La Lira: A Spanish Copy of the Mannlicher 1901
Semiauto Pistols
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The Spanish firm of Garate Anitua y Cia manufactured this copy of the Mannlicher 1901/1905 pistol for just a brief period around 1910. It is not a straight copy, as the Mannlicher was chambered for its own 7.63mm Mannlicher cartridge and fed using stripper clips and a fixed internal magazine while the La Lira design was chambered for the more common .32 ACP (7.65mm Browning) and used a typical type of detachable magazine. In addition, the La Lira was a simple blowback action, not including the slight delaying mechanism built into the original Mannlicher.
In addition to two standard La Lira pistols, we also have one gold damascened example to take a look at. These are quite rare today - no documented production records are known, but it is estimated that only 500-1000 were made total.
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