Alrighty, grandpa wants me to get an old pistol in working condition. The only writing on it is-
"Pistola Automatica Caliber 7.??"(32 Auto)
This is on the slide
"Made In Spain" Just below the slide
"HCA", in an oval, on the left side above the grip.

I'll try to get pics soon.

It's a "Ruby"? HCA means-HCA: Hijos de Calixto Arrizabamaga, Eibar ... "Sharpshooter"

I don't understand what Eibar..."Sharpshooter" means though.

Sharp shooter could be the model or just a sales pitch.

don't know anything of these pistols the caliber is 7.65 (32 auto) and i would also guess sharpshooter to be the model

It's not pretty, and I'm not anticipating a "sharpshooter", but it should be safe to fire right? It seems that everything is solid, although dirty. I will take it apart and clean it, but it works as far as ejecting shells and firing pin not being broken, etc.

Eibar is a town in the Basque region of north west Spain. Centre of the Spanish gun trade.

i would say probally safe but if any question drop by your local gunsmith have them give it a look over just to be sure my smiths don't charge for this but even if cost you 20 bucks for a secure piece of mind it's worth it

It's probably a 7,65 mm Browning, which is close to a .32 Auto but not exactly the same. Slug the barrel. If it says 7,65 mm Browning the barrel is probably a .309". Whereas the .32 Auto is more like a .311" or a 312". Brass is thinner or thicker walled as a consequence and bullets are slightly different caliber. If you buy brass in Europe for the 7,65 it will have thicker walls than brass headstamped .32 auto. Fiocchi, among others, makes .309 bullets and 7,65 brass is commonplace in Europe. Getting .32 Auto brass and .312 bullets is easier in the USA.

http://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/Ruby/ruby.html

Thousands of weapons were lost daily in trenches. France had to buy wepons from various countries.

Well, I had to mess with the magazine a bit to get it to feed, and grind the front sight down a bit to even get close to POA, but it works. Groups wildly, at 5 yards I get 2 within a couple inches, then one up to a foot away. Hitting clays over 10 feet away is pretty much luck as well.

The safety lever appears to have been worn down, and will not reliably hold back the slide. Could I weld a very small piece of wire or something onto the lever to hold the slide?

"Grind down the sight" ! ! ! !

Ohhhhhh Jeez ! ! ! You have a funky ol' Spanish relic. It's a "knock off" of an FN or Browning, more or less, probably 80 yrs old, or more.

You don't "grind down" the sights on an antique gun! And you sure as hell don't "weld on" it.

I had one of these pass through my hands about twenty-five years ago. It's Spanish, sometimes called "The Destroyer".

The calibre is 7.65mm which is, in other words, .32 ACP. I would disagree with "WINK"! No difference IMHO! Indeed here in Europe these cartridges are sometimes headstamped "7.65/32" under the cartridge makers "name".

It hasn't got much value and I certainly would not use it as a "defensive" pistol! However it was probably carried years ago by someone who did.

The magazine capacity is quite large I think. At least ten rounds from memory. It is a "knock off" of Browning's system used on the Colt 1903.

http://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/HMG/hmg.html

Spain has a long history of cheaply made guns !! Soft steels, made in a cottage industry, often poor copies of other guns. It probably has no value either as a shooter or especially a collector !!!