Posted: 5/18/2015 12:45:34 PM EDT
| I was recently given a Polish/German Radom Vis Model 35 in 9mm and need some info on the gun. First, it is in good shape, bore is good bit is missing the firing pin, magazine and the slide lock is ground off. Would it be worth investing the money (about $200) to get it working? Do companies make aftermarket parts such as magazines that won't cost over $100. Would I be better off selling or trading the gun for a new hangun? Any input helps. |
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If you're a handgun / military gun collector and it's in decent shape, I'd definitely keep it and buy the parts needed to get it running. They're fairly rare guns and are not cheap. They're interesting bits of history.
I also would not shoot it a lot, just because finding parts is going to be difficult and expensive. SARCO has repop mags for $35, no idea on quality though. This is primarily a collector's gun so one or two mags is all you should need for occasionally shooting a gun like this. |
| It's all relative but if it were mine, I'd keep it to a few mags a couple times a year. Shoot it enough and eventually something will break or wear out. It's a pistol that - at the absolute youngest it could possibly be - is 70 years old and they haven't made any since then. Definitely not a high-round-count gun that you can just pick up another "part X" at the LGS / Gun Show / Apex, etc... |
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The first time I saw one of these I was like "WTF?" It looked like a 1911 with nazi marks! Freaked me out. I did some research and it is a very interesting gun.
From the wiki page: The design was generally based on American firearms inventor John Browning's Colt M1911A1, as adapted by Piotr Wilniewczyc and Jan Skrzypinski in 1930 at the Fabryka Broni (Arms Factory) in Radom under Director Kazimierz Oldakowski. |
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They can be expensive to restore. I recently received one with a couple of broken parts and had to order a slide stop for $120. And it shipped from Poland.
Neat design though. Personally, I wouldn't put it in the "shooter" category simply due to the difficulty and expense of obtaining parts. |
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I have a VIS 35 and shoot it. Parts are easy enough to find if you know where to look. The Wehrmacht also used modified P.38 mags in the P35p.
Ersatzteile Radom |