Tag Archives: M37 pistol

The Sleeper Awakens…

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I’ve always thought the Hungarian pisztoly FEG 37M Femaru was one of the sleeper Axis WWII-era pistols when it came to deals, and have been fortunate enough to pick them up in recent years for as low as $400, still in excellent condition.

I mean look at that gun– picked up for $380 just three years ago, complete with Royal Hungarian Army marks. 

Of course, German-marked martial examples– they were popular with the Luftwaffe– run much more, and non-import marked “bring backs” earn a premium, especially if they have paperwork.

For illustration, I noticed this beautiful circa 1943 specimen at the recent Milestone auction:

Graded “near-pristine,” this recently discovered, fresh-to-the-market gun came to Milestone together with two magazines with matching serial numbers, and capture paperwork dated 2 October 1945 and made out to Lieutenant Colonel Richard C Dickinson.

In its first public appearance, the above pistol exceeded its $3,000-$5,000 estimate to reach $7,500, proving M37s may not be a sleeper any longer.

Heck, that’s Luger money…

Frommer, FEG and Femaru

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Budapest’s Fegyver- és Gépgyártó Részvénytársaság (FEG) is now one of the biggest water heater makers and HVAC distributors in Europe. However, from the 1880s until 2004, they cranked out a myriad of small arms for the Austro-Hungarian, and later Hungarian proper, military and police. This included the AKM/D-63/65 Kalash, PA-63 Makarov, the 9mm version of the TT33 for Egypt known and loved by collectors as the “Tokagypt,” Pál Király’s Danuvia subguns, and others.

One of my favorites was the Femaru M37, Rudolf Frommer’s swan song. Over 300,000 of these classic semi-autos were produced between 1937 and 1945, seeing extensive service during World War II.

Hungarian Femaru pistols are one of the few affordable WWII-era martial handguns left floating around these days. (Photo: Richard Taylor/Guns.com)

More on the Frommer-FEG-Femaru history in my column over at Guns.com