This is a great example of an interwar single-shot fancy target pistol. It is chambered for basic .22 rimfire, and uses a Martini system of dropping breechblock to operate.
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Thanks for showing this beautiful piece to us, but might you please get your German pronunciation up to the level of your French? W in German is pronounced like an English V, V in turn pronounced like F. Thus, “Gustaff Genshcov.” GECO itself is still selling ammunition, though owned by a Swiss holding company, RUAG, and at one point was (or still is) owned by Dynamit Nobel.
Thanks. I wondered “Like the ammo company?” when he mentioned the name.
Somebody should make a modern version of this firearm!! (At an affordable price line!) I can see many shooters wanting a good .22 lr single shot pistol for hunting and target shooting.
And Yes I know there are many single shot .22’s on the market now, but, most are out of my price line. Or just plain awful to shoot. I like this Martini style of action if the loading lever was on the left side, or ambidextrus, and without the thumb rest.
If anyone would ever make such a gun again, it would most certainly be out of your price line.
Cheap .22 target pistols would be bolt action single shots, for example
“Somebody should make a modern version of this firearm!!”(С)
Forget it.
To make cool weapons, you need cool locksmiths.
This is perhaps the best pistol in this class.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/firearmcentral/images/f/f1/TOZ-35.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/942?cb=20191208123255
More precisely, it WAS up to the 1990s.
And then they ran out of locksmiths…
Impressive engraving.
And the gun itself is beautiful.
Oops…
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/firearmcentral/images/f/f1/TOZ-35.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/942?cb=20191208123255
Back in the very early 1980s, i was at a trade only gun show with a gunsmith/ gunmaker friend.
He had a conversation with one of the directors of BSA, about the possibility of them starting to make Martinis again, for example in .223 Rem.
Bear in mind that BSA were amongst the pioneers in the 1950s and 60s of investment casting of decent quality gun parts.
The gentleman was certain that even with casting or welded fabrication, that a Martini could not be made at a price that was competitive on the mass market.
Original BSA martinis are cheap and plentiful in the auctions, for anyone who has the paperwork and the inclination to work on one.
I don’t think that many people do have that inclination. Robert Snapp was one of the few https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Robert%20snapp%20BSA%20martini&iar=images&ko=-1&iax=images&ia=images
There are some very high end falling block single shot actions still being made in small numbers for rifles.
Heeren and Hagn type actions for example
https://www.hartmannandweiss.com/en/blockbuechsen.html ,
And Farquharson https://www.armeria-concari.com/en/farquharson-04/ along with the very high end break open actions by the gunsmiths in Ferlach, and, interestingly in Lecco, which was also part of the Austrian empire, until the mid 19th century https://www.armeria-concari.com/en/jaguar-en/ .
Pardon
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/firearmcentral/images/f/f1/TOZ-35.jpg
There’s a lot to be said in favour of a martini type action for a high end target pistol
Does Hammerli still make free pistols on a martini action?
I watched the vid through a couple of times to get a better idea of the mechanics
While it’s not got the Westley Richards or Francotte system (also used by bsa for the various 12 series and the martini Internationals) where the entire action can be taken out of the receiver as one unit
It does look like it is set up for fairly easy disassembly, with spring retainers on the left sides of both the breech block and the operating leaver pivot pins.
I don’t know what it would be like to re assemble, the old .577/.450 and scaled down martini action rook rifles are buggers to re assemble.
It’s not clear whether the thrust from firing is taken by the pivot pin, or directly transferred from the back of the block to the back of the receiver (as well as a smaller vector transferred to the floor of the receiver through the operating cams)
It’s a nice touch that there’s a hole in the back of the receiver drilled in line with the bore, so brushes and patches can be pushed through from the breech end, rather than dumping .22LR muck into the action.
There’s a small hole at the front of the trigger guard – has it got an adjustable trigger or even a single set trigger?
@Kieth,
No Hammerli ceased production in the ’90s. Morini still make the CM84 free pistol though. Not sure if the Toz35 is still made.
Thanks Tim
🙂
Following from Stiven
There does seem to be evidence of hand filing and fitting on the front of the breech block on the pistol.
The ultra high end Swiss watch makers (you could buy a decent small farm for what some of their products retail for), apparently have difficulty achieving the quality of work that was achieved in the 1970s by farmers, who took second jobs in the watch factories during the winter…
Unfortunately, when battery watches came along and the big watch factories closed, a lot of the old tooling was smashed up for scrap. I’ve spoken to people who tried skip diving, looking for things like beautiful little aciera and sixis milling machines and the like.
Everything was broken to pieces before they got there.
There is still a small hard-core of people who study at the horological schools, and who go on to do beautiful work, but it’s not many.
I particularly like the engraving of the historical German “prost-ing” or saluting with his Beer “Stein”.
“(…)Fancy Martini-System Venus Pistole(…)”
Regarding export: does it have MADE IN GERMANY on similar text?
Interestingly requiring such label since 1887 in United Kingdom prompted German manufacturers to notch up quality of their product, which make them more competitive against British ones, which said law makers hoped to protect.
https://historycollection.com/now-look-merchandise-marks-act/2/
“(…)Venus Pistole(…)”
What is source of that name? According to https://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/WVP/wvp.html
mention Original Venus Pistole which was Walther design. Were these guns somewhat linked?
The name Venus comes from the factory name “Venus Waffenwerk”, which was founded in 1844 by gunmaker Oskar Will in (what later became) Zella-Mehlis.
Beautiful. No need for a supplementary barrel weight. Just a strong right arm!
Original BSA martinis are cheap and plentiful in the auctions. Here in France 20 years ago BSA martinis flooded in from the UK and were as little as 80 euroes now they are about 400
Back in Canada in the 60’s I had access to a australian martini rechambered in 38 special a real bunny buster and also I was told a quiet deer poaching rifle
The BSA martinis chambered for anything that is on the British list of obsolete calibres – so things like. 310 Cadet, .297/.230, .300 rook…
are pricey. Possibly £800 for a nice .310
Chambered for .22LR, they’re still subject to firearms acts, and even a good condition heavy barrel target rifle is around £100 at Holts, tired ones are more like £20 or £30
There were some OK-ish Vickers Martini rifles (one piece stock) in one of the Holts auctions earlier this year.
I’ve never managed to compare the bolts and the cams on the levers between centre fire and rim fire BSA Martinis
I strongly suspect that the cams on the lever are the only point of difference, perhaps along with a degree or two of angle on the bolt face to present it at 90°to the bore in its higher position for rimfire.
Hopefully I’ll get a chance to examine some centrefire bolts soon.
I have a friend who’s good at locating cheap .310 cadet rifles, he’s also very good at selling them on again quickly for a profit. One of these days I’ll manage to get measurements from one before he sells it on…
.38 special, .357 mag and Max chamfering go well in the BSA, and I think BSA actually made some factory chambered for .22 Hornet.
Robert Snapp used to make rimless extractors for .222 and .223 head size, and Ross Seyfried was playing with 5.6x50R mag wildcats a lot of years ago (very similar dimensions to a lengthened and rimmed .222 mag).
Robert Snapp reckoned that full pressure factory and military loads at .223 headsize were OK so long as the firing pin tip was reduced in diameter and the hole properly bushed.
So long as factory .30-30 pressures weren’t exceeded, he was happy to chamber BSA martinis for cases as large as .30-30 Winchester.
Warren Page commented that the only non bolt action that he knew of that had regularly won benchrest competitions was built on a BSA Martini
I’m guessing that that was probably chambered for one of the .219 Zipper / .22 Wasp wildcats. Considering that they tended to be loaded very hot for benchrest, that’s scary. Same for chambering for .44 mag
Now I’m going to blaspheme: Fit that lovely old pistol with a detachable stock and an aperture insert for the rear sight. There: a dandy squirrel and rabbit gun. Good for hares, too, if you can stalk. You say it has no safety? So? Carry it with a round chambered and the block not quite fully closed, resting against the ejector.