Didn’t think I’d see this…
I’ve always thought the select-fire Cristóbal rifle, a neat little gun chambered in .30 Carbine produced in the Dominican Republic in the 1960s, was interesting.
Italian merc Elio Capozzi (U.S. HBT camo and AR-10) speaks with a Dominican rebel with a Cristobol Carbine, 1965, image from LIFE Archives
The Armería F. A. San Cristóbal produced about 200,000 of these carbines, a big number considering the Dominican Republic never fielded more than 40,000 troops
Designed by exiled Hungarian firearms engineer Pal Kiraly (who made guns for SIG back before WWII and then the Danuvia 39M and 43M models of lever-delayed blowback submachine guns for the Royal Hungarian Army during the war), the gun wound up being used in a few weird places including Baptista-era Cuba.
San Cristobal carbine on display at US Army Airborne Museum at Fort Benning. The Army captured a few of these back during the U.S. Intervention in the DR in 1965-66 (great 250-page U.S Army paper on that here) and click on the image to big up if you want
Well, it seems some of the Dominican Republic-made ammo wound up in Ethiopia at some point, because RTI now has some on hand for a price ($39 per 50-round box) that is sure to make bullet collectors interested.
The boxes certainly are eye-catching, stamped by the San Cristobal Arsenal:
laststandonzombieisland 