My mom had her husband’s father’s Raven .25 automatic in a safe deposit box. She’d been wanting to get rid of it for years, but didn’t know how. She didn’t want her late husband’s brothers to get ahold of it, since they are not exactly the trustworthy type. She agreed that I should take possession of it.
I remember seeing Raven handguns in the 1980s. IIRC, they sold for about $65. Cheap piece of crap, from what I’ve heard. I’ve always wanted one though, because they’re cheap pieces of crap. Sort of a novelty.
Wow. A Raven .25 auto was the first handgun I ever owned.
Never got around to firing it. Good thing, as it turns out.
Much later I bought my SA M1911A1, which has a much better reputation.
I’ve heard various opinions about it, from “cheap piece of crap, dangerous to fire” to “It’ll do what it was designed to do.” The truth is somewhere in the middle, I expect. It won’t blow up on you, as long as you’ve done the basic maintenance, but I’d expect a lot of jams. Also, .25s have a reputation for having a hair trigger, so be careful with it, when loaded. (You or the gun.)
Yup. I’ve seen two that went off as soon as a finger was placed inside the trigger guard. No, it won’t likely blow up on you, and yes, it does what it was designed to do - Fire a .25 cartridge from a sloppily-designed and indifferently-manufatured hunk of steel. That makes it, again IMO, a dangerous piece of junk. In addition, the cartridge is so underpowered that the only thing I’d shoot with it are tin cans, and there are far better, inexpensive, safer, more useful, better-shaped weapons for that purpose.
Ditching the parts is probably a bad idea, too, from a legal stand point. If the s/n is recorded anywhere, and someone comes across the incomplete pieces, some awkward questions may be asked. Better to keep it out of sight until it can be legally done away with.
Just to be clear… I’m not getting rid of it. When it’s officially mine, I’ll keep it. As I said, I like the novelty of it. Besides, it appears to be unfired and in its original box with the original instructions. Not looking for opinions as to its disposition; just seeing what people have to say about Ravens.
Tranquilis is right; there are better guns for plinking. I have a variety including an old-style Ruger Single-Six (gotta have that unsafe action!), a Ruger Mk.II, my collection of blackpowder revolvers, and rifles of all sorts.
But there’s something about the Raven… It’s a cheap piece of garbage. It was a cheap gun to buy. (I don’t know if they’re still being made. They’re banned in California.) It’s ugly. It’s a .25, which is a poorer choice than a .22 LR. None of my firearms are for protection, so even a small, cheap, ‘disposable’ handgun is useless to me. There’s absolutely nothing to like about this gun – which is what I find attractive; its total lack of any redeeming qualities.
I should also point out that I like the Armalite AR-180 and the Grumman A-6 Intruder.
I heard this one at Edwards AFB: An A-6 pilot walked into the O-Club and demanded to know who the pilot was who flies the A-10 parked on the ramp. The A-10 pilot announced himself, and the A-6 pilot went over to him and shook his hand. ‘I just had to shake your hand, sir!’ said the Intruder pilot. ‘I’ve finally met someone who flies an airplane uglier than mine!’