Ortgies 7.65

H

Hardcase

New member
I've got an opportunity to buy an Ortgies 7.65 pistol for $150. This is a little outside of my area of expertise, though.

It feels pretty solid. The bore is a little dark, but the rifling is quite clear. The wood grips have an inset medallion with stylized letters H and O. There's some bluing worn off near the front and on top of the slide which seems typical for an 80 or 90 year old pistol.

It's striker fired, I believe, so I suppose that it may need some springs replaced, but I see that they're available.

Price-wise, is this a reasonable deal?
 
Those guns are deceptive. They look simple but are really not and some tricks are involved in dis/reassembly. For one thing, do not try to pry off the grips, you will break them. Look inside the magazine well and at the back you will see what looks like a flat plate about 1/2" square. With a tool, preferably plastic, push that plate toward the back of the gun and the grips will come off (almost fall off).

There is only one control, a combined safety and dismount catch. When the gun is ready to fire, pushing that button allows the grip safety to pop out. Squeezing it and pulling the trigger fires the gun.

The firing pins are quite fragile. The gun should never be dry fired without snap caps, and there have been cases reported of the firing pin breaking with a round in the chamber and the gun firing without being touched.

To disassemble, pull back the slide, push in on that all purpose button and lift the slide up and forward over the barrel. To reassemble, make sure the firing pin spring guide is set into the little notch in the top inside of the slide before attempting to put the slide back on.

The Ortgies is an interesting pistol, but I would consider it a collectors item, not a working gun, and certainly not suitable for a self defense role, even if .32ACP is considered adequate.

Jim
 
Price-wise, is this a reasonable deal?
Click to expand...

Yes I believe it is. There are sub variations and people who collect them. I own one and once took it to a range where I was fairly successcful at 50 yd pistol silhouette targets. I paid more than that for mine. If the magazine is Ortgies marked on bottom, and the finish is 90%+ or better with good grips, I'd say its worth $200+.
 
Well, I bought it. My intent was for it to be part of my collection, Jim. I definitely agree with you about its self-defense capabilities and I've got more appropriate firearms for that. I appreciate the tips, too.

W_73, the magazine has the Ortgies marks on the side, near the bottom. Is that what you mean? The floorplate is blank. As far as finish goes, I'm not a terribly good judge. There's no bare metal, but some thin areas and a bit of light pitting on the slide.

Primarily, my interest in it is because it's one of those really curious guns - there appear to be no screws!

I'll come up with a picture tomorrow.
 
Buy it. The H-O grips indicate that it is an earlier model, and worth it. The Ortgies is very well made. You have to get used to the idea of trusting the safety or not having one in the chamber. Do a google and you should find plenty of info in one article that is on the web about the Ortgie line.

The Doc is out now. :cool:
 
Here it is:

ortgies_1.jpg


No problem with the safety, really. I'm not going to be carrying it, it's just part of the collection and something fun to take to the range. It's got a better safety than my Tokarev :D

As far as the finish, what I thought was holster wear is actually a bit of pitting on the slide, but even so, I think that it's in very good shape. I figure that it's a good 85 years or so worth of wear. If I look half as good at 85, I'll be doing cartwheels!
 
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