So a few years I picked up this Astra 3000 in .32 ACP. I've always thought they were just cool, like a 1/2 size Xerox copy of an Astra 400.
It's an update to the model 300 which was used by the Germans in WWII, and carried by the Condor Leigon during the Spanish Civil War. Very well made pistol, unique and a bit homely looking.
But here's the anomoly. OMG does it shoot! Now it's not that it's match accurate, it's not. It's certainly not inaccurate, but it shoots about as well as most other high quality .32's of the era.
What is strange about it is that it seems to automatically point where I'm looking. The sights are tiny and hard to see. When I decided to do some quick pointing shots with the pistol raised at eye level the groups look like aimed slow fire. Every time I bring the gun up to eye level, it's just automatically aligned.
Now, I train to do that with my self defense pistols. But I haven't trained with this pistol, it's just a range toy. Yet it seems to have some magic quality of an inherent shootability that I've never quite encountered with any other pistol. Oh, I've had handguns that point well, or naturally. But never have I focused on the TARGET and hit everything I point at.
Just a weird anomoly I've never encountered before. Don't worry, I'm not likely to leave my LW Commander home for the Astra. But it's such a surprising little pistol.
It's an update to the model 300 which was used by the Germans in WWII, and carried by the Condor Leigon during the Spanish Civil War. Very well made pistol, unique and a bit homely looking.
But here's the anomoly. OMG does it shoot! Now it's not that it's match accurate, it's not. It's certainly not inaccurate, but it shoots about as well as most other high quality .32's of the era.
What is strange about it is that it seems to automatically point where I'm looking. The sights are tiny and hard to see. When I decided to do some quick pointing shots with the pistol raised at eye level the groups look like aimed slow fire. Every time I bring the gun up to eye level, it's just automatically aligned.
Now, I train to do that with my self defense pistols. But I haven't trained with this pistol, it's just a range toy. Yet it seems to have some magic quality of an inherent shootability that I've never quite encountered with any other pistol. Oh, I've had handguns that point well, or naturally. But never have I focused on the TARGET and hit everything I point at.
Just a weird anomoly I've never encountered before. Don't worry, I'm not likely to leave my LW Commander home for the Astra. But it's such a surprising little pistol.