TargetTalk

As the title says, ive been offered a nice used Unique des 69u.

I'm going to have a look at it tomorrow, and I want to know what i should be on the lookout for when inspecting the gun before buying?

Any help is very much appreciated.

Before even looking at the gun I would be asking if I could still buy spares or whether I would need to get anything manufactured.

THE unique is a great gun ! I have one along with a des 32 , as i can think of there is nothing to look out for the 32 modle was suposed to crack but i have seen nothing on mine 22lr is much softer these were and are still grat guns ,as for parts they were borght out by another company which still has loads of bits though nothing ever gose wrong !!buy the gun shoot it lots its very good the only reson the company stoped was becose there guns were so well made they would of had to sell them for nearly the dobble to say alive.

For any spares that you may want for your Unique pistol see this thread:

http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php?t=22096

I hope this helps.

A simple and reliable design, if a little quirky.

I have two. On one, the breech face lies further back than on the other, by about 1mm. This results in the feeding round trying to enter the breech before it has been released by the magazine lips. If the gun is cycled by hand, one can see the bullet jamming against the loading ramp: the corner between the top of the ramp and the chamber puts a crescentic bruise on the underside of the bullet. Given ammo with a short overall length, it usually cycles reliably, but the bruising of the bullet remains. It seems to be a manufacturing fault. The general quality of machining is nothing to get excited about, but it's good where it needs to be (except on the faulty gun).

The other one is 100% reliable.

The sear engagement is not adjustable, so, if the trigger is to your liking, fine, but if not, too bad. On one of mine, the sear had been 'modified' to allow a lot of engagement, resulting in a nasty, creeping, trigger. I swapped bits around from the two guns, and ended up with what is my favourite .22 pistol.

There are at least three different muzzle weights. Changing these has a dramatic effect on the feel of the pistol. Their screws need to be done up really tight, with the weight clear of the recoil spring rod.

There is a cross-headed, large diameter grub screw (3410 on the diagrams) which bears on the flat sear spring. This has four axial grooves on its periphery, which engage with a tiny ball and spring detent. On both mine, as received, the screw had been turned so far inwards that it was free from the threads in the frame. It remained in position because it was trapped between frame and sear spring. Needles to say, the ball and spring were missing. Note that the sear spring adjustment does affect trigger pull weight. If this screw has been wound right through the frame, don't try to lift the sear spring to remove the screw, but remove the cross-pin which retains the spring. Don't ask how I know that the sear spring is too brittle!

If you find a source of spares, please let us all know.

I bought mine in 1976 and 10s of thousands of rounds later the only problem with it was a broken firing pin around 1980, no problem since.
Here in Canada they still sell for $700. I'm keeping mine.

John

It is now getting very difficult to get parts, the listed sites have a lot of Unique parts but very few DES 69 parts.
It took a 5 month search to find a sear (eventually found in a gunsmiths tool box in Sweden).
Watch for broken firing pins and worn/loose rear sight elevation screw.
Also on the .32 it is common to break the take down lock at the back of the slide. When you crack or break it you may not be able to disassemble the pistol.
You may be better off to look for something still in production that is supported.