One 400 I had was probably the best finished handgun I have ever seen. It had a blue finish which I have hardly ever seen. It was a beautiful light blue, not black like most.
Those Astras just looked cool to me and they had a tendency to be more accurate than most. I think because of the fixed barrel.
I started getting the things around 1960 when they were $12-$15 when ordered in quantity. FN 9mm ball ammo ["Oxyless"] ran about $40/1000, of which about 1 round in 10 to 1 in 3 would be duds, depending on the batch. I sold off the rattiest of the guns to my pals, and included *free* ammo with the warning that there were duds in it, and that I'd cheerfully replace any rounds that failed to fire on a straight exchange basis. And pretty soon, I had a couple of thousand rounds of the duds, from which I pulled the bullets and salvaged the powder and thereby got my start in handloading. For serious purposes, I used surplus German *black ball* with a compressed iron bullet [meant for the MP40 machinepistol] or Finnish Lapua ball, which was supurb.
The Astra 400/600 pistols were known as *water pistols* in our circles due to their shape, but the triggers were generally pretty good. The sights were not, but I eventually got pretty fair at hitting hand-tossed 2x2x2 pine blocks pitched in the air, one at a time at first, then a pair, then four or five. I never quite managed a full magazine's worth, as I found other toys worth experimenting with.
Finding a good holster for one was a problem, though I eventually came up with a Triple-K beltslide rig meant for a Colt Commander that worked okay. And for fun I had a really ugly quickdraw rig made out of a pieve of slotted 3/4-inch inside diameter auto radiator hose, hung from a leather belt loop. Those Astras came out of that piece of rubber hose right quick, and nice and quietly.
Last one I saw had a pricetag of over $300 on it. It brought back some swell memories, but I passed on it.
