HELP! Spanish Bufalo .25 - How to field strip it?

j-framer

New member
Dear friends,

I recently acquired a tiny, Spanish-made, .25 caliber Bufalo pocket pistol. The design and appearance are similar to those of the well-known Colt 1908 “Vest Pocket” model of the same caliber. For all I know, the Bufalo may be a copy of the Colt or its European twin, the FN model of 1906.

My gun looks just like this:

7rsm-72.jpg


Picture is not mine. It is from: http://armsbid.com/ks7pix/7rsm-72.jpg

After searching high and low for a day or so, it appears that information about the Bufalo .25 is very hard to come by. I was able to turn up little of any use (online, anyway – I plan to start investigating actual books and other paper publications soon, as time permits. But I’m hoping some of you may be able to help first).

What I primarily want to know is how to disassemble (field strip) this firearm. At first, I was confident that disassembly would follow the pattern of the Colt 1908, which is:

1) Relieve tension on striker spring by pulling trigger (manual safety off, of course, and magazine must be in the gun if it is one of those with a magazine disconnect safety).

2) Remove magazine.

3) Retract slide until about 1/16” of slide extends beyond the front edge of the frame’s dust cover.

4) Grasp barrel and rotate one-quarter turn to the right (clockwise if looking at the muzzle).

5) Permit slide to return forward under spring tension and draw it off the front of the frame.

6) Remove the barrel from the slide, as well as springs and guides, etc.

However, the disassembly process for the Bufalo is apparently not like this - or not exactly, at least. When I tried to take the gun down in the above manner, the barrel refused to rotate when the slide was in the position that a Colt’s should be in.

After some patient examination and gentle struggle, I found that, with the slide retracted much farther to the rear (approaching the extent of its travel), I was able to rotate the barrel one-quarter turn to the right. Actually, after doing this, I saw that the grasping grooves on the barrel were only fully exposed once the slide had been retracted that far, so it made sense.

Having gotten this far, I thought I was home free and that I would then be able to simply draw the slide off the front of the frame as with the Colt 1908. But then, to my frustration, the slide wouldn’t travel forward on the rails with the barrel in the rotated position.

So, I’m stuck.

Does anybody have a Bufalo .25 and if so, how do you field strip it?

Any other information you have on the Bufalo pistol would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time!
 

Magyar

New member
I thought my trusty reference book by W.H.B. Smith would have it, but it only shows a picture & vital statistics..
Sorry I couldn't help...Hope you find some info....
 

Bill DeShivs

New member
See that little notch near the front of the slide? That's the take down notch. Put the safety in the notch. You should be able to turn the barrel, now.
 

j-framer

New member
I just got it

Thanks very much, Bill (and Magyar, for the effort)!

I just got it.

I feel rather dumb now, because I hadn't noticed that there was a slide hold-back device on this gun. I had noticed the odd little "hook" on the upper side of the manual safety, but hadn't drawn the right conclusion from it.

In my original post, I mentioned that I was able finally to turn the barrel to the right. But when I did this, I wasn't using the lock-back device on the safety, I was simply holding the slide against spring tension while I experimented with every possible position. Through trial and error, I finally had found the right one, without realizing that, at that position, the slide catch on the safety was actually engaged (I was working on the gun from the right side, and couldn't see the safety).

When I went to draw the slide forward after rotating the barrel, it had seemed "stuck". Obviously, it was, in fact, being held back by the catch. Oh, well.

I am very happy to have this gun apart and ready for a good cleaning and oiling.

Many thanks, Bill.
 
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