7.65mm Radium Pistol
The Radium was the predecessor to the much more well-known (and more successful) Ruby pistol made by Gabilonda y Urresti, which was sold to the French Army by the hundreds of thousands during World War One. The Radium was very unusual in its magazine design, which featured a spring loaded sliding grip panel instead of a detachable magazine. To reload, one would push the locking catch and pull the left grip panel down, drop loose cartridges into the magazine area, and then latch the grip panel back up into place.
If this was comparably loaded with revolver strip loader or had a stripper port when you pull the grip then I would rather use it, but the Radium seems figity. Especially without a grip lock for when you want the grip open to load.
Your work is done well.
wow that is really cool it would be nice if there where more pistols with that feature it would be nice to have a pistol like that for the end of the range visit when my thumbs are sore from loading magazines
OK, so the model name was "Radium"!
I first thought that the pistol itself was made of radium, the chemical element (that would be unhealthy, it’s radioactive) o.O
Strange name for a weapon.
EDIT: VERY unhealty. It’s one million times more active than uranium.
Basque guns are like Women: Strange, complicated and with a lot of character.
Was there any sort of clip or device used to load in cartridges faster? loading them in one-by-one would be relatively slow, I imagine.
That’s actually really cool, I’d like to have something like that in a .22 or .25 just as a plinker.
Looks more like a clone of the Colt 1903.
That’s fuckin’ righteous
I like the way this thing works (in a "apocalypse type situation" your gonna have a hole bunch ammo just lying around and most magazines will be either rusted to crap of broken! (That why people think of shotguns as post survival weapons because you can just pick ammo off the floor and shove it in the gun 🙂
Any of the "Frommer" pistols you know of?
Very neat, I wish you’d bid on this.
No sights. Interesting.
Love the names of some of these Spanish pistols ! I guess someone in Spain looked up "stop, cease, finish, end" or something like that in an English dictionary, and came up with "Colon" for one of these without realising it was a grammatical stop (as well as an internal organ). The Forgotton Weapons page on Spanish Eibar/Ruby Pistols is an excellent resource for learning about these handguns ! Thanks, Ian !
https://www.forgottenweapons.com/other-handguns/eibar-ruby/
Great video. the Ruby-types are full of interest. hard to find in good condition though.
That thing looks like a colossal piece of shit. Maybe I should buy an R51, my grandkids will make a fortune off of it someday.
I am sorry for the probably stupid question but did the Radium pistols actually use the radioactive element in anyway (in the ammunition and/or the gun itself)? I know that for a long time radioactive chemicals were used for more everyday products (in case you’re curious here is a picture of Radium toothpaste https://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/toothpaste.jpg). I am also curious if people know of any cases where radioactive material was used/experimented with guns not including depleted Uranium.
2:39 And no ban on high-capacity magazines?
Is this an original Barsoomian?
1:27 For a gun made in Spain, why are the markings in English?
Am I the only person who clicked this video thinking it was a gun that shoots irradiated bullets?
Sort of reminds me of the Krag rifles.
What’s the clip size? it looks like it is a single shot pistol because you don’t want the grip open while shooting
This counts as California compliant because of no detachable magazine right…
"Radium pistol" John Carter of Mars’ preferred sidearm?
Assessing the reloading concepts old handguns it can be concluded that they are more like you empty the pistol on your enemy and run like hell never mind is he dead or alive.
Funny thing is, provided it’s still reliable, it’d be good enough to serve as a daily carry pistol. What was the stats, something like .5% of gun owners in the US will ever have to draw their side arm, and of those only something like 1% of them will actually have to fire? Those who do fire, the average amount of rounds before one or both of the people scamper off is about 2 rounds? Of course it’s preferred to have higher capacity, a bigger round, and the ability to reload quickly, but the chances of ever needing to draw your pistol, let alone shoot it, and let alone need to shoot more than a round or two, is so ridiculously small that this 100+ year old pistol would do the job admirably. 😛 Kind of ridiculous, but none the less true.
Radium, like the pistols from the John Carter of Mars series…LOL.
worlds coolest pez dispenser, I want one
any info on antonio errasti .25 acp pocket pistol.
Looks like an interesting take of a 1908 Browning. Does the barrel and slide disassemble like the browning?
I’ve love to see a modern iteration of that integral magazine, looks niche enough to be handy.
Got a pocket full of loose rounds just drop em in.
Once again your excellent video taught this old man something that I was completely unaware of! Bravo!
Needs a drop-in Mannlicher clip.
This magazine mechanism might not make much sense now, but in a time where revolvers were more common than automatics it makes sense, after all revolvers generally speaking were loaded by opening the cylinder and putting the rounds in one at a time. The only revolver I know to use a speed loader was the Webley Fossberry – which was actually an automatic revolver.
It seems cool in theory but I feel like I would do it wrong and the cartridges would fly everywhere when i closed it.
What a neat little gun.
Radium a pistol, which shoot by a nuclear bullets
Cool gun, but god, its in bad shape.
Again a great video on a unusual design I wasn`t aware of. I assume, the feed lips are part of the frame then? This would help to eliminate the most reason for failure-to-feed: worn out mag lips. Very interesting, thanks for showing and keep up the good work!
I was kinda hoping this was a pistol intended to shoot 32 cal radium projectiles.
I like that feature
I’m pretty sure the slide says "Rainum" not "Radium". No idea what that means though.
OHHH !! it’s like a PEZ dispenser !!
I was out shooting my ruby .32 which, by the way, I paid more for a box of ammo than I did for the ruby, the guy next to me shooting a .380 sig nightmare. That ugly little ruby was out shooting it 10 to one he thought it was his shooting so I passed it to him he was he shocked. That thing is almost 100 years old has never jammed and it works with ever round I put in it including buffalo +p 1080 fps. These guns were simple and cheap and work. I also have a llama 9mm Government test pistol also a great shooter
Wow. That was an amazing feature reveal. I want one of these now.
so no speed reload just fumbling loose cartrages into the big side openingand try to keep them orientated right i think i’d prefer stripper clips
Slow to reload but a perfect range gun.
What a unique and creative solution…can’t lose the mag, but no quick changes either…but then, that is a modern issue.
Neat