Third Party Press

Radom VisP35

F

Flowjoe

Member
A friend picked this up as a mismatched pistol because the SN under the safety didn’t match the rest of the pistol. When he broke the pistol down he found the inside of the slide was stamped with the correct SN. He picked it up cheap because of the mismatch and the broken slide catch. When he showed it to me I noticed the German proof/acceptance marks (He hadn’t noticed them). I know nothing about Radom VisP35s and he knows nothing about German usage of Polish weapons. I thought someone up here might be able to offer some insight as to the likely manufacture/usage (captured? Manufactured during the occupation?) and if there might be an explanation for the mismatched SN under the safety while the inside of the slide is SN stamped appropriately.
Thanks for any thoughts you might have.
 

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The number under the safety is not supposed to be the serial number so consider your friend very lucky.
 
moosedog said:
The number under the safety is not supposed to be the serial number so consider your friend very lucky.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That is fortunate for him. If not the serial then what does it represent? This was an impulse buy on his part as he’s really more of a more of an Eastern Block guy with Poland and Yugoslavia being his favorites. So when he saw the Radom for, what he considered, a low price he snapped it up.
 
Its an assembly number for the factory to keep track of parts and pieces because they had a habit of walking away.
 
ugafx4 said:
Its an assembly number for the factory to keep track of parts and pieces because they had a habit of walking away.
Click to expand...
Well that explains things a bit. Funny they didn’t just use the SN for that though.

Any thoughts on whether this pistol was built under the Germans or captured and then put into German service?
 
Radom made parts kits that were sent to other locations for assembly. On your example you can see the components were manufactured by Radom as shown by the Eagle 77 acceptance on all the parts. They would have carts full of slides, frames etc moving all around the factory and from parts factory to assembly factory. They needed to keep track of all these parts. I can not quite make out the final acceptance but I think it is e/623 indicating that it was assembled by Steyr. In this case at assembly by Steyr would be where the actual serial number was applied. The final acceptance is located after the slide legend.

This is a second alpha series in the C block. You can tell it is a second alpha because it does not have a takedown lever. This was a 100% German occupation production Radom probably in mid 44ish?
 
That is very informative, thanks, and I will pass this on to my friend. I will get him to take a better shot of the final acceptance.

Any thoughts as to value? Curious to know if he did well on the purchase.
 
Flowjoe said:
That is very informative, thanks, and I will pass this on to my friend. I will get him to take a better shot of the final acceptance.

Any thoughts as to value? Curious to know if he did well on the purchase.
Click to expand...
What did he pay for it?
 
If you knew what he paid I could let you know if he got a decent deal or not. These have had a nice jump in the last couple years like all milsurps
 
When Germany occupied Poland, they took over the Radom Plant. The Vis 35 started production in 1936 and continued through the war under German control. A phenominal gun based on John Browning's design. Quality suffered late war as they tried to produce large numbers. Hope that helps.

Jay
 
The dark brown grips are not that common, not rare though. This is the serial range I most commonly see them so they are likely correct. I would love to see the back of them.

I am not really up to date on the rapidly raising prices but $700+/- $100l is probably ball park.
 
mike radford said:
The dark brown grips are not that common, not rare though. This is the serial range I most commonly see them so they are likely correct. I would love to see the back of them.

I am not really up to date on the rapidly raising prices but $700+/- $100l is probably ball park.
Click to expand...
That is helpful - thanks. I’ll see if I can get you some shots of the back side of the grips.
 
DogDoc said:
When Germany occupied Poland, they took over the Radom Plant. The Vis 35 started production in 1936 and continued through the war under German control. A phenominal gun based on John Browning's design. Quality suffered late war as they tried to produce large numbers. Hope that helps.

Jay
Click to expand...
Thanks for the response - we were aware of all that stuff. Were really trying to figure out where this particular piece fell in both time and value.
 
Way below market. Most likely because of the assembly number under the safety confusion as a non matching slide.
 
I was basing my market comment on the post from Mike on Thursday…definitely less than what you just paid but yours looks to be in nicer condition than my friends.

and I think your right about the mismatched assumption. That’s how it was represented and how he approached the purchase.
 
Flowjoe said:
I was basing my market comment on the post from Mike on Thursday…definitely less than what you just paid but yours looks to be in nicer condition than my friends.

and I think your right about the mismatched assumption. That’s how it was represented and how he approached the purchase.
Click to expand...
I’d agree $770 is a good price, for a matching two lever you’re in the $1k ballpark. Radoms really popped but prices seem to have leveled off a little bit for now
 
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