French Ruby

The enormity and attrition of WW1 took both sides by surprise. The French found themselves in a shortage of sidearms as they focused their production to rifles and machineguns. Luckily for them, they had a neighbor to the south that was both uninvolved in the war and able to supply guns to whoever was buying.

Before WW1, Spanish gun companies were emulating foreign designs including the Colt 1903 pocket pistol. The gun company Gabilondos Y Urresti took the 1903, omitted the grip safety and moved the safety in front of the grips. With a few other changes such as the extended grips and magazine.

The French military who used the Ruby kept them in condition 3, loaded magazine but nothing in the chamber while in the holster. They found when drawing the pistol from the holster the friction would sometimes rotate the safety up to the on position. When on, the safety would catch the slide locking it back. To keep this from happening, they sometimes added a circular protrusion from the slide close to the safety to push the leather away from the safety.

Astra, a name you might recognize, was one of the companies making Ruby pistols for the French. They made about 150,000.

There were many miscellaneous gun makers that cashed in on the French demand by making Ruby pistols. One could focus an entire collection just collecting all the various makers and variations.

Each maker had their own unique style of magazine release, lanyard ring, slide serrations, and many other features. French military accepted pistols will often have stars stamped on the bottom next to the magazine release. The Ruby served in both world wars and beyond.

Check out my YouTube video if you would like to know more.