Selected Handgun Detail

Manufacturer
	Astra-Unceta y Cia SA More Info

About the Gun

The 2000 Cub is a vest-pocket single-stack single-action blowback pistol with an exposed hammer, serrated slide, and fixed blade-and-notch sights. A frame-mounted thumb safety also locks the slide, and a magazine safety is fitted. The magazine release is a button at the bottom of the left grip panel. Standard guns are blued steel with brown or black plastic grips.

Production

Production ran from 1954 through 1998.

Market value

MSRP at production was around $75. Current used market value for examples in good to very good condition ranges $250–$400.

Cartridge Specifications
Cartridge:	.22 Short
Alias:	N/A
More Info

Analysis

Astra introduced the Model 2000 Cub in 1954 as an exposed-hammer successor to the hammerless Model 200 Firecat, the FN 1906-pattern vest-pocket pistol it had built since 1920. The Cub dropped the grip safety, added a magazine disconnect, and moved the magazine catch onto the left grip panel. .22 Short came first; .25 Auto followed two years later on the same frame. From the late 1950s Astra also built the design for Colt as the Junior. That U.S. contract, and most other American import of the size class, ended with the 1968 Gun Control Act, but Guernica kept the Cub in the catalog. By mid-1995 Astra had recorded about 140,150 in .22 Short and 236,241 in .25 Auto; limited assembly continued until the factory closed in 1998. A longer-barreled Camper and the later enlarged Model 7000 in .22 LR sat alongside it rather than replacing the short gun. Used Cubs are common on the pocket-pistol market. Plain Astra-marked examples trade below boxed high-condition guns and below the Colt-marked Juniors.