Unique Rr51 .32 ACP: Moroccan police pistol at a backup gun match

Key points: Unique Rr51 32 ACP

• The Rr51 is a blowback .32 ACP from Unique of Hendaye, the tail end of an exposed-hammer line the factory built in roughly 17 variations from the 1920s into the early 1950s.
• Production continued under German occupation as the Waffenamt-marked Kriegsmodell; this pistol comes from a post-war batch contracted to the Moroccan police, marked with a stylized palm tree crest and wearing République Française grips.
• Nine rounds in the magazine is workable for a backup gun match, and McCollum shot the first three stages clean or close to it.
• The fourth stage called for 12 plates against a nine-round magazine, so he Barney-loaded a tenth round rather than plan a reload.
• He went ten for ten on that stage but one hit failed to drop its plate, and the stage carried enough points to decide the match against him.
• The verdict: mechanically basic and only a modest step up from a Ruby, but aligned sights and a clean trigger press still deliver hits on demand.
• The North African Foreign Legion kit is a bit rather than a period-correct rig, and he notes it breathes better than it looks in 100-plus degree desert heat.

About this Gun Review video

Unique Rr51 .32 ACP — Ian McCollum runs a Moroccan police contract pistol through four stages of a southern Arizona backup gun match. The Rr51 is a simple blowback from Unique of Hendaye, the exposed-hammer line built from the 1920s into the early 1950s and continued as the Kriegsmodell under German occupation. This post-war batch carries a stylized palm tree crest and République Française grips. Nine rounds covers most BUG stages, but the last one needed 12 plates, so he Barney-loaded a tenth. Ten hits from ten rounds, one plate left standing.

Transcript: Unique Rr51 32