Radom/Vis 35 Pistol Questions

[BigGameHunter]

My father has a Radom Vis that is a Grade 1 (First Series that were under German occupation. Pretty much a Polish Vis with German Swastika Markings, Stock Slot, Polished Blue Finish, Guessing 1940).

I was just curious if anyone knew of a sight or database that would be able to give you more details based off the serial number as there are a few differences that I would like to have information on as it looks like inside there are what appear to be Rune Marks and a couple other faded marks as well as no Letter Prefix in the Serial Number (it is a 4 digit serial number) which I believe means its one of the earliest German (Post Blitz) pistols.

Regardless it is a very nice 9mm to shoot. Handles and operates like a cross between the 1911 and a HiPower IMO. Its weird that this gun was replaced by the TT33. I wouldn't mind buying one of them to see how they compare function wise but I image the Radom is much better built as it is when compared to other handguns of mine just one of those guns that is just a pleasure to hold in your hand.

Anyone else own one of these pistols. Any Grade. Any Information as I would hope to possibly learn a bit more than I have been able to with google which is where I found most but I am sure someone on here must know a bit. Thanks

 

[Gefreiter]

My two cents on the vis 35

Dear Big,

I'm also a Radom owner, and I found mine about a year ago. We all dream of finding a pre-war one with the Polish eagle, but let's face it, the chances of that happening is very small and it would most likely be very expensive proposition. The standard catalogue of Military firearms showed a value in 2007of 2500$ for an EXC, or 3500$ for a VG Polish Eagle mit Waffenamt markings. I'm not sure I would want to pay that much.

I own about 35 military pistols of 30 different types. My interest is historical and mechanical (I'm an engineer). So I can do comparisons of features like safety, ease of tear down, the way it holds in my hand, reliability, simplicity of concept, etc. For sure the Radom is nice, but I beleive it's reputation is a bit overblown. It is a bit too crude to my liking, and I can't say I admire a lot people who copy designs of others. A Lahti-35 on the other hand, now that's a fabulous design. Like the Radom, it's a bit crude, with also a rather low production figure, but immensely better designed, in my opinion and a significantly sharper shooter.

For sure, the circumstances in which the vis 35 was designed, rather rapidly and in a country who's existence was fragile, after being wiped out of the map for 125 years, need to be taken in consideration. When you are perfectly aware that the two countries across your east and west border are just waiting to gobble you up again (which they did four years later), it's not the time to be too rigorous about patents and copy rights: you just go ahead and arm yourself ASAP.

I would certainly like to see a pre-war one. If it's anything like my post-war Polish M44 Mosin-Nagant, I would probably end up selling the present one to finance and upgrade. I'm a sucker for well machined pieces of art, and my Polisk M44 certainly fits the description.

I bought a book on the vis 35, titled "The Radom Pistol" by Robert J. Berger. From it I extracted all the statistics of production and s/n and derived an Excel spread sheet with it. I made it in French and I have not translated it yet. The simplest is if you gave me the s/n of your pistol; then I can probably narrow the manufacturing date almost down to the month. By the way, according to this book, your pistol's proper designation is "Group 2", more likely post 1940, as production only resumed in the second part of 1940 and the first batches were mostly "hybrids" (a mixture of finer early production parts and 1940 parts), and a batch destined to the Kriegsmarine ("KM").

I realize I'm not signing in tune with the choir, on the subject of the Radom pistol, it's just my opinion. I hope I don't sound too offensive, specially if you're of Polish origin. I have a very good friend who's Polish and even before knowing him, I had great respect for the creativity of Poles who are the ones who initially cracked the Enigma machine, not a small feat!

Cheers, Gefreiter

Here is pair of pictures of mine and my Polis Mosin-Nagant M44: