Yeah, there's my little WWII-vintage Dušek Duo. It's a handy, well-made little Colt/Browning Vest Pocket .25 knockoff; mine found its way home as a war trophy and mostly sat quietly rusting in a sock drawer for the better part of a half century before coming into my possession. If you haven't shot one of John Moses Browning's (pbuh) pocket pistols or one of their close copies, you're missing out on how bitty pistols should work. With a Kel-Tec P-32 or one of the DA/SA Beretta or Taurus minis, I'm very happy to be getting A-zone hits at seven yards; with the Duo, I was able to clang a 6" gong at 15 yards as fast as I could pull the trigger. The short trigger and natural grip angle help it shoot like a much bigger gun.
It shoots nicely and is mechanically quite sound, but the cancer it has had won't be cured with anything short of a blast cabinet and a bluing tank; even maintaining stasis requires weekly scouring and oiling, so it's due for a prettifying. I'm debating the finish I should use, but I'm leaning towards emailing Galt's Guns and looking into getting it park'ed. It would seem weird to Cerakote the old relic...
Park'ed is the first thing I thought of when I saw the picture. I don't think you'd ever get a good blue-job on it at this point and Parkerizing is a very utilitarian finish that is rugged and looks a lot better IMO than the paint finishes.
ReplyDeleteIt just occured to me, why don't you try parking it yourself and let us who've been tempted to do it themselves but were afraid to try know how easy it is?
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't think that this one would require a blast cabinet and a deft hand to drive the gun, I might.
ReplyDeleteGratuitous hell....
ReplyDeleteLooks like a VERY cool chunk 'o history.
I was looking at a British constabulary revolver this weekend... almost no markings but doesn't look like a knock off. Excellent metal work. Appears to be in .455 Webley caliber. Needs a trigger return spring, but all else looks decent.
$195 cash out da door.......
Not something one sees every day, but it would mean a whole new caliber to cobble together on the loading bench. I can just see packing that for CCW....
"Hey Galco, whatcha got in an IWB for a .445 Constabulary canon?"
Didn't you at mention something at one time about this item having a cracked grip?
ReplyDeleteIf no, then I'll abandon my quest and keep any I find for my two (one
C&R and one not).
One grip panel is, indeed, as much epoxy as it is bakelite.
ReplyDeleteI've got the garnet and I'm gonna blast the colt i have and blue it. It won't be a pretty blue job but it'll shoot.
ReplyDeleteYou should bring it up, we'll blast& blue. Maybe after you've had your tactical update.
Will colt grips fit that? I have seen some of those.
I will see your Duo and raise you a Jetfire. Actually two Jetfires, because I loved the first one so hard that I bought another one just in case.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I have noticed about the older micro-pistols is that they generally are chambered in a caliber that matches their size.
ReplyDeleteMore "up-to-date" gunchair commandos always point out that now you can get a new gun the same size, but chambered in a caliber ten times more powerful.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the older pocket guns are eminently shootable, whereas with the new ones chambered in .50 BMG you are lucky if you can hit a barn from the inside.
I'm guessing that a hard-chrome job is out of the question, eh?
ReplyDelete(KIDDING!)
Sweet little gun, Tam. I've got a Colt Junior, which was kinda like their "updated" pocket 25. Shoots a helluva lot better than my P3AT, but I'll take a less-accurate .380ACP over a more-accurate .25ACP for up-close work...
Ahab,
ReplyDelete"I will see your Duo and raise you a Jetfire. Actually two Jetfires, because I loved the first one so hard that I bought another one just in case."
I feel ya on the Jetfire; I've owned three myself. I carried them as a second (or third) gun for years. After the first baby Kel-Tecs debuted back in '98 or '99, I kept having to explain to people that I'd rather hit with a .25 than miss with a .32...
JayG,
True Confession: I can't shoot a Kel-Tec P-3AT to save my life. With deliberate, two-handed fire I can keep them in the A-zone, but in one-handed fire or shooting from the draw against a timer, I'm lucky if the gun doesn't jam from a "limp grip"; with my long fingers, I find it's like trying to hold on to a briskly recoiling popsicle stick.
As a graphics weenie, my first reaction was that's a very gorgeous photo. Good shootin'.
ReplyDeleteM
"If you haven't shot one of John Moses Browning's (pbuh) pocket pistols or one of their close copies, you're missing out on how bitty pistols should work. With a Kel-Tec P-32 or one of the DA/SA Beretta or Taurus minis, I'm very happy to be getting A-zone hits at seven yards; with the Duo, I was able to clang a 6" gong at 15 yards as fast as I could pull the trigger. The short trigger and natural grip angle help it shoot like a much bigger gun."
ReplyDeleteAnd therein lies the genius of the man. It doesn't just work, it works well.
i inherited one of the colt pocket pistols and they do indeed shoot well. it was in fairly good shape--my dad claimed that it had never been fired, but it was dirty inside. nice little shooter.
ReplyDeleteI think it looks great as-is, but I guess that's no way to stop the Bludgeon of Time. One of my neighbors has a little .25 but it's almost too small for me to hold, I'd shoot-off a fingertip.
ReplyDeleteJust my opinion, but I think that parkerizing would look ugly on that little gun. Were it mine, I'd either blue it and find replacement grips in black, or nickel-plate it and make grips in faux ivory. Were it a real Colt, I'd be tempted to go real ivory.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not shooting it once a week, why not store it in pieces, and coat everything with Hoppe's gun grease? I've got a Ruskie shotgun that likes to rust, and this was the only thing I could do to stop that from happening in damp weather.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought was, "Why not see if Og can blast and blue it for you?"
ReplyDeleteI see he's already suggested that.
there are grip options. Finding a set of Duo's might be a challenge though. Here they are.......
ReplyDeleteHere is another option. Bayard.
My favorite is the Destroyer grips though. Who wouldn't wanta little pistol named "Destroyer"? You would have to wear a mask and carry it in your wrestling trunks.
As far as a finish, I'd just smooth out the scratches from the sandpaper with some 600 grit (be careful of the edges, you don't want to ruin them), apply some cold blue to darken it, and let natural wear take it's toll.
Bead blast+matte electroless nickel. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI inherited a Colt Vest Pocket from my grandfather. Walnut grips, and the original bluing, which is that beautiful old deep lustrous color they did so well back then even on the cheap guns. I like to disassemble it just to admire the design - truly ahead of its time. Like a Swiss watch. That shoots.
ReplyDeleteHow about you go all Wilson Combat on it, and do a two tone dark gray/matte green with Duracoat? Or do a Hello Kitty in Bloomburg pink?
Something you might want to look into is a chemical called 'evaporust'.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.caswellplating.com/aids/evaporust.html
-truely- amazing stuff. It's not an acid dip, but it will remove any and all oxidation ( and I mean -all- this stuff wikll -nuke- blueing )
I use it whenever someone brings in something truely crusty, and it works like a charm. give it a shot, you might like the results.
Ugh. Enough with the pink DuraCoat.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Ritchie- matte nickel would look tight.
(Not that I'm sure I can refinish anything now, though, after Friday's little ATF ruling that (may or may not) reclassify refinishers as manufacturers.)
Sigh.
Sean,
ReplyDeleteTake heart: that ruling's been around in de facto, if not de jure, form for almost a decade.
I know the American Pistolsmiths Guild has been fighting this tooth and nail for some time. Contact them and find out how to contribute to the resistance!
Goddamn the Duo is sexy. The proportions on the '08 Colt style guns are so much nicer than the Browning Babys. Still kicking myself for letting one slide past at a local gun counter...
ReplyDeleteAnd blue. Definitely blue. Anything bling-y, modern, and ostentatious would be just wrong on a gun that's already a work of art.
anybody know how to dissasemble?
ReplyDeleteYup. Remove the magazine and clear the chamber.
ReplyDelete1)Retract the slide approx. 1/2".
2)Hold the slide to the rear by pivoting the safety through 180* into the notch on the slide.
3)Grasp the knurled portion of the barrel by the muzzle and rotate the barrel approximately 180* clockwise.
4)Release the slide and allow it to travel forward. It and the barrel will come off the front of the gun, and the barrel may be removed from the bottom of the slide.
Cerakote would look good as long as it's a matte stainless or titanium grey.... Not terribly off from being 'in the white'.
ReplyDelete