I have owned 3 of these guns. Always got rid of them for various reasons.

They are like a mini SIG P210. Shoot a very hard to find cartridge(7.65 French Long) unless you reload. But they are really neat!!

I'm getting ready to take the plunge again. Now that I am reloading, brass is available I figure what the hell.

So wondering if any of you guys have one? Like them? Reload for them?

It just feels really good in my hand. Wish I could find someone who could rechamber one in 32acp. But would probably be impossible.

Thoughts and comments please..

Back when,,when the original ammo wasn't available (when has much of it ever been) and there wasn't new ammo or brass either,,some enterprizing souls used to put a short sleeve in the front of the chamber enabling the 32acp to headspace against.
A sort section of a steel wartime 30carbine case was one popular and easy to make-up chamber sleeve.

The same idea was used in Spanish pistols chambered in 9mmLargo. The chambers had a short sleeve pressed into the front of the chamber and headspaced for the use of 9mmLuger.

The original French round is our old 30 Peterson Device round from WW1. Maybe we left a few million rounds over there in 1918.

I've owned a few of the 1935A pistols but just to resell them. Any with WW2 German markings bring decent money.
I did shoot one with just a few rounds of French steel cased ammo I had. They are amazingly comfortable handling pistols and always thought one in 22lr would be nice. I think they are the basis for the later SIG designs.

I had one for a while but never found any factory ammo for it. Made ammo from 32 S&W Long, which I reloaded anyway. Basically I felt the same way about it that I did all French handguns, with one exception. Interesting design, good workmanship, dumb ***** caliber. A Model 1873 in 44 WCF would be a blast. A 1892 in 32-20 would almost make sense.

I remember when you could get these autos for 130 bucks or so, owing to the lack of ammo. Anyway, try Old West Scrounger et al. The ammo is available, newly loaded in the US, you just have to look for it. A number of custom loading outfits also sell it. I remember handling them, but can't recall that I ever shot one.

You could always have a new barrel made for it in .32 ACP, but I don't see how it would be worth the time and expense.

I have one of those pistol, a Pre WWII one, with the Mle 37 holster. My friend Gene Medlin had a bunch of them before he sold his French collection. In the 1980s we wrote the book on these pistols. They're fine little pistols, although somewhat underpowered for service use They were given a coat of baked-on enamel over the Parkerizing, to absolutely prevent rust even in humid climates like Indochina and some of the French colonies in Africa. The enamel chips off and is then somewhat unsightly. They even enameled the inside of the slide around the ejection port as that space comes in contact with the corrosive primer smoke. The sights are a little finer than the 35S and harder to use, Starting with the Nazi production, the trigger pulls get heavier and are sometimes almost unusable. Incidentally, the letter prefix to the serial number is the script letter in front of the number, not the A that follows it.

Charles Petter was a Swiss engineer who worked for the Société Alsacienne de Construction Mécanique (SACM) in Cholet. After the War of 1870, Alsace went to Germany and SACM went to Cholet in the middle of France. Petter designed the 35A. After WW II he returned to Switzerland. SIG bought the French Petter patents and the result was finally the SIG P 210.

The 7.65 Long cartridge is identical to the 30 Pederson; in fact up till the 1930s, French experiments were carried out with 30 Pederson cartriges bought fron Remington. It's a snappy round; it has an 85 gr bullet as opposed to the 32 ACP's 72 gr, and gives a velocity of 1120 fps to the 32ACP's 905 fps. The problem is finding 7.65 Long brass. I tried using 32 ACPs in the 35A; the semi rim is too wide to enter the magazine. I tried grinding off the semi rim and it worked.....sorta. The round is held only by the extractor against the blow of the firing pin. The shorter round didn't feed too well either. Bertram lists the case, but they're expensive, and easily lost in the weeds. cases can be made from 32 S&W Long cases, shortened to 0.78 inch, with the rim turned off and an extraction groove cut. You need a lathe for this. Most commercial 7.65 Long cases are made this way. If you buy commerical cases, watch that the extraction groove isn't too generous; this weakens the case. I had one blow out once; it blew the magazine from the pistol and the top round was facing backwards in the magazine. No harm was done, but I disposed of that bunch of loads. I guess you could use 32 H&R Magnum cases, but the internal dimensions might be different.

Several outfits sell 7.65 Long dies but I loaded over 1000 rounds using 32 ACP dies. You may have problems with 32 ACP case holders, as they're made for the semi-rimmed case and have a tendency to leave the rimless case in the die. However I used a 32 ACP case holder for most of my loading and used plenty of case lube. RCBS sells a 7.65 Long case holder which usually works fine, although it won't fit French military cases for some reason. Jacketed bullets for the 32 ACP, 30 Mauser and 30 Luger work fine. Cast bullets also work well. The 35As seem to have bore diameters right at .311 inch. I think bullets heavier than about 95 grs are too heavy for the case. PM me when you know what bullets you're going to use and I can give you some loading recommendations. They didn't blow up our guns, but no telling about yours.

This is an old post that I'd like to breathe life into. I've owned 2 of these fine French 1935A pistols. The caliber isn't a great man-stopper, but it isn't a 'pip squeak', either. If anyone compares the .32 Magnum with the 7.65 French, there isn't a whole lot of separation in power.

A lot of folks who wish to fire the smaller .32 Automatic cartridge thru these French pistols. The caliber is **close** but not a match. You might get away with it, but not a great idea. Besides, the bullet diameter of a .32ACP is .312 to .313, while the 7.65 French is .3085.

I reload using converted .32 Long brass, .32 ACP reloading dies, an RCBS shell holder for the 7.65 French, and use 95 grain FMJ bullets sold for the .30 Luger with Unique powder. Bertram brass is available but pricey. Buffalo Arms used to sell converted .32 Long brass at reasonable prices.

Sir,

I have a French pistol in 32 long, the barrel has been rechamered to 32acp. I received this gun in a trade. I have not tried to do any work to make it fire. It is in good condition.

If you would like to see some photos I can take them for you.

I need $170.00 plus shipping for the firearm, two mags.

Mike Circle
727-544-1295
PS, I hold a FFL.

A long time ago, I had one - this was sometime back in the early 1970s, and I got the gun really cheap, maybe $30 or so at an OGCA gun show. I made up enough brass from .32 Long brass (simple if you have a lathe) and loaded it using .32 ACP dies. I didn't make up very much brass, seems like 50 rounds or less, enough for occasional use. I probably still have that brass buried away somewhere in my junk. Don't remember how I parted company with the gun.