FIE Titan II / Tanfoglio GT32 or GT380

carguychris

New member
Howdy all,

I've found a couple of FIE Titan II's in different pawnshops for VERY low prices, and it seems that they were heavily promoted back in the 80's. I'm a bit intrigued due to my fondness for things that are (a) a bit outside of the mainstream and (b) cheap. ;) My understanding is that these guns were made by Tanfoglio in Italy and were originally known as the GT32 or GT380 depending on caliber. I also understand that these pistols were sold under the "Excam" brand name for a while, and by EAA for a short time after FIE folded.

They seem to have half-decent triggers and feel good in the hand, although the heel mag release, the rough fit-and-finish, and the goofy safety design are a bit off-putting. For those not in the know, the gun has TWO thumb safeties- a trigger safety AND a firing pin safety, like a Phoenix HP- and the trigger safety operates in the opposite direction that one would normally expect; it's rotated forward for SAFE and downward for FIRE, making it one of only a very few designs I know of where the pistol is on SAFE when the lever is parallel to the barrel.

Anyone have some experience with these critters that they'd like to share?

I realize that these guns have roughly zero collectible value and I'm not really concerned about that. :)
 
My son bought one a number of years ago. The slide cracked on the very first round. That is probably an anomaly, but I'd be wary of putting any meaningful amount of cash into a purchase. Lots of other good guns out there IMHO.
 
Rarely will you find one of these cheaply made pistols that will function reliably I sure would not want to depend on one for personal protection. During the old days just about every "slug-nutty" arrested had one of the $29.95 pistols in his pocket. Few of them fired a round before I cut them up.....and boy does that pot metal flame weird colors and stink under the torch.
 
Funny you post this as I was just poking around on youtube last night looking at videos of them. From my understanding they had steel slides and Aluminum frames. But I think a lot of people confuse ZAMAK3 with Aluminum. Would be a cool little pistol to throw in the SNS collection.
 
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