III. Firearm Information by Type

C. Semi-Automatic Pistols

2. Models and Manufacturers

w. Unique

1. Model DES/69-U

   1. Introduction
    
   Gun magazines are full of presentations of guns which are considered
   as "interesting", "very good for their price", "accurate enough for
   all practical purposes" and so on. This is the way gun magazines 
   qualify mediocre to barely average guns. Most of us have been very
   disappointed by some gun which looked so promising on the dealer's
   store and proved so poor in the range or on the street. And we made 
   this experience more than one time. How many guns did you sell which 
   were so important for your collection at the time of their purchase? 
   Quite a bit, I guess. At least, this is my case.

   This article is not about one of these guns. It's about an outstanding
   ISU .22LR race gun without any compromise neither in performance nor
   in quality: the french Unique DES/69-U.

   2. The Evolution of Unique.

   Unique is born in 1925, in Hendaye, in France, near Eibar the capital
   of the spanish basque gun manufacturing center. Its original name was
   "Manufacture d'Armes des Pyr\351n\351es Francaise - UNIQUE" ("French Pyrrenea
   (spelling???) gun factory - UNIQUE").

   From its beginning Unique was specialized in police pistols and was
   the suppliers of the french police departments. Unique Started copying
   the spanish guns. The french specifications were also very rigid and 
   their guns did not evolve much for half a century. At the end of the 
   sixties, the current model, the UNIQUE R-51 was a small frame, single 
   action .32 ACP with primitive sights and control levers forbiding 
   cocked and locked carry. Nothing really exciting.

   At the end of the sixties, the french police abandonned the .32ACP
   semiautomatic pistol. For a short amount of time they adopted the
   MAC 50 in 9x19, the ordnance pistol of the french army. Then, under
   the influence of their chief, Raymond Sassia, who was a fan of the 
   FBI's techniques, they adopted the .357Magnum. The french police 
   departments are still using them, and I did not heard that they plan 
   to change their choice.

   Aynway, UNIQUE lost its captive market and had to find something else
   to survive. UNIQUE chose to specialize itself in the design and
   manuufacturing of competition pistol, especially for ISU disciplines.

   In 1969, UNIQUE released the model DES/69 "Standard UIT", a .22LR
   rimfire for ISU .22LR standard pistol competition. This gun did 
   immediately get the french championship. It was, and still is a top
   level gun in national and international competitions.

   In 1979, UNIQUE released the VO/79 "Vitesse Olympique" (a .22 short
   for ISU rapid fire) which was later modified into the model DES/2000-U.

   In 1986, Unique released the DES/32, a .32 SWL Wadcutter for ISU
   centerfire competition.

   After the release of the DES/32, UNIQUE released an improved version
   of the DES/69, the DES/69-U, which will be described below. Unhappily
   I do not know the date of its release.

   At the beginning of the nineties, UNIQUE released a single shot pistol
   for metallic silouette. The gun exists in two versions. One is specific
   to the .22LR and has an aluminium frame. It can be sold freely in France.
   The other one, with a steel frame ca be adapted to many calibers, either
   rimfire or centerfire.

   As far as I kow, Unique has no free pistol. They have a few air and .22lr
   rifles, but I have very little information on them.

   3. General presentation of the DES/69-U.

   The UNIQUE DES/69-U is a self loader using a simple blowback mechanism.
   Its trigger can be adjusted in almost every aspect. It has an orthopedic
   grip with an adjustable "rest" (proper english term?) at its bottom. The
   rear sight is, of course, adjustable. The slide lies around the chamber
   and the barrel, as on the FAS SP-602, Haemmerli 280, Walther GSP and so on. 
   The^M magazine lies in the grip (as on the Haemmerli 208s) and it contains 
   5 rounds. The gun uses movable weights (of different weights and shapes)
   wrapping around the barrel.

   Finally, and contrary to most other ISU race guns, the DES/69-U has an
   open frame: both the hammer and the rear part of the slide can be 
   accessed freely. This is very convenient.

   Here are its general characterisitics:
     Overall length:    285 mm
     Overall height:    140 mm
     Overall thickness:  50 mm
     Weight (without barrel weight): 1.140 Kg
     Magazine capacity:   5 shots
     Line of sight:     220 mm
     Barrel: 150 mm (heavy match grade barrel)
     Trigger's weight: 1.000 Kg (adjustable by the user)
     Orthopedic grip: adjustable, available both for right and left handed
                      people

     Weight are available in two style: "shaped" and cylindrical.
     Shaped weights of 120, 220 and 320 grams are available.
     Cylindrical weights of 100, 150, 260 and 320 grams are available.
     "Shaped" weights improve the gun's look too.

   4. Some important details.

   The barrel has been adapted to the use of weights and reciprocally: it
   has small serrations on its bottom. The weights have a small aluminium
   plate containing simlar serrations. When the weight's screws are 
   tightened the two serrations zones adjust to each other. This produces
   a firm adjustment of the weight to the barrel without exerting too much 
   strength on the screws. The other advantage is that the barrel is neither 
   marked nor damaged by the screws.
   
   The DES/69-U has a very interesting dry fire system. In its "standard"
   configuration, a screw fills a hole at the rear of the frame. This screw
   has NO other function. But you can remplace it with another longer one,
   which has been shapred so as to be able to:
   - Let the hammer fall when the trigger has been depressed
   - Intercept it after a few milimeters of its course
   - Let the slide go back enough to cock the hammer
   It's much more complicated to explain than to use (and observe). This
   system is extremely simple and very convenient. It avoids all the
   problem usually met with the .22LR snapcaps.

   The DES/69-U's trigger can be adjusted in almost every way:
   - Trigger's position (the trigger is fixed on a rail)   
   - Backslash (with the usual adjustable triggerstop)
   - Course general weight
   - Course's style:
        - Direct style, as on a 1911A1, "US style"
        - Release at the end of a long course, i.e. "soviet style".
        - Two stage trigger, i.e. "french style".
          The way the overall weight is divided between the two stages
          of the trigger's course can also be adjusted.
        The documentation explains, quite well, how to do it.
   - the engagement of the of the trigger (on the sear, I guess) can also
     be adjusted.
   ALL these adjustments can be done without field stripping the gun.
   They are done with the screwdrivers supplied with the gun.
   
   The rear sight has fine clicks. Adjustemnts are "repeatable". It
    only lacks switchable sheets with apertures of different widths.

   The slide lever lies (unusually) on the right side of the gun.
   It has a dual purpose: 
   - Maintaining the slide in open position when the magazine is empty
     (or when the shooter wants to hold the slide open and there is
       no magazine in the gun)
   - Safety: push the slide a half centimeter back and push the lever
     down. The slide is then locked into a safe position. It looks a
     bit bizzare, but its simple, easy to learn, it works well and its
     enough for an ISU race gun.

   5. Field stripping

   The standard field stripping is longer to explain than to perform.
   The procedure is the following:

   - Perform rigorously all the security checks
   - Remove the magazine
   - Remove the barrel weight (loosen the screws and move it)
   - Push the pin liying in the slide retaining catch (there's
     a key supplied with the gun to do it).
   - While the pin is pushed, push the slide retaining catch upward
   - Push the slide back
   - Lift the rear of the slide clear of the frame
   - Then the slide comes forward and is easily removed.

   The assembly procedure is the inverse one. The pin in the slide catch
   comes back to its original position when the slide catch is pushed
   downward.

   Usual maintainance does not require a more in depth disassembly, but
   the manual gives some more details (firing pin diassembly and sights
   disassembly).

   6 Accessories

   The DES/69-U comes with a manual, a magazine, a set of keys, a dry fire
   screw, two scredrivers and a small case for carrying and storage.

   The documentation is in four languages (french english, german and
   spanish). It is complete, concise and very clear. The only detail
   that I didn't find in it was an explanation about the influence of
   the adjustment of the trigger (on the sear) on the general trigger's
   weight. I suspect that there is a connection, but i didn't find 
   anything in the manual.

   I whish they supplied the gun with a second magazine.

   All the user operations on the gun can be done with the tools
   supplied with it.

   7. On the range

   The first thing to do is to find the proper position of the hand
   around the grip. The grips is bulkier than the one of the Haemmerli
   280. Its angle with the vertical is around 20 degrees. But the grip
   is very comfortable and it took me half a minute to find a comfortable,
   stable and repeatable hand position. Memorizing it didn't take much
   longer. The palm rest can be precisely adjusted too. And it supports
   the hand very well.

   The grips are made with an excellent wood. They can be easily adjusted
   to a given hand. It's easy to remove wood where it's needed and to add
   some "wood pasta" where you need some more material.

   Then comes the placement of the index on the trigger. One of the
   improvements of the DES/69-U over the original model is that the
   trigger is an open "v". The trigger of the original model was a
   straight piece. The first part of the index (proper english noun?)
   comes naturally at the bottom of the "v". That's one of the 
   advantages of an adjustable trigger. I put it as far as possible
   from the grip and it is naturally adjusted to my index. People with 
   smaller hands can place it as close to the grip as needed.

   When you raise the gun in direction of the target, it points naturally
   and the sights are naturally aligned toward the target. That's the
   advantage of an orthopedic grip. And this one is perfectly efficient.

   This gun digested every standard velocity ammo that I shot with it.
   But I must admit that the brands that I shot the most extensively
   are the Fiochhi Training, Eley Pistol Match, Eley LR pistol and SK
   Pistol Match. my groups were tighter with the SK than the Eley LR
   pistol. The groups with the Pistol Match were even tighter. Groups 
   with all these brands were excellent.

   Although the magazines can theoretically contain 6 rounds, people
   should definitely avoid to try to put more than 5 rounds in them.
   With 6 rounds they jam. It takes some time to empty them and to
   put them back in working condition. The documentation tells 5 
   rounds, put 5 rounds in them, and nothing more. With five rounds
   they work 100% reliably. Anyway, you don't need more in ISU.

   At the beginning I did notice little difference in accuracy with
   my S&W 41. After a few weeks of familiarization, this started to
   change. While I have been able to make a 50/50 only once with my
   mod 41 (on an ISU C50 target at 25 meters), with the DES/69-U my 
   groups started shrinking. I got 8 ten one after the other (on ten 
   shots) for the first time of my life. Since that time it did even 
   improve. I get performances like 13 "10" on 15 shots (and quite 
   a bit of them in the inner circle) that I did never get before. And
   I'm just an amateur, not an high level competitor, and by far.

   Both the orthopedic grip and the outstanding adjustable trigger
   helps in this. The two stage trigger is very comfortable. It is
   also very convenient for fast firing strings. You can start 
   depressing the trigger before it's on target, while you're still 
   breathing, and you stop at the end of the first course. Then, when 
   it's on target you have time for the final sight correction and you 
   just have to do the second course before the gun fires. It requires
   some coordination and some training, but it works wonderfully well.
 
   The grip helps the hand to maitain a stable hand pointing to the
   target, even during long shooting sessions.
      
   I do not have a ransom rest to do some formal accuracy measurements.
   But considering the performances that I can get from this gun, and
   the fact that I'm just a modest amateur shooter, it is an evidence
   that this gun is able of groups of less than an inch at 25 meters. 
   I wouldn't be surprized if a formal test produced groups of less 
   than one inch at 50 or even 100 meters.

   In fact, several french shooters practicing metallic silouette
   use it in competition.

   8 Conclusion

   This pistol is not an easy gun for plinking. It is complex and 
   demanding. But it is, and by far the best .22LR that I ever owned
   and shot in my life. Its quality of manufacturing matches its
   performances. The fact that this gun is a very tough contender in
   national and international ISU competitions isn't a surprise, It's
   definitely one of the very best guns, if not the best of all .22.
   For me and for many other shooters, this gun is outstanding.