Saturday, January 1, 2011

Why Can't They Talk?

I wish some of these things could talk.  This pistol will never work again.  Interestingly, it doesn't look that bad in this photo.  But, believe me, its thrashed.  What makes it fascinating to me is that it was abused, just used to the point of wearing out.  It is a Russian Nagant.  If you've ever seen the move "Enemy at the Gates" the Russian officer in the boat shooting at the people in the river at the very beginning is shooting one of these.  Its the only time I remember seeing one in a film.  Anyway, for all I know, this one was there at Stalingrad.  They are a weird revolver.  I used to have one I bought when they cleaned out of bunch of Eastern European arsenals after the fall of the Soviet Union.  I paid like $200.00 for it, just because.  It is such a bizarre design.  The cartridges have the projectile inside the shell casing and when you cock the hammer, the whole cylinder moves forward and shoves the end of the brass into the forcing cone.  OK, it does make a fantastic seal, but...once you've fired them all, then you have to eject the spent casings to reload.  I only shot it once because I had to go into my shop and knock the casings out of the cylinder with a punch because of the way they expand when fired.  I want to know how the hell they used these things in battle.  I probably would still have that one, which was essentially in new condition, but some guy just had to have it so, I sold it to him.  This one isn't worth anything and to me, is much more interesting.  Some Russian soldier used this thing...a lot.  And, somehow, it ended up here in the United States in this condition.  Every other one I've seen were arsenal imports...which makes me even more curious about the history of this one.  But...too bad, because I've just told you all I'll ever know about it.  Actually, I shouldn't say it will never work again...because it probably does "work"...but I'll never fire it.  I wasn't all that comfortable shooting the one in good shape.

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