I bought Starline Brass in 7.65 French Longue.. I load it with a 71 grain .32 ACP plated bullet over 3.9 Gr. of HP38.. Perfect cycling. Accuracy is less than 2 inches at 15 yards. Recoil is not bad and muzzle blast is like a .38 Plus P round. Prior to getting the Starline Brass, I modified a recoil spring, the original (I have a couple replacement full power springs) by trimming back the length until I got proper cycling of the .32 ACP round. Since the .32 ACP round is a semi rimmed cartridge, the rims are too large for the magazine. I can only get 3 in the magazine before I have the cartridge hang up. I also remedied this by chucking up the cartridge in a low speed drill and filing the rim down a few thousandths of an inch and at that point, it cycled like it was made for those rounds. WARNING!!!! The powder charge is what I settled on by a few hundred rounds of experimentation as I could find no load data for this round with any powder that I have, and I have quite a few different propellants. If you plan to shoot this, back off your powder charges by about 15%. That is where I started. I also came up with a cast bullet load for it. 100 grain .32 H&R Magnum bullet over 3.6 grains of HP38... Same warning applies... I also bought 200 rounds of CCI .30 Super Carry loaded ammo and pulled the bullets, dumped the powder and trimmed the cases to the proper length of the 7.65 MM French Longue case before I got in my Starline Cases... They all shoot great. I now have 600 rounds loaded for this little pistol. I, like Iam, like the oddball stuff ... If you have one of these little pistols, here is some help to get them shooting again. If this video interests you and you don't mind doing a bit of work, get one as soon as you can. If you are an experienced Handloader as I am, making oddball ammo is not that difficult. It will remind you of the old Wildcatting days... Ian, Thank you for this video... Make up some ammo for yourself and enjoy that little pistol.

3:58 new sound board button unlocked.

I got an email alert the other day saying starline is now making brass! Ordered 1000 pieces and then wake up this morning and see this video in my feed. Scary how google knows but at least it’s a great recommendation!

Buffalo Arms, are a great company. Got some .40-72 rounds for my grandfather's 1895 Winchester lever action. Dad and I agreed to range test test it.

God this is the most tense thing I've ever seen IS IT GONNA FIRE

88gr at 1,100 fps sounds an awful lot like (slightly warm) .380 ACP. That slide BARELY moved with the .32.

Just noticed your bookends, nice!

Interesting recommended list today

HOORAY !!!!!! ........ Starline is now making brass for this caliber. I bought my 1935A in 1992 , so I have been waiting a long time for brass .........

can't wait to see the MAS 38 smg finally work!

That Puckle gun shirt is awesome, btw.

You have the best job in the world!

I like your bookends. Very classy.

Ian if your plans to shoot up your couple hundred rounds of under power ammo don't work out you might consider picking up a Savage or NEF small frame single shot rifle in 22 Hornet and have it rebored and rechambered to .30 French Longue. That would give you a poor man's version of a English 300 Rook rifle.

Hey Ian, just wanted to remind you that spring rates go up when you shorten them. Not saying it won't make the gun function to shorten it, but a shorter-stiffer spring will behave differently than an equal-length-softer one.

Thanks for the vid, Gun Jesus

Good video cant wait till you do get some proper ammo. And dont know if you just started or for some reason haven't notice till know, you use ammo boxes as book stops. Nice!

...and the comments about the ammunition are just as informative. :)

One of my plans to start an ammunition mfg. division is to also reproduce uncommon/ obsolete ammo at customers request if I haven't produced it yet

Just noticed all of your book ends are Ammo boxes... sweet!

My 1935A was converted with a sleve to .32 acp, I might buy some of the starline and trim to 17mm to protect the extractor. It works and ejects the ones I tried.

I said when u bought the MAS subgun that i thought either Fiocchi or PPU was making ammo. Guess my memory was wrong. That's a bummer. Hopefully Starline will ride to the rescue. Their stuff is top notch. In recent years they have rescued some obscure cartridges, for cowboy action and other reasons. I know they catalog 38S&W, 44 Colt, 45 Schofield, 460 Rowland, and some others. If they do bring out the brass, i may look for a pistol, assuming i can find one here in Kalifornia. They are a nice design. The velocities u got from the Walther PP were just what i expected. Ball type ammo is 71 gr rated at 900 fps from a 3.75" bbl. Always wanted a PP in the original 32ACP chambering. Great video as always. Thank you

That's a pretty darn cool shirt, Ian.

For the amount they are charging the failures are completely unacceptable. That ammo should function like a champ for that price.

I had a different experience with Buffalo Arms loads. I just shot 50 of them and the only issue I had was a couple of failure to fires despite primer strike. this could be a gun issue. all of the rounds I fired cycled by 1935A just fine. I didn't chrono them but I was pretty pleased with the Buffalo loads. just my experience. thanks.

Already yelling "Nein oh nein" after firing the Walter only twice.

Ian, you need to tell both companies what you found.

My french surplus ammo did the exact same thing. I only had maybe 3 or 4 in a row actually fire. Mine is the 1935s model

Sir, you are a very patient man because I'd be saying words you don't say around a five year old.

Boy I tell ya that is a good view of the headache old ammo can provide

Love the T-shirt.

Great video, I got my fingers crossed that starline starts making brass. I have been reloading for this caliber using brass that I have converted. It has been a bit of a challenge, there is not a lot of data available for this round. Also, as I understand it, firing 32acp is not really that good of an idea for these pistols. The case is too short and the case head is larger on the 32acp. As it was explained to me, it could possibly cause damage to the pistols extractor.

I envy your knowledge and access to firearms in one so young. A Brit! 😀

That's where revolvers have advantage. You can shoot any weak or strong ammo, it wont jam. Semi auto jams because they depend on strong enough pressure to be ejected.

Can I just highlight that Ian uses ammo boxes for bookends? Very nice.

And so the search for the legendary 7.65 French Long continues......

Have you considered buying the brass alone from buffalo and just loading it hotter? I know it's a pain, but that's likely your best bet until good commercial loads come out.

So from the video the thing I got if the velocity produced by the ammo is about 1100 fps or near it the gun will cycle reliably. Need to find better spec powder.

You would think it'd be easy for them to make ammo wouldn't you? I mean it was mass produced for military use for years

This is the real firearm equivalent to a springer airsoft gun

The 35A and 35S are two of my favorite pistols. I keep hoping that Prvi Partizan, Fiocchi or S&B will take pity on us and do some seasonal runs of this round...

the presenting hand he does when 32ACP chambers

It must be nice to be Ian and not get kicked out of a gun range for shooting the wrong ammo out of a gun. Especially one that's not properly sealing lol

Hey thats pretty neat

Sound like you need to con Karl into loading some rounds for you. Some Power Pistol will get those rounds moving at the right velocity. Trim down .32H&R to get that thicker case web to handle higher pressure.

Cutting the recoil spring is very good idea mate, but I think it's gonna be tiring. You cut 1 link from the spring then assemble the gun, shoot, see if it cycles, if not, open up again, cut another link, re-assemble, shoot, see if it cycles, BUT it's worth it, the experience, the knowledge and the understanding of the weapon is ALL worth it.

Now I know what gun and ammo to supply my enemies...

Love the tee-shirt!

Nice book collection. Did you ever think about publishing a list of what's in your library?