Martian Commercial

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Yung.gunr

New member
Ok, my Dad volunteered me to help a family member get their little pistol running right. Gee thanks Dad....

So I get there and it is a Martian Commercial in 6.35mm. Anyone ever heard of this? It says that it is made in Spain but I don't see many other markings on it. I guess because it's so small there is no room (haha).

A little Google Fu says the 6.35 is the same as 25ACP. Anyone know of the validity of this? From online searches it looks like the .25ACP is going to be a heck of a lot easier to find.

Now I haven't shot it yet, but my Dad says when they shot it it would fire the first round and jam after that. I figure I will start off with a little cleaning and oiling and see where it goes from there.

Sure is an interesting Spanish gun though. I can only get one finger on there and it is in a little rough shape, otherwise I probably would have made an offer on it.
 
T

Tom Servo

Staff
It's a .25 ACP. The designer was Martin Bascaran (sp?), but for some reason, the pistol was trademarked as "Martian." The design was deemed overly complicated, and it was discontinued prior to WWI.
 
J

Jim Watson

New member
The "Martian Commercial" was made by Martin A. Bascaran in Eibar, Spain from 1919 til about 1928. It is pretty much a cheap knockoff of the 1906 Browning/Colt.

Yes, 6.35mm is the same as .25 ACP.

Good luck tinkering it into shape.
Of course there are no spare parts except for the Triple K replacement magazine, so don't sink a lot of time or money into it.

Note to Tom's post: The Martian was the pre WW I gun from M.A.B.; the Martian Commercial was a post war economy model.
 
Y

Yung.gunr

New member
Wow, I didn't realize it was so old. I figured it was old but jeez.

I guess for a cheap knock off it's not doing too bad. Maybe I should start getting cheap knockoffs of things... Haha, not really.

Thanks for that info as well, I wasn't able to find even that on my searches. Sometimes I think Google has it out for me.
 
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Jim Watson

New member
Not everything worth knowing is on the internet and even if it is, it may not be in convenient form. I have not replaced most of the books lost in the fire, but in this case the Triple K magazine catalog is a good index of oddball autopistols.
 
J

James K

Member In Memoriam
There is some interest in those old Spanish auto pistols, but only to someone who collects odd guns with odd names. The value is pretty low, and dealers won't even take them in trade because they cannot warrant them if they sell them. Most gunsmiths won't work on them because the frustration factor is high and charging a fair price would put the cost above the value of the gun.

If you can get it to work without spending much time or money, fine, but if you fix one thing today, something else will go wrong tomorrow. I suggest keeping it as a paperweight and talking piece.

Jim
 
R

RJay

New member
On these old " Eibar " guns, in 99 and 99/100% of the time , the jamming is caused by the magazine feed lips. The originals magazines were made from softer steel, and the new ones being offered are genetic, they may or may not work properly. Good luck in your endeavor .
 
P

polyphemus

New member
It's a .25 ACP. The designer was Martin Bascaran (sp?), but for some reason, the pistol was trademarked as "Martian."
Click to expand...
This is probably not too relevant but it is pronounced martee-ann,the name was not intended to imply an origin from the fourth planet.Eibar gun trivia I guess.
 
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James K

Member In Memoriam
Like many of the names used on those old Spanish guns, the word "Martian" is clearly an English word, reflecting the fact that the U.S. was a major market for those products. The Spanish word for "Martian" (a person or thing from or relating to the planet Mars) is "el Marciano"; the adjective form is "marciano/a". (The Spanish word "Martiano" relates to José Martí.)

Jim
 
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polyphemus

New member
ok,from Mars it is,Marvin would be proud.
Master gunsmith Martin Anton Bascaran and family produced many types of
firearms and air carbines late nineteenth and early to mid twentieth in Eibar.
Would you not consider Martian a contraction of his two first names?
 
J

James K

Member In Memoriam
A contraction is quite possible; trade names come from all kinds of sources. I agree, though, that Sr. Bascaran probably was not from Mars.

Jim
 
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James K

Member In Memoriam
It won't be much money. TV pawn shops might shell out thousands of dollars but real ones are not like that. And they don't like to take old Spanish pistols at all because even for a pawn shop the markup on those guns won't cover the cost of the paperwork.

Jim
 
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