A Cub is Moving In//Now with some New Shoes

[glenncal1]

Building up a small mouse collection. This is the latest addition. Stand back those .22 shorts pretty potent. Should be around 1966/7 production, will verify when the gun arrives.

Saw these grips on another board, decided I needed a pair. They look better and probably feel better than the stockers. I can also preserve the originals from damage.

 

[LVSteve]

Oh no, it's black, so it must be an assault Cub.

 

[Muley Gil]

I had a Beretta .22 short one time. It was fun to shoot, but a mite underpowered for anything larger than Mississippi mosquitos!

 

[alwslate]

I have four Astra Cubs. Two in .22 Short and two in .25 ACP. The Cub is all machined steel and is basically a small version of a full size pistol. It is probably the best of the mini guns. A sturdy simple design and a magazine safety that is easily removed. Drift out the pin behind the trigger, shake the safety and it's spring out and replace the pin. Good HV 29 gr solids will chronograph around 860 fps and would probably penetrate about nine inches in ballistic gel. A lot better than nothing. My experience is that HPs do not feed well and are not needed anyway for any purpose.

 

[gwpercle]

That is just the cutest little thing ...
Gary

 

[desi2358]

Always had a soft spot for the little Astra Cub and it's rebranded Colt version, the Junior as well. The 22 Short version is cheap to shoot and a lot of fun. The 25 ACP version is a bit more pricey to shoot but would likely give better penetration if actually carried.

Have owned several of each over the years, still have two. A very clean Cub in 22 and a Junior 25 that was a salvage project. Found in the trunk of a car being scrapped, wrapped in a rag. Outside was a rusty, pitted mess. Inside looked great, plenty of oil in the action & bbl. Still shoots great!

 

[cmansguns]

Never got around to the mouse bandwagon

Just couldn't jump on with EDC being 38 Special for years then 9mm, but those little guys did have an attraction for some people.

Mine was a Colt 25ACP, made about 1971, sold several years ago. Came with a box of vintage ammo with 9 rounds missing, believed to be the only rounds fired through the gun.

I don't know if the Colt 1903 32 auto's are considered in the "mouse" gun category, but I've had 2 of those over the years, and I always figured that if Georgie Patton deemed them to be "anti-aircraft" caliber weaponry (as in the movie shooting at Heinkel's in Africa) then far be it from me to argue.

 

[tops]

Building up a small mouse collection. This is the latest addition. Stand back those .22 shorts pretty potent. Should be around 1966/7 production, will verify when the gun arrives.

I had one back in the day when concealed had to be concealed. I also used it to kill hogs at hog killing time. It was more handy than a rifle and killed just as good. Larry

 

[2152hq]

Nice little pocket guns.
I've had a couple in .22short and they worked beautifully.

The Astra Model# for these is Model 2000.
It replaced the earlier Astra vest pocket 25cal,,the Model 200.

From Antharis's Astra book, :
.22short cal Model 2000/Cub production ser#'s
1966 thru 1968 (Eight) ...150.001 to 175,000

Sounds like a rounded off number, but that's what he published.

The Spanish Proof Date Code along with the Semiauto Proof marks are likely underneath the Left Hand grip panel on this one.
That will tell you the Yr/proof, which is also taken as the Yr/Mfgr.

Early Cubs had those Proof Marks on the frame visible w/o taking the grips off.
Early production pistols had both the Model 2000 designation & the 'Cub' name cast into the grip panels. Grips were black plastic.
Starting sometime iin the mid 60's +/-, the grips changed to brown plastic and the Model 2000 designation was dropped from the grip panels. Just the CUB name remained as on the OP's pistol.

FWIW, Sometime in 1972,,Astra changed the Hammer on the Cub from a forged steel piece to.... (OMG!) a Sintered Metal production mfgr part.
I've not heard if any other components were also then made from the Sintered process. A guess is that the trigger also fell to that technology of easier & less expensive mfg'r as well., but just a guess.

 

[hannstv]

Many years ago I saw an ad in one of the gun rags that had a picture of a 25 ACP and a dead bear. I would really like to know "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say. Beautiful little guns.

 

[GeoJelly]

I'll take it, sir ... jk. Nice looking little pistol and i would've picked it up too had I seen it. I've been watching .25's on GB for about 10 days. Coupla nice Beretta's have come and gone but got too pricey. I especially liked the nickel-plated one that sold earlier this week. I only have one .25 (Beretta) at this point and I'm feeling the squeeze ...

 

[glenncal1]

Geo- any of the "name" brands in .25 or .22 have gotten pricey. If you see a decent one with a reasonable Buy it Now you kind of have to jump on it. That is what I did and also with a Colt 1908 yesterday. I am done for a while. Also check some of the other gun selling sites.

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

Many years ago I saw an ad in one of the gun rags that had a picture of a 25 ACP and a dead bear. I would really like to know "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say. Beautiful little guns.

The world record grizzly bear was taken by an Eskimo woman with a .22 rimfire.

 

[tmd17]

I have always had a soft spot for mouse guns, and began collecting the Jr. Colt's and Astra Cubs years ago. The household budget was tight back then and a $150 mouser was easy to slip past the wife! At one time I had almost two dozen of the Cubs & Juniors. I dug deep into the history and grabbed up a lot of advertising and pamphlets as I compiled a binder full of information.

I am now down to about a dozen of them, including Colt Junior # 4 CC. There are also a small hand full of .22 Conversion Units floating around out there that make great companions to the 25 ACP guns.

 

[JohnRippert]

They are more accurate than many people think. This was from 5yd.

 

[glenncal1]

TMD-would love to find on of those conversion kits at a reasonable price. Of course I would have to buy a .25 Astra or Colt to fit it to........

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Just for fun, here are some .25s..........

Beretta 950-BS
*
CZ DUO - German occupied Czechoslovakia - 1944
*
PSA Baby Browning marked Fabrique Nationale with Browning grip panels

Sadly, the PSA Baby Browning was an absolutely gorgeous, well manufactured, highly polished piece of dreck at the range. I still have the other two.

 

[ispcapt]

Bought this in 1968 while still in high school. Another guy in class got it when his dad died (and a lot of other guns). He needed money to take his girlfriend to the prom.
Colt Jr. .22 Short.
Gave him $25.
He still is begging for it back.

 

[4T5GUY]

I have a pair of counterfeit ones. "Colt JR's" in .25 acp and .22 Short.

Not too long ago I posted about taking a friend into my fun room. He eventually looked at my Colt examples and said the Colt JR's needed to be in the Astra area. "They are obviously NOT Colts."

Most replies here were "get a new friend." Regardless they are high quality, reliable and accurate within intended distances and are a hoot to shoot and have.

Jim