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!

[WebleyWombler]

Pretty certain it's an RO72. I have one on the table in front of me as I type.

Why do people do things like this? Because they can! some people are cash poor and time rich, others do not like to throw things away. it might even be a broken someones pride and joy that has been rescued from oblivion

We will never know but I feel sure it did not come out of any professional manufactury in the state it is in now. £15-£25 at the auction if the seller is very lucky and the buyer is blind?

[Shed tuner]

I sold my ro72 for a burger at Mick's bash a couple of years ago.. I think I got a good deal

[Neil.]

Possibly the worst gun I've ever owned. Utter shite.

[rapidresponse1]

that bad eh

[Shed tuner]

that bad eh

from an engineering perspective I'd describe it as the absolute minimum required to qualify as an air pistol.
Every component is just barely capable of performing it's function, and the sum of the whole is even less than the parts.

[ccdjg]

So it's not very good then?

[archer24]

I used to sell loads of them, I remember getting 12 in from Sussex Armoury so packed in grease I had to strip them down and re-oil them before a pellet would shoot out the barrel......
Did sell one to Teddy Taylor the local MP, never came back for any more pellets so obviously didn’t get much use.....🤣

[Geezer]

So it's not very good then?

Of course. But it’s too easy simply to slag this stuff off.

They were around the same price (early-mid 80s) as a similarly cheaply-constructed (though I’d argue more desirable) FB Rekord LP2 or 77, and a half to a third the price of a Webley Tempest/Hurricane, BSA Scorpion, Diana LP5, Crosman 1377 etc.

Yes the marketing hype bore no relation to the reality. But for twenty or fewer of your hard-earned Thatcher-era quids, you got a pistol that looked nice, handled well, and had both adjustable sights (though prone to “self-adjust”), and a scope rail.

And the long-barrelled, scoped, “Panther Artillery Carbine” had a real “Man from UNCLE” vibe.

[scooter48]

Of course. But it’s too easy simply to slag this stuff off.

They were around the same price (early-mid 80s) as a similarly cheaply-constructed (though I’d argue more desirable) FB Rekord LP2 or 77, and a half to a third the price of a Webley Tempest/Hurricane, BSA Scorpion, Diana LP5, Crosman 1377 etc.

Yes the marketing hype bore no relation to the reality. But for twenty or fewer of your hard-earned Thatcher-era quids, you got a pistol that looked nice, handled well, and had both adjustable sights (though prone to “self-adjust”), and a scope rail.

And the long-barrelled, scoped, “Panther Artillery Carbine” had a real “Man from UNCLE” vibe.

If you are a collector buy it and put in your collection,but dont use it.Its all part of airgun history.