WW1 Era French Ruby Pistol

[Gildwiller1918]

Here is my French Ruby pistol or Pistolet Automatique de 7 millim.65 genre "Ruby". This was a semi-automatic pistol in .32 ACP (7.65mm). As France experienced attrition early in the war, it needed to replace lost weapons swiftly. France was already purchasing weapons abroad, however a simple solution appeared with its neighbor to the south. Spain had begun production on a copy of the Browning M1903 pistol, with some changes added. In 1915 The manufacturer at the time, Gabilondo and Urresti sent samples to the French Government as they were quite desperate for anything they could get their hands on. In May of 1915, the French had accepted the pistol and initially wanted 10,000 a month, this was subsequently raised to 30,000, then to 50,000. The manufacturer could not keep up with the production numbers and began to contract out business to other gun makers in Spain. There are quite a few companies that were involved, however not all made the finished product, some made specific parts like slides, magazines, etc. Since these were being cranked out so fast, the quality was not always the best, although the pistol performed rather well. Another issue that came up was that parts were not always interchangeable, especially magazines, leading the French to require magazines be code stamped to the gun it was made for to ensure they worked properly. 

My pistol is made by Martin Bascaran (under the brand name Martian) - It has the French Military code stamp MB on the heel. You can also see the rivet added above the safety, this was done by the French as the safety catch sometimes got caught on the tight leather holsters. This pistol saw widespread use with the French forces in WW1 and WW2. 

[Gildwiller1918]

I have also gotten the correct manufacture magazine in today, marked "MB" just like the pistol. The pistol came with a generic magazine that was very hard to get out, the MB marked one works fantastic. 

[Gildwiller1918]

Here is the holster for the Ruby, it has a slot for a spare magazine inside.