"in France, it's a little bit different" is possibly the understatement of the year.

This is the Citroen of handguns. Weird and quirky in a particularly French way...

"The Lay Francis" I see this is before he learned to speak French

Manufrance is like ACME ! They make almost everything from pots and pans to firearms !

I think this may be my favorite pistol covered on this channel. Such a clever and unique mechanism, and the gun itself looks sooo cool. I wish they reissued a modern version of this!

You call them design quirks, I call it French.

Manfrance did a lot more than just firearms- they were sort of the French equivalent to the Sears catalog for many years.

+Forgotten Weapons : before 1939, all firearms were free to possess by French citizens (and to carry, hence the numerous small-caliber pistols available on the market at these times). Including "military-grade weapons". The distinction between military and civilian calibers was mostly useful for rifles, since all handguns (except until the mid-nineties, .22 LR one shot pistols with a long barrel and small-shot - "grenaille" - pistols) were submitted to a prefectoral autorisation, that could be given to you if you have a valid reason (to the eyes of the prefecture), like sport or defense. Effectively, in this last case, you could have a semi-auto pistol in a cartridge smaller than 9x17 (.380 ACP) or a revolver (in any caliber) and a dotation of 50 cartridges (can't remember if it was per year or for the lenght of the autorisation). So this pistol could have been produced any time between 1914 and the end of Manufrance.

Interesting gun. Firearms designers have all the fun, don't they.

That is a very interesting design, and a clever use of internal space. I like it very much.

so many features I see every day in my Beretta tip barrels .. 21a and tomcat

When you said "Ruby pistol" I had to look it up because I have a daughter named Ruby, turns out her small low velocity airsoft guns are replicas of the pocket version of the Ruby Pistol! Forgotten Weapons, teaching us it's a small world. lol Great show by the way, I love watching your videos!

I am not really into guns, mostly just a bit of hunting small game, but these videos I find really interesting. I think it is because I like engineering and the history of engineering a lot. Anyway, many thanks for making these videos I find them like documentaries.

You're the best man, out here doing good work. This is a part of history that nobody else is memorializing to the depth and degree that you do. Thanks for all the videos

I have an old Baretta .22 short tip up model made in 1957.It doesn't have an extractor either.When I first got it there was no magazine but I took it out and fired single rounds through it.The gun would fire and jam almost every single time.The case came back,moved a quarter inch to the right and stuck in a kind of horizontal stove pipe.I figured the gun was screwed up but after I obtained a magazine it functioned perfectly.Apparently they don't technically extract from simple blowback alone.The magazine plays a critical role in pushing the expended shell case up and out of the gun.

It's cool how the barrel can be pointed down so you can shoot downwards.

This, Especially in modern .380, would be a nice choice for someone who'd normally consider a small revolver. It might seem "weird" but I dig the concept, Especially for smaller folk,women or older folks who would have a hard time racking the slide.

Don't like much how it looks, but totally like the design of that whole system and how it works.

It think manufrance is more like the sears catalogue. They sold everything including watch and board game.

if you guys have seen reservoir dogs. this gun looks like the gun tim roth puts in his boot when hes going to meet harvey keitel and chris penn's characters. Its a pocket pistol size and the barrel flips up just like this one. at 1h 15m into the movie.

One of my absolute favorites as far as strange pistols go! What a shame you only had such a late model one to take a look at though. For many of the early models they had no serrations on the slide whatsoever, because of the double action trigger and the tip up barrel. The magazine release was even unusual as well, with the method of removal being something like grasping two protusions on the bottom of the magazine and pushing it forward in the magazine well, then pulling out.

If there was a modernized version of this in .22LR, I'd get it for plinking. Seems pretty nifty, and it sounds like they were very considerate with functionality and ease of use in design.

That's actually a really clever little design.. I can't say much for the aesthetics, but the mechanism, that's pretty cool. I like it. Thanks for sharing it :)

That looks quite like the Beretta Bobcat, tip up barrel and main spring in the grip. Nice video as usual.

underappreciated firearm design. Some US gun designers should take note.

I can see this appealing to a safety nut, considering when storing you can pull the magazine out and since the barrel pops open you can be adamant that the gun is empty and store it open like that.

Posted 14 seconds ago, Jesus, I need to get off KZfaq and take a walk.

i have an addiction to this channel, thank you for keeping me well supplied ian

Not bad at all. Brilliant design.

Perfect design for a pocket pistol !

You call them design quirks, I call it inspiration! ive got some wonderful Ideas for a gun, whos Lightbulb ignited during this video. Thanks Ian!!

I weren't have any idea of this gun and now i'm in love with it

I read about those pistols a bit, it's a pretty neat design. It seems weird from today's standpoint, but in the 1910s the automatic pistol was still a novelty and most civilians weren't familiar with the idea. The tilting barrel was a good design that made sure for the user that there wasn't a round in the barrel, so that there would be less accidents.

This little thing is cool! It seems old school, yet modern! Tip up barrel,DAO,Unusual mainspring....A lot going on in a little package. If I had the dough, I'd buy one.

Just the simple fact that you never have to cock it makes it a real great overall gun especially the double action trigger striker set up 👍

That's a cool little gun... Interesting design

Wow this is really neat! I like the idea of not pulling back the slide

I'll add to the crowd, that's a nice pistol. I'd feel comfortable carrying it. It was designed with pocket carry in mind. DA only striker fired is far ahead of it's time. Looks good too.

reminds me of the Berretta tomcat

One of these in a blowback 9mm Browning long is on Gunbroker right now for $2k asking price. It also has the magazine loop for the extra round for the popup barrel as Ian was describing. It's labelled 'Type Armee' so I guess that makes sense. There's also a 'Policeman's' 25cal' listed for $350, despite being very ornately engraved and looking in similar condition. Interesting.

Pretty clever design. Lots of answers to unasked questions. I like it.

This is a great gun and great design. It would make an excellent piece even today, even the Beretta copy of it even isn't as good.

back in the early 1980.s a buddy of mine had a .22 beretta that operated kinda like that,very cool pistol.

I love the mechanics of the mag release dropping the slide and popping the barrel open but I be the trigger is like 15lbs

It sounded a little weird to me when you said 9mm Parabellum, somehow I thought that it would be too powerful for the gun, so I went to Wikipedia ( I know...) and there it says it was in 9mm Browning Long?

Awesome video, thanks for sharing. I personally think this gun could have very easily been marketed to ladies here in the us for purse carry with it being hammerless.

that's really neat how they crammed the recoil spring into the handle with that bellcrank system!

I like the tiny cutout in the bellcrank for clearance around the grip plate screw.

This looks remarkably like the pistol Peter Lorre had in 'The Maltese Falcon'. Very cool history lesson.

This channel is fascinating... Love it.

Nice gun, great ideas. No need to rack it, stays quiet and is compact. Weren’t cheap with the grease either!

what a neat little thing. i'd love to get my hands on one of these guys!

Interesting design, especially the spring in the frame.

I love your videos man you showcase so much french guns no french would even know the existance of, any time i want to know more about those guns i come here, pretty ironic how these days even french peoples know less about their history than other countries, same for cars now when i want to know about french cars i just look for a English yt channel they have more infos than the country it came from, certainly miss this patriotic side it once had, thanks for the interest you give for those so it never fades into oblivion

The barrel pop up once unloaded seems to have the nice added side effect of easy checking to see if the gun is clear.

long time no see Ian. but happy to keep a close contact on the inrange channel!

So that is where Beretta got the Design for the tomcat, bobcat, I own the 22. cal and tuarus copied amd got on board making the tip up barrel, its a great feature for multiple reasons.

Interesting little gun. Thanks again, Ian.

That's a really neat little handgun. I wish I were a gun collector...

Flipping awesome design, i love its so different

that's a really neat design. cool

the tip up barrel reminds me of the beretta .22 my friend used to have a long time back.

This is fantastic! I wish I had one of these, I know they are odd. But one in .32 would be a great little gun!

I have never seen one of these before. Very interesting design.

Super Nifty! Thanks GunGuru Ian!

I think it's kinda neat actually. Always love to see weird stuff on this channel.

The Beretta models 950 and 21 are very similar. Possibly the Tomcat as well. I have shot a Tomcat but never disassembled one.

What a neat design!

Kinda like a bigger, French-made version of the Beretta 950. Neat! It's a shame they were never imported, though I also don't think they would have done well here in the US anyway.

Merci beaucoup pour cette évocation.

I also noticed that when you pop the barrel up with the slide lock back it dropped the slide too

I know It's going to be a good week when there's an auction coming up and Ian's going to be uploading videos everyday for a few days.

Thats a very interesting mainspring. I'm interested to see how common springs like that are.

This pistol is genuis! any chance you can shoot one im curious how it feels and shoots!

That is a very cool little pistol.

That's a super cool little gun!

I love it. Would love to own one. Not very practical in one sense but in another way ahead of its time.

This thing is way ahead of it's time. It's still practical today unlike most guns from that time.

Nice gun, interesting design and I thought Beretta was the only one that did a tip up.

So now we know where the idea for the Beretta 21A came from.

what extracted the empty shell during use with no extractor on the slide? just the recoil of the powder charge? perhaps i missed that info in the video, but i cant figure it out.

You should have disassembled it and showed a few more quirks. If you got a chance to do a vid on the .25ACP, would be really nice. The small one is much less clumsy looking, more smooth. The trigger guard acts a the barrel spring, the barrel can be ´over-opened´ to remove the slide. And it´s one of only two guns I know without a release for the in-grip mag (the other one is a blank gun); the mag tilts a little and the mag bottom snaps into two lugs.

Quite an interesting little pistol!

Seems like a solid little gun.

The turn of the century really were the halcyon days of gunmaking! The extraordinary inventions were simply incredible,especially when the relatively primitive tools available were used. Has gun design stagnated now,or have we at last reached the limit of ingenuity?

neat gun. interesting design of how a hand gun can easily get loaded.

that is a neat piece.

Well, that is a neat little gun! Shame there aren't more here in the States.

Ah yes, the infamous tale of the _"Trigger Striker Assembly"_ one of my favourites!

goood what happend to the mic?? audio is messed up, love the vids tho

that's a pretty neat handgun. I want one now.

Tipping barrel seems so extraneous, what are the main advantages of these over normal slide operated or grasshopper actions?

Pretty neat system. You'd think that pushing the barrel down every time you reload would be inconvenient once it gets hot, but I suppose that's not a huge concern in a civilian setting.

There are some weird but interesting guns out there for sure.:P I really enjoy these videos.:D

Really cool pistol!!

I wonder if they would sell today? Pretty clever design, all in all.

So did Beretta barrow the tip up barrel and handgrip mainspring location ideas?

Do straight blow back firearms in small caliber not require an extractor to function? How does the shell get removed? Gas pressure?

God damn. I wish someone bring me this gun as a souvenir from France. It is one hell of a tool.

Neat! I love these old designs from before the market really settled down. on the topic of odd duck handguns I know it's not exactly forgotten, but I was wondering if you had an opinion on the Chiappa Rhino, it's been around a while, but I never got a good read on it. First everything was hype, then some backlash at QC and customer service, and most recently a definitive meh from Hickok45 (but he might have been avoiding angering rhino fans