![]() ![]() That said, French guild guns tended to be shotguns by and large. The same went for a lot of Spanish guns until Franco took over. The boxlock and barrels came from a contract producer, but all the fine parts (lock mechanisms, firing pins, safety lever, etc.) as well as the any wood work and engraving, were all done by hand in a small shop. While there were certainly state-operated manufacturing plants and arsenals, especially for military arms production, a lot of the sporting arms production was carried out by little mom-and-pop shops that were supplied with the main components that couldn't be made outside a factory. Spain and southern France both had a tradition of what can only be described as gunmaker guilds. I'm sure 500 rounds was acceptable given the circumstances. But it did serve at a time when the French losses were so dramatic that they took anything that could shoot. Let's just say this one is at the bottom of my large inventory list for range duty. ![]() ![]() Can't tell if it's badly worn (it's been said that the French gave Ruby pistols an estimated lifespan of 500 rounds) or just that poor a quality. The barrel looks hand carved and the bore has damned near no rifling left, yet it's not pitted. This one is matching but for the magazine (bought it sans mag, found an original AE marked one). It's a big lump of a pistol made from questionable quality steel. The slide rivet was added to help keep the safety lever from being swept from safe to fire modes when withdrawing it from a holster. You'll also find two French acceptance stars on the bottom of the frame near the magazine heel release. You'll find the code on the left side of the frame near the tang. code to many of the Spanish companies and this one happens to be "AE". was one of the major four though you don't see them all that often. There were four major producers of the Ruby and a vast host of Mom 'n Pop small shops hammering them out during WWI. Found a fair example built by La Armeria Elgoibaresa, Eligobar – under the odd “Lusitania” name. I made the decision I wanted one of the versions that the French kept in service post war and then installed the big, ugly slide rivet. Most are found in the range of poor to good, rarely VG or excellent, having served in most cases for two world wars. Having collected just about every version of French military auto pistol there was just one vast arena that I had purposely ignored: the Spanish Ruby. ![]()
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