Armscor M206 .38spl

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warrconn

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Anyone here have any experience with these snubbies from the Phillipines? The look like repro Colt snubbies...same kind of cylinder latch and 6 rounds. I've seen them for sale for just over $200. Thing is, Armscor makes the Rock Island 1911s, and those generally get real good reviews.
 
I've not fired one, but I fondled one.

For the most part, seemed ok, but lockup was really pretty sloppy and the general feel I got was that while it would probably function, it is not a gun that would stand up to a lot of firing. In other words, I got a pretty good idea where the money they aren't asking wasn't spent.

I might be tempted to try one out, I don't think they're unsafe. For the price they are probably just fine, but they aren't going to stand up well against Rugers or S&Ws.
 
I have a M200 and a M206, they're clones of the Colt Agent, the quality is what you would expect from Armscor ie; it's not a Colt, Smith or Ruger, but is acceptable for the money.

The one thing I do like is the CS on it, I emailed them and asked if they sold non-spurred hammers, they asked for my address and 4 days later I received a free one in the mail from their American distributor in Nevada.

Average gun, Good service.

Also holsters, speedloaders, grips, etc.. that fit the Colt Agent fit the Armscor 206.
 
I have had one for a couple of years. There's some debate about how much of a Colt clone they are, rather than just Colt-sized and made to look sorta like a Colt. But -- they DO look very like a Colt, and the lockwork is similar if not the same. Mine doesn't lock up "like a bank vault" -- there's a very slight amount of rotational play but no end shake -- but it's not as bad as some other revolvers I've seen, and it shoots well enough for self defense accuracy -- which is what anyone would be buying a low-priced, short-barrel revolver for anyway.

I have the 4" version and I'll very likely get one of the 2" snubbies sometime down the road. And I understand that Armscor is soon going to release a .22LR version -- if that happens before I get the snubby, I'm going to have a tough decision to make.

I consider the Armscor to be the stealth gun buy of the century. When mine came in, the guys at the shop compared it to the Taurus revolvers they use as range rentals, and they couldn't believe the Armscor's trigger. It's not bad at all in DA mode, and in SA mode it's exceptional. And I haven't worked on it.

I have read elitist comments that the Armscor revolvers are rough inside and use "soft" steel. Dunno. I've had the side plate off mine to look inside and it doesn't look especially rough to me. And I don't intend to put tens of thousands of rounds through it every year, so I'm not worried about wearing it out.

The snubby comes with VERY small wood grips. They look okay, but there's nothing there to hold onto. Hint: for $30 or so, Brownells has a set of rubber grips from Pachmayr for the Detective Special that fit perfectly.
 
I worked on a couple back in the 80s when I was still smithing. I found the metal to be fairly soft, but, overall, I guess they were serviceable enough. I would suppose that the metallurgy has improved in the last 20-25 years or so, though.

I was in the Philippines this past May and all the major businesses have armed guards. All of them had either Armscor revolvers or shotguns, so it appears that Armscor has a thriving business in the P.I.
 
We've sold a ton of them with zero complaints. As stated they appear to be a Colt clone and are remarkably smooth and substantial for their modest price. They appear to be all steel and I have no problem recommending them to customers on a tight budget.
 
The Armscor revolvers are NOT any kind of "Clone" of the Colt revolvers.
These simply have an external appearance of the Colt "D" frame Detective Special and Diamondback.

There are a number of rumors floating around that Armscor bought the rights to the "D" frame from Colt, or bought the production tooling from Colt, or it's a copy of the Colt.
None of this is true.
Internally the Armscor is more like a Dan Wesson or a Colt King Cobra.

As is common with cheap foreign guns, they copied the external look of the Colt as close as they dared down to being about to use the same holsters and sometimes the same grips.
 
Pretty much what I figured. It was also rumored the M206 guns were manufactured on old Colt equipment. I never quite bought that story. In fact, I think I read that the factory itself says that rumor is not true.
 
Actually, the internals on the M200/M206 are almost exactly like a Colt J-frame. Like this:

Colt_Jframe_schem.jpg


And I'm not guessing. I was inside mine about ten days ago.
 
Microgunner said:
Aguila Blanca said:
Actually, the internals on the M200/M206 are exactly like a Colt J-frame.
Click to expand...
"D" frame
Click to expand...
"J" frame.

"D" frame is different, like this:

Colt_Dframe_schem.jpg


Note the hammer spring is a folded leaf in the "D" frame. The Armscor M200/M206 has a coil spring set coaxial with a hammer strut ... like the "J" frame (parts 27, 28 & 29 in the first schematic I posted).
 
Dfariswheel said:
The Armscor revolvers are NOT any kind of "Clone" of the Colt revolvers.
These simply have an external appearance of the Colt "D" frame Detective Special and Diamondback.
Click to expand...

Dfariswheel said:
Internally the Armscor is more like a Dan Wesson or a Colt King Cobra.
Click to expand...

Dfariswheel said:
As is common with cheap foreign guns, they copied the external look of the Colt as close as they dared down to being about to use the same holsters and sometimes the same grips.
Click to expand...

So....which is it?.....I'm a little confused..... :confused:
 
The Armscor revolvers have an external appearance of the Colt Detective Special and Diamondback.

Internally they are nothing at all like the small frame Colt's but do seem to be much like the later transfer bar ignition/safety design of the Colt King Cobra.

In other words they seemed to have done a double rip-off of Colt firearms.
Detective Special look outside, King Cobra look inside, quality well below Taurus.
 
Dfariswwheel said:
In other words they seemed to have done a double rip-off of Colt firearms.
Detective Special look outside, King Cobra look inside, quality well below Taurus.
Click to expand...
I'll go along as far as the combination of Colt-inspired design features, but ... "quality well below Taurus"? Sorry, but I absolutely have to take issue with that. I have compared my Armscor to the Taurus revolvers they have in the shop at the range, and there's no way I'd swap my Armscor for any Taurus.
 
In the latest issue of Combat Handguns (Sept '11) there's an article about the Firestorm FSR .38. Basically a dressesd up, shrouded hammer M206. Never knew it existed. The article calls it a "replication of the street proven Colt Detective Special From the Mid-1970s"
 
warrconn said:
In the latest issue of Combat Handguns (Sept '11) there's an article about the Firestorm FSR .38. Basically a dressesd up, shrouded hammer M206. Never knew it existed. The article calls it a "replication of the street proven Colt Detective Special From the Mid-1970s"
Click to expand...
Shrouded hammer?

Or bobbed, spurless hammer? I know they make a spurless hammer version of the snubby, I have one of the hammers in my parts bin. Never saw or heard of a version with a shrouded hammer.

See post #3 above.
 
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