Picked up a new pistol: Unique DES 69

mrakimbo

mrakimbo

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Picked up a DES 69 with unmodified grips, barrel weight, and 2 magazines for an absolutely screaming bargain of only $300. Pretty good shape too!

9HHp7PTl.jpg


Whole album of the pistol here with some details and field-stripping.

Trigger is silly light, very minimal take-up and little over-travel. The break isn't very crisp, it just kind of happens. I might try to increase the trigger weight to see if I can make the break more glassy. I mean, light is nice, but it's offputtingly light right now. The trigger is all kinds of adjustable.
 
One of the best standard pistols ever made. I bought mine in 1976 and it has never broken any part, rarely ever had feed failures - usually when changing to or from that ugly Russian steel cased "Junior" ammo. You have the manual for setting up the trigger in the case. Be very careful of the sear adjust screw that bears on the sear spring, it is easy to back to out too far and drop it between frame and spring where it can break the spring. Keep the trigger at a kilo and you will love it. Since Unique went out of business in 2002 and the idiot who bought the company melted all the parts down the finding of replacement parts can be a horror show. Sportec in Sweden can provide most springs an a lot of common parts, but like S&W M52 extractors there are a lot that simply cannot be had, especially for the later "U" series pistols. Take care of it and yours too can last another few decades.

cheers. Dr Jim
 
silverfoxdj said:
Thanks I've seen those there and wondered what condition they were in and how they shoot ...seems like a great deal

Is it fussy on ammo?
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I don't know if it's fussy or not because I've only run CCI standard velocity through it. Seems to cycle just fine with that. Took a video with a GoPro:


Pretty accurate too, I managed to put a few shots in the middle even at 50m. I'll have to wait until I can shoot at 25m to actually sight it. I just wanted to make sure it worked!
 
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wbaad said:
Very interesting! Is that a sticker from a Swiss shoring club on the case?
Does it use beretta 71 mags?
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I looked up the sticker, it is/was a Swedish firearms importer. Near as I can figure the gun was imported from France, and then at some point made it's way to Canada from Sweden. I don't think the magazines are the same as the Beretta 71, just very similar looking. The Beretta mag has a large U-shaped cut in the magazine near the bottom, these do not.
 
Shot an ISSF match this past weekend. Didn't do entirely horrible either. In Sport Pistol I finished third, 522/600, which is a personal best. I also posted a personal best for a single target with 93/100 all 9 or better. Still need lots of practice though.



 
T&G said:
One of the best standard pistols ever made. I bought mine in 1976 and it has never broken any part, rarely ever had feed failures - usually when changing to or from that ugly Russian steel cased "Junior" ammo. You have the manual for setting up the trigger in the case. Be very careful of the sear adjust screw that bears on the sear spring, it is easy to back to out too far and drop it between frame and spring where it can break the spring. Keep the trigger at a kilo and you will love it. Since Unique went out of business in 2002 and the idiot who bought the company melted all the parts down the finding of replacement parts can be a horror show. Sportec in Sweden can provide most springs an a lot of common parts, but like S&W M52 extractors there are a lot that simply cannot be had, especially for the later "U" series pistols. Take care of it and yours too can last another few decades.

cheers. Dr Jim
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Funny you mentioned Russian "junior" ammo. I had never heard of it untill a few months ago when I bought 8 bricks of it for 18 dollars a brick. Seemed like a good deal but that greasy crap does cause some jams.I only kept one brick and sold the rest to friends. Kinda mean but I didn't know until later what it was like. Pretty snappy stuff though. Just gotta degrease it.
 
In regards "Junior" ammo: I went through a couple of cases of it back in the 90s . It was actually quite good, far better than the crap that Remington sold/sells. The grease was fine as long as you scraped the residue our of the chamber and bolt face and of course did not change ammo. Initial testing showed the grease would cause extraction failures on the first couple of mags but then worked slickly. Changing to another brand would bring extraction failures back until the Junior grease was burned away. Same pattern both in my Unique and Walther GSP.
Dr Jim
 
I actually like the junior ammo. It's accurate and snappy but the fingers get a little sticky from loading. I got it so cheap I just can't be resentful. My buddies don't seem to have the same appreciation though. An estate sale,don't know how old it is.
 
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