Rigarmi pocket pistol .25ACP

[Marshwheeling]

My SIL gave me this today, and asked me to clean it up for him.

His mother had been carrying it, but she has a drinking problem, and has been hitting the bottle of late. It wasn't clear to me if she gave it to him, or if he took it away from her.

This is the only one of my wife's cell phone pics that came out. The left side is more interesting of course. The slide reads RIGARMI-Brescia-Cal. 6.35 (.25). "RIGARMI" is also embossed along the top of the grips. The takedown button is behind the grip, just below the slide. The safety lever is in front of the grip, just above the trigger.

There was some surface rust on the slide and frame that cleaned up pretty well with Break-Free CLP and Scotch-Brite, leaving just a bit of roughness that may be pitting or may just be more crud on the surface. The bore looks good.
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Does anybody know anything about this gun? Google entries say stuff like "based on a Browning design", "Beretta clone", and "Saturday night special". The last item notwithstanding, it seems to be pretty well made, but I have yet to try shooting it, which would be the proof of the pudding, I guess. I'll enjoy taking the SIL to the range, but I can't say the prospect exactly has my pulse racing.

There were five rounds in the mag. Is it worth investing a whole box of ammo?

 

[GF]

"Is it worth investing a whole box of ammo?"

To me it would be. I love to shoot anything. And I have a coupla' 25 acp's that are fun for me & the kids to shoot.

Back in the day, only 25's and Derrengers were common "hideout" guns. That was a time before pocket pistols could be had in any caliber but "small". Your's is one of many import (probably pre 68 gun control act) pistols that could be had cheap and fast.

I think they're cool little guns, shoot it with FMJ ammo and it may do just fine.

GF

 

[GatorFarmer]

Oddly enough, I almost ended up with one of those not long ago.

They are pre Gun Control Act of 1968 imports from Italy. The GCA '68 put a stop to the importation of small size and small caliber guns - both the cheap ones as well as stuff like the Walther PPK. This caused guns of this nature (and the PPK for that matter) to eventually be made in the United States.

There are two Rigarmi's, or at least two pistols generally so titled. They seem to differ a bit, and one was made by Galesi.

The mags are supposed to hold six rounds. I wonder if it was downloaded or used once.

I wouldn't carry it with a round in the chamber, but I wouldn't hesitate to fire it either if it were good condition.

You sometimes see them for sale at 300 if they have the box etc, but that's pretty much wishful thinking - even to someone who likes SNS type guns like me. Probably 100 to 150 dollars though.

Many who have SNS imports in .25 report that they work best with S&B's FMJ ammo. Might want to try that.

 

[Marshwheeling]

Thanks, gents. What a great forum. I had never heard of this gun before yesterday, but sure enough, a couple of guys here know something about it.

Looks like the mag will take a 6th round.

It appears that the Galesi version has the safety lever at the back of the grip; it doubles as the takedown button.

My SIL thought I might like to give him my Model 60 in trade for it. I had to chuckle. But the more I get it shined up, the more it grows on me.

 

[TACC1]

The styling of that gun looks like it would sit well in the
hand. I've seen other Italian firearms that look like the styling
was an integral part of the whole. They made them look good
so you'd be glad to own it. It'll be interesting to see how it shoots.
TACC1

 

[Deputy Marshal]

Rigarmi , how does it work.

I have a Rigarmi Brescia 25 cal. that shoots well. It shopotss so well that the Bosnians we hired for FPS were looking at me at the range wondering what i was shooting that was grouping that well. I smiled at them and continued. The gun is all steel. The springs were replaced and the weapon is a carry gun. I know some of you think" A .25! what can that do? Do your research it is a viable close range self defence weapon if you train with it enough.

 

[alwslate]

The Rigarmi was an Italian import but it is not a clone of any Beretta
or Browning design. The US made Sterling was a close copy of the
Rigarmi. All are striker fired and not really safe to carry chamber
loaded in a pocket in my opinion. Also leaving one cocked for long
periods might weaken the small striker spring resulting in misfires,
not good in a SD pistol. They are decent quality, not great, and I
don't think you would want to trade your 60 for one...or two.

 

[jimmyj]

"SIL" (Sister Inlaw) His, Him ?

 

[pharmer]

That one hasn't been fired much at all. Every one I have seen with much use has one or both grip panels cracked behind the screw. Joe

 

[2152hq]

Rigarmi pistols were sold by FIE of Miami at least for a while . They put their own model designations to them. 'Guardian' was one of the 25 autos but I don't know if this one was it.

Another of the Italian made under $60 (at the time) pocket guns was the Galesi.
About the same thing, looks almost the same too but made by a different company. There were many of these small shops making stuff like this for export sale mostly to the US but the GCA68 ended all that.

You have to actually shoot them to be sure of how they function. Just manual functioning doesn't tell the story. Some suffer from weak springs. Some are really just poor quality, others not bad at all.
Lot's of similar guns from Belgium too but the W German, Spanish and Italian imports prevailed just after WW2.

Most are nothing really new, just a copy of something else out there or a combination of them. Only so much you can do anyway and still have it work. Some try and get too small and there's a point where the size doesn't allow for motion and springs to work well enough for complete reliability.

Just sold a preWW2 Belgian 'Melior' .25. It has an interesting TD if nothing else using the rear sight & an internal breech block assembly. It was very reliable.

 

[Arik]

Why would the GSA68 end importation of these guns? Lack of safety?

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[M29since14]

Couldn't make enough points.

 

[Arik]

Points for what?

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[M29since14]

GCA '68 had a silly scheme assigning points to various features of a handgun. If it didn't score enough points, it couldn't be imported. The intent was to keep guns out of the country unless they had "sporting" characteristics. At the same time, the ninnies were threatening to do away with Model 36s with 2-inch barrels ("Saturday Night Specials" ).

 

[LVSteve]

Points for what?

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What M29 said. The points system looked at barrel length, grip size and even grip type with regard to it being a "sporting arm" or just a very concealable pocket pistol. Very small guns (I forget the exact dimension) with short grips were import banned outright IIRC. These rules still apply and that is why many Makarov and Beretta pistols imported after 1968 have a thumbrest on the right grip, for target shooting as a "sporting arm". Uh-huh.

 

[Arik]

What M29 said. The points system looked at barrel length, grip size and even grip type with regard to it being a "sporting arm" or just a very concealable pocket pistol. Very small guns (I forget the exact dimension) with short grips were import banned outright IIRC. These rules still apply and that is why many Makarov and Beretta pistols imported after 1968 have a thumbrest on the right grip, for target shooting as a "sporting arm". Uh-huh.

Oh. So this nonsense started way back then?!?!? :banghead:

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[therevjay]

Looks just like my Galesi. Mine works 100% as long as you use FMJ. The guy I bought it from said it would only fire one rd. before jamming. I had the same result. Until I realized the mag was for a .22

They would fit just dandy. Didn't work too well though.

 

[LVSteve]

Oh. So this nonsense started way back then?!?!? :banghead:

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Lots of stuff started "way back when". Most Americans do not realise that the the first National Firearms Act controlling full auto weapons dates back to the 1930s.

 

[2152hq]

There's a separate points score card for importation of revolvers,,one for semi autos.
Either had to make first minimum requirements in dimensions. The revolver had to have at least a 3" bbl. The semiauto had to have a manual safety. Both needed to pass a drop test.
From there they gained points for other features.
Not enough points,,sorry, can't come in.

It's still in effect of course. Made for all kinds of changes to imports to try and make the score needed to get into the USA.
Why they can't just get amnesty now I don't know.

It was the end of the importation of the German made PPK, thought the PP made an OK score. The PPK/S was a result of the system as the hybrid model made enough points to get here.
Browning couldn't import the Baby Browning 25 anymore as it simply was too small,,nor the M1910 380.
With the 380, they revampt it w/ adj sites and target grips to make the grade and called it the Model 1971 for the year of importation. Not very popular.

The larger the caliber of the import the more points it got. Those evil small caliber handguns were going to be eliminated one way or another.

Here's a link to the BATF handgun importation scorecards.
http://www.atf.gov/files/forms/download/atf-f-5330-5.pdf

 

[eveled]

Lots of stuff started "way back when". Most Americans do not realise that the the first National Firearms Act controlling full auto weapons dates back to the 1930s.

Some of the towns in the old west, banned carrying guns inside town limits.