RIA Feb 2020 Special: Mystery Spanish Revolver

Today’s quick look at RIA is a Spanish revolver that I can’t identify. The proof stamps indicate that it was made in 1931, and it has an unusual cylinder latch that looks like a loading gate, but isn’t. It’s marked 8mm (8mm French Ordnance, or something else?), and has a 7-shot cylinder. Perhaps someone watching will recognize the pattern?


  1. “(…)Spanish revolver that I can’t identify.(…)1931(…)”
    After quick look into A.B.Zhuk’s encyclopedia it is similar to, but not identical to Nagant F.A.G (F. Arizmendi e Goenaga, Eibar), see 7-2 here:
    I found frame shape similar, hammer shape similar, front sight shape similar but cylinder details differ (in Zhuk’s drawing cuts does not reach front), but Zhuk’s say it is from before 1914, so example from video might be simply late production version.
    According to Zhuk’s: Nagant-type revolver, caliber 7,62 mm or 8 mm, 7 shots, cylinder does not go forward [i.e. is not gas-seal]. Very similar to this revolvers were made in Belgium in caliber 8 mm. Were popular in countries of Africa and South-America.

  2. Trade Mark belongs Francisco Arizmendi of Spain who made non gas seal 1895 Nagant copies and this sample seems a copy of swing out cylinder 1910 Nagant revolver, again without gas seal. lMHO…

  3. lt seems the manufacturer had made these guns in both 8mm and 7.62 calibers. Outwardly most distinctive two points from the original, look the outside spring of cylinder release latch and the cylinder outside surface carrying the stop notches at rear like a SW revolver and having no push back annular grove ring near its back which useful to separate a sticked cylinder from a rusty barrel cone through enlarged case by leverage of the trigger upper lug which is the real cause of Nagant’s heavy trigger spring. The side plate for lock action cover looks different either. lMHO…

  4. Three days in a row with really bad audio. Obviously you have significantly changed what the channel presents: and I have argued with people on other channels about audio: if I can hear it I don’t care; but your massive changes has not only made Sunday (and random other days?) a no show day, but seems to have gone from monastic quiet documentary films at an auction house to ‘random audio’, no edit, who cares?’ fillers like a million YouBend channels.

    I guess many things in your life are changing; and you should make your own life better before trying to make your channel better, and I I still love the channel, but some explanation really would help; like warning us which day of the week you where dropping; and explaining in the notes why you’d gone to crappy fillers.

    • why not ask Ian to give you a personal call and read it all out for you ? Just be glad he had an opportunity to have an inside look at a huge auction. You can’t seriously expect sound to be as good when you’re in a big echoing hall. Give it a break man..Oh, and nobody is making you watch the “crappy fillers”at gunpoint, so.. stop whining and enjoy like the rest of us.

    • The audio is fine for me, and I’m half deaf in one ear and need subtitles for a lot of modern movies. Sounds like [sic] you need hearing aids or better speakers.

      Got family or friends you can ask to listen to these videos? Maybe you just don’t realize how bad your hearing has gotten. It does sneak up on one.

      And as for Sundays, Ian announced that several weeks ago.

    • What are you talking about? They have been perfectly clear. And the types of things he has always done. They are on the fly videos from a public room at a huge auction preview. And very interesting videos of unusual guns that caught his eye. That is why we watch his videos. To see interesting and unique guns in different locations and circumstances. Now go back to bed and get up in the right side next time.

  5. 100 bucks? Far greater intrinsic value than market value. The problem is when you get a pistol like that you can never resell it down the road because it is a mystery that only about five people in the world are interested in it. But then again GUN JESUS TOUCHED IT AND DID A VIDEO ON IT…..ok $1000.00! Still have not gotten my signed book Ian so my shrine case is looking back at me empty and it cries every day!

  6. Spain before WW2 …
    Such a wild mix of different designs …
    I think something makeshift-limited-series.
    In Spain(and not only in Spain), in the first half of the 20th century, there were many lone gunsmiths who made any fantasies, and then received official test marks.

    It is a pity that all this was given has died, and now you can buy almost only frank garbage from “eminent” certified manufacturers.

    PS Normal sound.
    We are not at the Madrid Opera. 😉

  7. The lack of “Made In Spain” and other proof marks suggests that it stayed in Spain for its first owner. It’s unlikely to have been exported commercially to the U. S., 8mm was not really a thing here and it would have been marked for .32-20, which will load into many Spanish 8mm French Revolver chambers as is. Maybe Latin America or Asia?

    It may have come back with someone from the SCW. Maybe direct to the U. S., more likely via France and/or Germany.

  8. During early 20th century many Belgian o Spanish factories made copies of Nagant and other military style revolvers in cals. 8mm French and 7.62mm Russian, called de ’ordenanza’, ‘d’Ordnance’ (in French) or ‘reglamentario’. In Spain copies of Nagant were made by several factories and not only by ‘Arizmendi y Goenaga’, though this factory was probably the main producer (the guns usually had no gas-seal but there are variants with it). Their main market was the Ottoman Empire. ‘Arizmendi y Goenaga’ also produced copies of the Nagant model 1910 with swing out cylinder, as our ‘Mystery Spanish Revolver’. They used several logos, including half-moons, five-pointed stars.

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