Okay, let me explain.
I got myself into a bind due to my compulsive need to befriend old, obscure, neglected guns that I see at the backs of dealers’ shelves.
As I posted in a recent thread, I bought a little Spanish-made pocket pistol. It’s kind of beat up, but it seems functionally ok, except for one BIG problem: the recoil spring is so weak that the slide almost can’t go into battery on its own. It can, but just barely. And I’m not talking about chambering a round – I’m just talking about drawing the slide back with an empty magazine in the gun and letting it go. It closes, but extremely weakly. I feel there is obviously something wrong, because I’ve handled equivalent designs of Colt and FN manufacture and the spring tension is much, much greater. A world of difference.
Regarding the exact identity of the gun, well, I’ll tell you everything I know, which is very little. The pistol looks very much like a Colt 1908 .25. In fact, let me post the same photo I used in my other thread. See below. My gun looks like this:
Picture is from: http://armsbid.com/ks7pix/7rsm-72.jpg
On the left side of the slide, there are the words:
AUTOMATICA ESPANOLA – PATs 62334 Y 67577
And below this, it reads:
“BUFALO” CAL 6,35
Below that are some intricate little marks, one of which looks like a sideways, bearded buffalo head with a big grin on its face. Seriously, it does.
On the right side of the slide, it says “MADE IN SPAIN” underneath the extractor. The serial number is on the right side of the frame, right where a Colt’s would be except on the opposite side.
Unlike a Colt 1908 .25, this gun has an actual, internal hammer, not a striker. And the manual safety is like a Colt Junior’s. But otherwise the resemblance is nearly complete.
So, back to the problem: No question about it, I need a recoil spring. In fact, I’ve determined that I may need the whole recoil spring/guide rod assembly, because I looked at the assembly when I took the gun apart (thank you, Bill DeShivs) and I can’t see how to get the spring off the guide rod. It’s captured on there somehow by a bushing or something up front that keeps the front of the spring from going past the end of the guide rod. Unlike the Colt 1908 and FN 1906, the spring is not permitted to relax to its full un-tensioned length when the slide is taken off. Picture the spring/rod assembly of a Glock and you’ll get the rough idea.
Okay, let me try to wrap this up:
Knowing that I’m looking for a recoil spring assembly for a Spanish “Bufalo” pocket pistol, I went to the gun parts companies’ websites and started looking. Soon, cold fear crept into my bones because I wasn’t finding any parts for this gun anywhere.
Heck, I actually don’t even know if I’m looking under the right headings on the sites, because “Bufalo” doesn’t seem like a manufacturer, but rather a model or something. “AUTOMATICA ESPANOLA” doesn’t seem like a manufacturer’s name.
So now, in desperation, I start wondering if maybe there exists a spring or a spring/rod assembly for a different but similar gun that would function in mine. I looked at some exploded views of guns on the website for Bob’s Gun Shop, which has zillions of parts, and I saw a few spring assembly sketches that looked somewhat like the one I need to replace. One of these was the assembly for a Colt Junior/Astra Cub. Another was for an Astra “Firecat” .25.
Of course, the sketches gave me no idea of dimensions, so that’s why I was asking for them – so that I could at least see if the guide rod was of such a size that it might work. I figured that the spring would likely be of roughly the proper strength, since all the units I looked at were for .25 pistols of very similar size.
I know, I’m really reaching here. This is the pass to which I brought myself by indulging in an impulse buy. But I am determined to get that gun working.
Guys, any suggestions are welcome.
