Interesting Browning (FN) 1922 Vet Bring-Back 7.65mm Pistol

**RZM** · 08-18-2014, 01:10 AM

Greetings all,

I picked this one from a good friend of mine yesterday, and I have noticed some rather interesting things about it. First is the pitting on the right side of the slide. I asked him about it, and he told me that his father (who brought it back) had always said it was blood. He had told them that it came off a dead German in France. I have no reason to believe that he would make this up, but I never really thought of blood pitting metal. It makes sense though! Another very interesting thing I noticed about this pistol is that it bears BOTH WaA613 and WaA103 Waffenamts. It falls outside the serial number range of WaA610 by about 4500. The barrel and slide have both, while the frame only has WaA103. Has anyone seen another with these markings? My guess is that it is a transitional piece between WaA's. Opinions? Also, does anyone have an extra 1922 Luftwaffe holster they wouldn't mind getting rid of?

Cheers!

**guns ltd** · 08-18-2014, 01:47 PM

Ver nice looking pistol.

John

**Slade** · 08-18-2014, 04:02 PM

Blood definitely pits steel and it will do so very quickly as its highly corrosive. However I somewhat doubt that it can be proven that this is "blood pitting" The pits just aren't deep enough to say conclusively. Some years ago I had a K98 that showed signs of "blood corrosion" as their were moderately deep and uniform pits all over its action especially on the bolt (and only the action and bolt, the rest of the gun was pristine). Thus indicating the user had blood on his hands while cycling the action. Blood begins causing corrosion immediately and pits start to form in within 24hrs if left to do its work. That's just my .02. Cool story and sweet pistol!

**RZM** · 08-19-2014, 01:40 AM

Thanks for the info, Slade! Here is a close up picture of the "pitted" area on my pistol. It looks very similar to a knife I used to clean a deer, but forgot to clean the knife. I left it for a couple of days before I cleaned it, and there was some pitting once it was cleaned. I just figured it was from water since it was raining that day. I guess the blood had something to do with it! lol.

**Slade** · 08-19-2014, 01:44 AM

by RZM

Thanks for the info, Slade! Here is a close up picture of the "pitted" area on my pistol. It looks very similar to a knife I used to clean a deer, but forgot to clean the knife. I left it for a couple of days before I cleaned it, and there was some pitting once it was cleaned. I just figured it was from water since it was raining that day. I guess the blood had something to do with it! lol.

RZM, much better picture! That indeed looks like blood spatter on the slide. Oh if that pistol could talk