An odd blast from the past. Has it been 40 yrs.?
Before the Glock there was the S&W 59. 15-shots! The Europeans were busy too with the HKV70 etc. and the Austrian Steyr GB, boasting 19-shots! Unheard of. The gun itself had a composite crinkle finish frame and a unique delayed-gas blowback action. No locked breach.
My father-in law got it to me to “fix” for him. He’s 81 and has trouble racking the slide and loading the true double stack mag. The mag looks like something for a Sten gun the way it’s internally stacked. It is a beast to load. He’s out of luck on the racking, all I can do is clean and lube it. I do have an extra G19 laying about. Not sure that would help him. The GB is a traditional SA/DA hammer fired gun with de-cocker in lieu of a safety. It’s huge! Not a handy CCW.
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I had a Llama Omni I got new back in the early 80’s
Llama got a bad rap for a lot of there guns but the Omni was pretty advanced for its day. I had the 9mm, 12 round double stack magazine. Had double action first round to single action second round system. Barrel had a beveled land and grove configuration that supposedly had led drag or something. It ran flawlessly with ball ammo but not so much with hollow points. I put a bunch of rounds through it and it held up great. Sold it to a friend at work when I got it to smith and Wesson 586 which lasted well into the late 90’s. Then went back to my first obsession the Ruger Black hawk, then I ran into that Gary Reeder guy and it’s been a whole new ball game from there.
I remember those, they had two versions
Very advanced. Llama sold tons of mini-1911's in .380 and those prissed up 1911 9mm and .45's with the vent-ribs atop the slides. They had a pretty good following with their .357 and .44/.45 big revolvers too, in the mid 1980's. I remember the guns all shot well, military pieces too. Just a little on the rough side on final finishing, tool marks.
The Llama 380s sold well as did the Llama 44s
One of the 380s that sold under the Llama name (I think) was actually made by Erma and was a bit smoother running than the standard Llama version. I don't remember if the Erma gun actually had the Llama name on it or not. A lot of slick little guns came in from Europe late in the 1980s in both the pistols and the compact little rifles. In most cases the finish was considerably nicer than the standard U.S. made pistols and most were more reliable.
I had a good friend in a fellow named Joe who owned J&G down in Prescott. I had my own shop in Santa Fe at the time and got some really unusual guns from Joe. Joe would call me and tell me to write a check for a keg of guns he had coming,
"don't ask questions, just write a check".
The keg was actually a keg, full of guns. One shipment was Colt 22 pistols, the Woodsman, Targetsman, and other 22 Colt pistols. The odd thing is all the guns were in the white, no bluing on them at all.
One other shipment was also pistols in 22 caliber. It was a keg full of Walther PPs in 22 LR and again no finish on them, all in the white. And the odd thing was each of these guns had a threaded barrel. These days we wouldn't give it a second look but in 1985 it was unusual.
Another batch of guns in a wooden box was a dozen short barrel 12 gauge shotguns. They were Winchester Model 12 and the brass plate on the side of the guns said Idaho State Prison. I wanted to keep one but I was in business to sell guns not keep every one I liked.
Up above Scotty was talking about the Llama guns. He didn't mention the Llama Super Comanche . When the Smith model 29s were selling for 3 to 4 times retail we were selling the Llama Super Comanche in 44 Magnum at about $300 if my memory is working. It was a slick gun too. A 6" big and beefy like the model 29. Vent rib on the barrel and nice finish too. They weren't easy to get as not all our distributors carried them for some reason.
There were a lot of neat and unusual guns back in the 80s. If we only had about half of the new guns today that were offered back then and at those prices it would be a grand time for gun lovers.
If I think of some of the guns from those days
I will post them on here.
Always liked the Llama 380, cool looking gun.
One of the 380s that sold under the Llama name (I think) was actually made by Erma and was a bit smoother running than the standard Llama version. I don't remember if the Erma gun actually had the Llama name on it or not. A lot of slick little guns came in from Europe late in the 1980s in both the pistols and the compact little rifles. In most cases the finish was considerably nicer than the standard U.S. made pistols and most were more reliable.
I had a good friend in a fellow named Joe who owned J&G down in Prescott. I had my own shop in Santa Fe at the time and got some really unusual guns from Joe. Joe would call me and tell me to write a check for a keg of guns he had coming,
"don't ask questions, just write a check".
The keg was actually a keg, full of guns. One shipment was Colt 22 pistols, the Woodsman, Targetsman, and other 22 Colt pistols. The odd thing is all the guns were in the white, no bluing on them at all.
One other shipment was also pistols in 22 caliber. It was a keg full of Walther PPs in 22 LR and again no finish on them, all in the white. And the odd thing was each of these guns had a threaded barrel. These days we wouldn't give it a second look but in 1985 it was unusual.
Another batch of guns in a wooden box was a dozen short barrel 12 gauge shotguns. They were Winchester Model 12 and the brass plate on the side of the guns said Idaho State Prison. I wanted to keep one but I was in business to sell guns not keep every one I liked.Up above Scotty was talking about the Llama guns. He didn't mention the Llama Super Comanche . When the Smith model 29s were selling for 3 to 4 times retail we were selling the Llama Super Comanche in 44 Magnum at about $300 if my memory is working. It was a slick gun too. A 6" big and beefy like the model 29. Vent rib on the barrel and nice finish too. They weren't easy to get as not all our distributors carried them for some reason.
There were a lot of neat and unusual guns back in the 80s. If we only had about half of the new guns today that were offered back then and at those prices it would be a grand time for gun lovers.If I think of some of the guns from those days
I will post them on here.
Llama, llama, ding-dong…
The .380 was so cute. I always wanted one but it’s always escaped me. A sort-of baby 1911. They seemed to sell well.
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The 1911 were odd to Americans. Some good features and I think they shot well. A friend had one and he sliced his fingers like a scalpel cleaning the underside of the slide with a paper towel! Boy did he bleed. lol. External extractor, vent rib for glitz, and a windage adj. sight standard.
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The Comanche (.22, .38/.357) was a K-frame sized gun and actually pretty serviceable. Sort of a Spanish Colt Trooper. The “Super Comanche” was the huge frame .44 mag, supposed to be available in .45 Colt, but I never saw one of those. They were almost as big as a Dan Wesson and actually felt great. Lots of the parts were MIM and that kept the price competitive. Stoger imported them. Interarms imported some of the police and military versions I think.
Most Llama guns were priced about 1/3 under the mainstream brands, making them a good value for the casual shooter. As long as you didn’t break anything.
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