Savage 1907, magazine?

[fatelk]

20 years ago I had an old Savage 1907 .32 auto pistol. I think I needed money for some motorcycle parts or something, so I sold it; have regretted it ever since. It was just a neat little pistol.

Fast forward to today: I finally found a replacement at a time when I had a little money in my pocket, in decent condition at a price I could live with.

I looked it over good; very good+ mechanically, finish and bore. I did the paperwork and background check, and paid them without thinking to ask about the magazine (not displayed with the gun). I was disappointed when the guy pulled the mag out of a box and I saw it was a junky aftermarket one. It even holds eight instead of the original ten.

I was more disappointed to look around a bit on-line and see that the very few I could find are prohibitively expensive.

So, anyone have any ideas where one can find a decent magazine for this old gun? Aftermarket is even OK, so long as it's good quality and original capacity. I'll also put this in the want to buy forum.

Thanks in advance for any info.

[Multigunner]

20 years ago I had an old Savage 1907 .32 auto pistol. I think I needed money for some motorcycle parts or something, so I sold it; have regretted it ever since. It was just a neat little pistol.

Fast forward to today: I finally found a replacement at a time when I had a little money in my pocket, in decent condition at a price I could live with.

I looked it over good; very good+ mechanically, finish and bore. I did the paperwork and background check, and paid them without thinking to ask about the magazine (not displayed with the gun). I was disappointed when the guy pulled the mag out of a box and I saw it was a junky aftermarket one. It even holds eight instead of the original ten.

I was more disappointed to look around a bit on-line and see that the very few I could find are prohibitively expensive.

So, anyone have any ideas where one can find a decent magazine for this old gun? Aftermarket is even OK, so long as it's good quality and original capacity. I'll also put this in the want to buy forum.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Great that you found one of these in decent condition.
I figured I should mention my own experiance with this fine but unorthodox design.

A cousin brought over an old savage he'd found among his deceased fathers things.
It was a .32 Savage, don't know the exact model, with lots of surface rust (no original bluing remained) and no grips.
I reblued the piece and made a pair of grips, though the grips had to be secured by gluing to a insert fitted in the slot where the grip spring would have held them down.

The slide was very loose, I intended to tighen the frame rails as a last step. While checking function and dry firing I discovered a very serious saftey issue.
If the trigger was pulled while the safety was engaged and the safety later disengaged the pistol could fire on its own without touching the trigger.

The parts of the firing mechanism were still in very good condition, so it wasn't wear to any internal part that caused this. On further examination I found that the excessively loose slide fit was the problem.
Its common to find the Savage pocket autos with the front of the frame spread a bit, I'd read of this years earlier and remembered the procedure for tightening the frame up using a vice and a spacer block to avoid over tightening.

The loose fit of the slide meant the parts, the majority of which are in the slide itself could be out of alignment with the parts in the frame when the safety was engaged. The safety still prevented the firing pin from going going forwards but did not prevent the sear from disengaging when the trigger was pulled, so when the safety was disengaged the sear was no longer engaged and the pistol could go off. Luckily I did not have a live round chambered when this happened.

After completing the refinishing and tightening up the frame rails I found the safety worked as good as new. I put several mags through it and found the savage to be very accurate, not just in comparasion to other .32 pocket autos but more accurate than most pistols with a rep for accuracy.
I'm used to skimpy pocket pistol sights , so some might have a problem with those.
Its been many years but as I remeber it the sights on the Savage were a bit better than the run of the mill of this breed.

Also the rotating barrel hesitation lock is great, I could feel the slide travel when firing, speed of the slide was slowed to a remarkable extent.

A test model in .45 ACP was one of the favorites during the U S Army pistol tests but it was beat out by the 1911. Other militarys bought the .32 model, and perhaps a .380 version. I've only handled the .32 version.

PS
Back to your question. Many low cost European auto pistols were designed to use already available magazines designed for earlier popular autoloaders.
You might try finding a list of magazines produced for other pistols which are either exactly the same as the Savage magazine or close enough that one could be modified to fit. Spanish pistols would be the first place to look.

[fatelk]

You might try finding a list of magazines produced for other pistols which are either exactly the same as the Savage magazine or close enough that one could be modified to fit.

That would be a great idea, except that the Savage is a completely unique 10 round double column magazine.

Thanks for the story and info about it. That's good to know about the safety. I remember the one I had before, that it pointed and shot really good. I always regretted selling it. I found based on serial number that this one was made in 1917, and the price I paid was favorable compared to what they go for on Gunbroker, based on condition and lack of original magazine. I look forward to trying it out.

I already have dies, a big bag of brass, several boxes of FMJ bullets, but no molds. Looks like Lee doesn't make a mold for this caliber.