Mars pistol
 

http://www.forgottenweapons.com/mars-pistol/

Combines the worst features of a Nambu and a Borchardt, and the best features of neither! :evilgrin:

Life's to short to shoot an ugly gun.

And complicated.

And disagreeable.

And ugly.

And all around nasty.

And ugly.

Did I mentioned it was ugly?:evilgrin:

I couldn't agree with you more!
Goodness that's not the most beautiful pistol ever made is it?

Don't shoot that! Shoot this!

Attachment 56639
:D

Shoot that WITH this!

Not the most attractive for sure, but it packed a much bigger punch. the Auto-Mag of it's day.

Shoot what with what?

:confused:

I generally use these:

Attachment 56641

Is that hog leg a Maximum?

No, it's a regular .45 Colt.
Early 3rd generation (1978).

I don't see how the Mars' pictured magazine could physically fit into the pistol's grip.
What am I missing?

I believe it's the 9 mm(sort of) pistol with the 45 magazine in the picture.

Here's a pic/page from the 1943 Textbook Of Automatic Pistols by Wilson. The 9mm version (a bottlenecked 45 Mars cartridge) is quoted at 1750fps. Also rotary bolt, long recoil.

Interesting. :) Also an amusing excerpt from Pistols Of The World... :p

And this is the.45, the .45 long giving an impressive 1200 fps:
Attachment 56649

Now that's a marketing executive's nightmare!

"A singularly unpleasant and alarming pistol to shoot with"...

And, in government testing...

",,, somewhat violent, though not greatly excessive recoil..."

"No one who once fired the pistol wished to shoot it again..."

Those are competitor's "endorsements" that only John M. Browning could have loved reading!

Rarely do you see such an unbalanced design, with all the center of gravity well above the recoil fulcrum.

This must feel like the playground bully bending your wrist back until it touches your arm.

Still, I'd sell any of youse guys' body parts to have any of the Mars pistols in just "good" condition....

Jerry

Played with a couple of them in preview: large size, heavy weight, complex structure, weird action, rarely seen, very well made, very old, and great condition -- all point to higher value. And, they indeed sold tens of thousands a few days later. No plan to find one due to their price tag. But if have one, that's very lucky... even had a chance to hold it in hand a few minutes being lucky.

I wouldn't mind holding one - but for my money I'd much rather have a Borchardt. The one is a beauty, the other a beast!

Borchardt is a different type and is a different play. Due to its transaction volume, although being a very expensive pistol, Borchardt has ballpark value. Mars?? No, too few transactions to setup a ballpark.

From this perspective, Borchardt value is very predictable, but Mars is not. Mars has more value uncertainties. More risk. Looking from another side, if have $$ and interest to buy one of them, and both are available, Mars should have priority, due to it's much harder to come. Borchardt can wait. Of course, this only applies when you have interest in it.

Borchardt is beautiful, Mars is not. I'd love to own the former, the latter - not so much!