Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "Catalonia's Attempt at a Pistol: the Blowback Isard" video.

  1. The Isard spring has 28 twists, the 1911 32, the Astra 27. The thickness of the wire is about the same. In all likelyhood they had about the same stiffness when new. The stiffness of the mainspring has practically no importance in keeping the action of a blowback handgun closed for enough time to safely eject the case. It's the mass of the slide that does all the work. The only real function of a stiffer mainspring is to mitigate the felt recoil and the force with which the slide slams into the receiver at the end of it's travel, so a stiffer spring prolongs the life of the frame/slide. However, the force that has to be absorbed is the same for blowback and short recoil pistols. Infact, IE, the Hi-Point mainspring has the same stiffnes of the Glock. More than pointing to the dimension of the spring, Ian should have measured the stiffness of the spring. A smaller spring can have the same stiffness of a bigger one, it wears out quickier, and so has to be replaced more often, but the durability of the spring was probably not the main concern of the designers of this handgun.
    26
  2. The Isard spring has 28 twists, the 1911 32, the Astra 27. The thickness of the wire is about the same. In all likelyhood they had about the same stiffness when new. The stiffness of the mainspring has practically no importance in keeping the action of a blowback handgun closed for enough time to safely eject the case. It's the mass of the slide that does all the work. The only real function of a stiffer mainspring is to mitigate the felt recoil and the force with which the slide slams into the receiver at the end of it's travel, so a stiffer spring prolongs the life of the frame/slide. However, the force that has to be absorbed is the same for blowback and short recoil pistols. Infact, IE, the Hi-Point mainspring has the same stiffnes of the Glock. More than pointing to the dimension of the spring, Ian should have measured the stiffness of the spring. A smaller spring can have the same stiffness of a bigger one, it wears out quickier, and so has to be replaced more often, but the durability of the spring was probably not the main concern of the designers of this handgun.
    15
  3. The Isard spring has 28 twists, the 1911 32, the Astra 27. The thickness of the wire is about the same. In all likelyhood they had about the same stiffness when new. The stiffness of the mainspring has practically no importance in keeping the action of a blowback handgun closed for enough time to safely eject the case. It's the mass of the slide that does all the work. The only real function of a stiffer mainspring is to mitigate the felt recoil and the force with which the slide slams into the receiver at the end of it's travel, so a stiffer spring prolongs the life of the frame/slide. However, the force that has to be absorbed is the same for blowback and short recoil pistols. Infact, IE, the Hi-Point mainspring has the same stiffnes of the Glock. More than pointing to the dimension of the spring, Ian should have measured the stiffness of the spring. A smaller spring can have the same stiffness of a bigger one, it wears out quickier, and so has to be replaced more often, but the durability of the spring was probably not the main concern of the designers of this handgun.
    14
  4. The Isard spring has 28 twists, the 1911 32, the Astra 27. The thickness of the wire is about the same. In all likelyhood they had about the same stiffness when new. The stiffness of the mainspring has practically no importance in keeping the action of a blowback handgun closed for enough time to safely eject the case. It's the mass of the slide that does all the work. The only real function of a stiffer mainspring is to mitigate the felt recoil and the force with which the slide slams into the receiver at the end of it's travel, so a stiffer spring prolongs the life of the frame/slide. However, the force that has to be absorbed is the same for blowback and short recoil pistols. Infact, IE, the Hi-Point mainspring has the same stiffnes of the Glock. More than pointing to the dimension of the spring, Ian should have measured the stiffness of the spring. A smaller spring can have the same stiffness of a bigger one, it wears out quickier, and so has to be replaced more often, but the durability of the spring was probably not the main concern of the designers of this handgun.
    12
  5. +Michael Treu Yeah. To add weight at the muzzle reduces the muzzle flip too (even if that was not probably a concern for the designers) and the bushing surely aided the field strip of the gun (that, in the 1911, has always been a pain in the ass). Considering the conditions it had been manufactured, that's a clever design to me. A shame only for the lack of an out-of-battery disconnector, even if I wouldn't be surprised if the angle of the hammer was so that, if the slide was not correctly seated, the hammer couldn't hit the firing pin anyway.
    6
  6. They probably only suffered of a accelerated wear, due to the fact that, in those manufacturing conditions, easily the steel was not of the best quality, and, while the short recoil spring can very well have the same stiffness of the long one when new, it wears out quickier.
    6
  7. It's quite a complex design.
    4
  8. As said, for the spanish law of the time, for a patent to be valid in Spain, the thing had to be manufactured in Spain, so Spanish manufacturers freely made clones of a lot of popular foreign designs.
    3
  9. in typical loads, it's slightly more powerful than 9mm Parabellum, but, due to the larger case, it obtains those performances with less pressure, so it's less punitive for the action.
    1
  10. The Astra 400 is a straight blowback in 9x23mm largo.
    1
  11. There is nothing saying this action not being sound. The Isard spring has 28 twists, the 1911 32, the Astra 27. The thickness of the wire is about the same. In all likelyhood they had about the same stiffness when new. The stiffness of the mainspring has practically no importance in keeping the action of a blowback handgun closed for enough time to safely eject the case. It's the mass of the slide that does all the work. The only real function of a stiffer mainspring is to mitigate the felt recoil and the force with which the slide slams into the receiver at the end of it's travel, so a stiffer spring prolongs the life of the frame/slide. However, the force that has to be absorbed is the same for blowback and short recoil pistols. Infact, IE, the Hi-Point mainspring has the same stiffnes of the Glock. More than pointing to the dimension of the spring, Ian should have measured the stiffness of the spring. A smaller spring can have the same stiffness of a bigger one, it wears out quickier, and so has to be replaced more often, but the durability of the spring was probably not the main concern of the designers of this handgun.
    1
  12. The only real similarities are that they are both blowback and looked like a 1911. The vietnamese one had a non rifled barrel, and many brazed parts to fire a more powerful cartridge than the 9mm largo, it probably was only a rank badge. This seems actually a well made gun.
    1
  13. Yeah, 1911 disassembly had never been a piece of cake. That was actually an improvement.
    1
  14. No, it's dimensionally similar to the .38 ACP, or .38 Auto, that's a different cartridge than the .380 ACP. In their typical loads the 9mm Largo (9X23mm) is slightly more powerful than the 9mm Parabellum, but with a lower pressure, due to the bigger internal volume of the case, so it tends to be less stressful for the actions.
    1
  15. 9mm Largo and 9mm parabellum are different case with different dimensions. 9mm Largo is slightly more powerful in the typical loads.
    1