I have a tendency to appreciate Spanish pistols. The Spanish pistol market is essentially a clone factory. Take a successful design and then recreate it, but also change things. The Astra Police takes some clear cues from S&W revolvers, particularly the Model 19, but isn’t a direct clone. Instead, it’s a very beefy, overengineered .38 Special that comes in at an excellent price point.
What Makes the Astra Police Different?
The Astra Police did come in .357 Magnum, but this specific model is .38 Special only. Why? I have no idea. It is the same frame as the .357 Magnum, although it utilizes a .38 Special cylinder. Perhaps Astra sought to market the revolver internationally to police or security forces that primarily used the .38 Special.
Astra designed these guns with cylinders that could be quickly removed. The big screw just ahead of the trigger guard acts as a button to remove the cylinder. If I could find a .357 Magnum cylinder, I could swap it out fairly easily.
The other feature that sets the Astra apart from S&W revolvers hides under the grips. Under the grips, we have a mainspring and a circular device that plugs into it. If you pull it upward and rotate the circle a quarter turn, you see the mainspring pop back in. You have four positions total, and each position is a trigger adjustment. You can lighten or make your trigger heavier very easily.
Those are the weird little features, but there are a few other quality-of-life features. The front sight is pinned, which is a nice touch. There is a transfer bar rather than a direct firing pin on the hammer, which is always nice on cheap old revolvers. The gun’s quite hefty, but weight is good for recoil, as we’ll find out later.
The Astra Police and I
I got this revolver for a couple of hundred dollars. Not bad, and I’d wanted one ever since I saw an FN Barracuda. Astra built the Barracudas for FN. The Barracudas famously had .357 Magnum and 9mm cylinders and took advantage of the quick-cylinder-detachment device. The Barracuda and Astra Police are essentially identical.
They have this hefty look, with a larger frame, but a fairly short three-inch barrel. Three-inch barrels are becoming my favorite on revolvers, especially .38 Special revolvers. Mine features the initials P.M.V., which stands for Policia Municipal Vitoria. The municipal police of Vitoria-Gasteiz, which looks beautiful on Google Images.
It’s a fairly plain revolver with wood grips. There does seem to be some compatibility with S&W grips, but they don’t quite fit correctly. We might need a little fitting to get it to work. I’ll stick to the standard grips because that old-school wood looks beautiful with the beautiful blued finish.
The whole revolver is an aesthetic vibe. The big, heavy design, the chunky, almost L-frame-like design. The frame is huge, but somehow the short, beefy barrel makes it look good. It has that fighting revolver look and feel, which is what attracted me to the Barracuda, which is what attracted me to this gun in the first place.
To The Range With the Astra Police
The Astra Police is a blast to shoot. It’s hefty for a .38 Special, so it shoots extremely smoothly. There is hardly any recoil, and it barely moves when shot. Even with some hot 125-grain loads, the duty-grade Police revolver handles like a kitten. Heavy is good, heavy is reliable, and heavy reduces recoil. When you run dry, you can beat a man to death with this thing.
This is built to be a .357 Magnum, so it eats .38 Special like it’s the Taco Bell Mexican Pizza. I’m not a very good revolver shooter, but I can shoot all six rounds in less than two seconds into a B-8 target at ten yards from the low ready. The gun isn’t moving much between shots, so keeping it drilling one target isn’t difficult.
The trigger is smooth and light, especially since it is on the lightest setting. It still runs reliably with the lightest trigger pull, so why not rock and roll with it? The double-action pull is surprisingly smooth, but as you’d expect, it’s long and heavy, weighing over 10 pounds. The single action is very short and crisp, making it easy to hit targets at 25 yards.
The sights are basic revolver sights, which I still don’t quite know how to use well, but I’m figuring it out. If I take my time, I can nail an IPSC-sized steel target at 50 yards…most of the time.
Worth a Pinch
The Astra Police is an affordable, heavy-duty, easy-shooting revolver that’s just all kinds of cool. It’s a big gun, a little hefty for concealed carry, and it seems to be a toss-up which holsters it fits. Some K-Frame holsters reportedly fit, as do some L-Frames. I think it’s a bit better as a fun gun, but would still be a capable defensive option. If you only had 200 dollars and needed a gun, you could do a lot worse than this thing.
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