Can anyone identify this pistol?

[ccdjg]

I spotted this pistol that has just come up for auction and it has got me puzzled. The front sight and sheet metal cocking link suggest the Panther RO72 or French Manuarm pistol, but the body of the pistol is nothing like these. The grip plate looks almost home made. Anyone any ideas what it might be?

[Geezer]

Isn’t it just a Gun Toys/IGI RO72 with a home-made grip frame replacing the fragile plastic original, and a different (home-made?) cylinder end cap?

The barrel, front sight, rear sight, cocking link and trigger all look IGI to me.

[ccdjg]

I am inclined to agree, as there are many points of similarity. This pic of an RO72 is taken from the Gallery:




The only snag to this assumption is the frame on the unknown pistol. This would have to be a complete replacement, as once the outer plastic husk of the RO72 grip is removed, there is virtually nothing left underneath. Unlike the grip plate, the frame has a factory-made look (examine the trigger guard for example). If it is home made, I wonder why anyone would spend a hours making such a frame for what is a very inferior pistol?

Could it be a rare very early example, or even a protoype?

[Geezer]

I don’t know. People do odd things.

I do know that I’ve owned about 3 of those excrescences over the years and that they all broke the grip frame. Broke at the front of the trigger guard, around the grip screws, or just in random places from looking at them too hard.

I can imagine someone with skills and machinery making up a new better frame once theirs broke.

[ccdjg]

You are probably right. They must have had more than enough by the time they got to the grip plates.

[Garvin]

Hard to say. I also think Geezer probably has it right.

I 'upgraded' my Harrington Gat to the awful RO72 at age 14 when a schoolfriend got his hands on a Crosman 1300 pump-up. In .177 with a BSA 'scope and I spent many hours shooting it.

I later had a boxed .22 cal RO72 in my collection at one time that I paid a fiver for. When I moved home about 10 years ago I had to decide whether to selll it or bring it with me to a temporarily smaller place.

In the end I binned it rather than inflict it on someone else and have to pack it up and post it, when I had a million other things to do! I wouldn't have done that with any other airgun but I knew intimately how truly bad it was!