Well what do you know.
If only we had the original serial number,we could research around it for seeming oriental sales.
All of this prompted me to go back to an early long-barrel (not slide) .32 I have had for some time. #22299 M1907-10-2 originally sold to Miller-Morse Hardware Company, Winnipeg, Canada.
The barrel extends 4-5/8 inches past the slide. All original slide markings are ground away as part of some reshaping in what looks like an attempt to reduce weight of the slide. The grips were replaced with old clear plastic(?) over cloth-backed gold foil. Inlet into plastic of the left grip above the gold foil there is a very faded picture of a woman standing in a bed of tulips. I was thinking Market Garden? 22299 is in a crude homemade wooden box with an WWII Army certificate for a Staff Seargent Joy A. Christy, 11th Airborne, 127th Engineering Battalion; one copy lacquered inside the lid and its duplicate folded inside the box in a crude compartment under a few post-war .32 ACP rounds.
Canada ... Washington state ... thought perhaps he had taken a personal weapon to war and back and was playing around trying to make it into a target pistol after he got home. The slide is having trouble releasing, so I put it on the "to do someday list".
After this Nambu discussion ...
- Looked at the long barrel more closely, not a standard .32. Barrel diameter is .278 mm land-to-land.
- A recent dive online into WWII capture papers of both European and Pacific Theaters, it appears this is a bring-back weapon from the Pacific Theater.
- The 127th Engineering Battalion fought in bloody conflicts on New Guinea, Leyte and Luzon.
- A magnified re-look at the photo shows the woman may be oriental.
Now I have a burning desire to get that slide free and do some wax casting of my own.
Also get into the Amy unit archives and look for more details.
I'll try to get some decent pictures posted.