POTD: Two Spanish Semi-Automatic Ruby Pistols – Safe or Unsafe?
Sam.S 12.08.21
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! The story of Ruby pistols is actually a pretty interesting one. You will see these neat little 32 ACP handguns at gun shows for very cheap and that’s because a bunch was made during World War One. The French military was in need of a semi-auto handgun badly and could not efficiently manufacture them. They could not look to most Allies to supply them either with the risk of German U-boats sinking ships or capturing shipments. So, Spain and its manufacturing industry more or less came to the rescue. Spain has a rich history of copying prominent arms of the time back in the early 1900s.
The footprint of the Colt 1903 hammerless was the one chosen for these Ruby pistols. These would be shipped to the front lines and have mixed reviews. The most interesting story I know about these is that since the safety is in the orientation it is, the safety can be flipped on or off when taken out of or put into the holster. The gun would become off safe when inserted causing potentially self-damaging situations or arguably worse yet when drawn from a holster in a panic they would be flipped to safe and be rendered useless when in need. This later resulted in a large stud being placed on the left side of the fame in order to prevent the holster from interfering.
Lot 560: Two Spanish Semi-Automatic Ruby Type Pistols. (n.d.). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved December 6, 2021, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/1025/560/two-spanish-semiautomatic-ruby-type-pistols.
