The Astra 200 Firecat

The.25 ACP cartridge, also known as the 6.35 x 16 mm SR, was designed by John Browning and introduced in 1905 with the diminutive Fabrique Nationale Model 1905 Vest Pocket pistol which weighed less than thirteen ounces.  The little handgun was immediately successful and Colt began producing it under license in 1908.  Other manufacturers followed suit with tiny pistols chambered for the .25 ACP cartridge and some were fairly unique while others were just copies of the Browning design. For most of the Twentieth Century, if one desired or required a very small pistol, a .25 ACP was the likely choice and thousands upon thousands were produced with quality and price ranging from very low to quite high.

In the late 1980s, I occasionally carried a Colt Model 1908 and an older gentleman with whom I was acquainted swore by one of the many other .25 autos: an Astra 200, also known as the Firecat.  Effectively a modestly priced copy of the Browning design, it was introduced in 1920 and produced until 1967.  His worked well and he had carried it in his pocket for so long that one side was devoid of finish.  Recently, a friend of mine acquired one and we fired a few rounds of Remington UMC, 50 gr. FMJ through it. While it was accurate enough with its gutter sights for fast and consistent center mass hits at seven yards, it did not feed well. Though I did not have other ammo to validate my theory with, I believe the problem was a magazine that has been beat around over the years and it is worth recalling that the newest Firecats available are somewhere around forty-five years old.