# Helwan 9mm...Ever heard of one?



## OMSBH44 (Jul 7, 2006)

The husband of one of my distant relatives passed away about a year
ago. His wife (my relative) knew he had a couple of handguns before he
died, but she could not find them. Last week she found both of them.

She is not a gun person, although she doesn't dislike them. She knows I
shoot a lot, so she showed them to me.

One is a double action revolver, in .22 LR, marked H&R. It doesn't have an
ejector rod. I haven't fired it, but it appears the only way to get spent
cartridges out of the cylinder is to pull the base pin, remove the cylinder
from the frame, and manually extract each empty case with a screwdriver
or other such implement. 

The other gun is a "Helwan" 9mm semi-auto. The import mark on the slide
says: "Interarms" and "Made in Egypt. "

The bottom of the box has a picture of the gun "exploded" with the parts
numbered. On the right side of the picture is a numbered parts list, with
English and Egyptian writing. It is a single-action only gun with about
a 10 pound trigger pull.

Both guns looked like the first owner had never cleaned them. The bolt 
face in the Helwan was dirty, but not badly scarred, so he may not have
fired it much. 

Anyone ever heard of an Egyptian made "Helwan?"

By the way, the serial number is 1116XXX, so they might have made a
bunch of them!

I will attempt to post some pictures when I can.

I have cleaned and oiled both guns. I plan to take them to my favorite
gun smith next week to see what he thinks of them. In the mean time,
can anyone tell me anything about either gun?

Thanks!


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## Baldy (Jun 21, 2006)

Yep! The Helwan they made a boat load of them. There wasn't a lot of time spent making everything fit right either. About the same for that old H&R. A lot of them had egg shape cylinders in them. Money wise their not worth much. Good luck with them.


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## drummin man 627 (Dec 25, 2006)

The Helwan "Brigadier" was made in Egypt. It was a copy of an older Beretta design. Don't quote me, but I think it was the Beretta 951, or maybe 1951.


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## OMSBH44 (Jul 7, 2006)

*Helwan*

My first impression was "copy of Baretta?" I had never heard of the name
before. The box has a UPC Bar code on it, so it can't be very old. I know 
can't be worth very much money. I'll get it checked out than try it out at
the range. Maybe it will shoot better than it looks.

L8'er, TP


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## Mike Barham (Mar 30, 2006)

*Drummin man* is right on the money - it's a straight copy of the Beretta 1951. These guns were easily available as surplus back around the late 1980s or early 1990s.


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## OMSBH44 (Jul 7, 2006)

*Update*

I decided I didn't need to take the Helwan to a gunsmith and took it to
the Ft. Bliss gun club this afternoon. Not wanting to spend a lot of money
on ammunition, I purchased a box of Wolf steel case ammo and gave it a
try.

Well, I have decided not to keep it. It has the worst trigger pull I have 
ever felt on any single action semi-auto. I thought cleaning and
lubricating it might make it usable, but it didn't.

As a result of having to pull so hard on the trigger, I have to hold it real 
high up on the grips. It bites! I had enough of it after only 30 rounds.

What this gun needs is a new owner and a trigger job!

More, L8'er, TP


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2007)

Sounds like a trade in on something you want.


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## DJ Niner (Oct 3, 2006)

Many years ago, I recall a gun writer saying that the Israelis and the Egyptians both issued these to their respective armies at about the same time in the 60s/early 70s; the reason given was, "They were both swapping/using them on each other quite regularly, and it greatly simplified logistics." :mrgreen:


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## tsmgguy (3 mo ago)

Old thread, I know. HELWAN M951 pistols produced by Maadi for the Egyptian military are marked HELWAN 9mm A.R.E. (Arab Republic of Egypt). or U.A.R. (United Arab Republic). Serial numbers and right-side slide markings are in Arabic. Later pistols made for the commercial market have English markings, including the serial number and the words, "Made In Egypt". These later guns are the ones that tend to have problems.


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## Brian48 (Dec 1, 2014)

I remember seeing a ton of these for sale at the PX in the early '90s, both MCAS New River and MCB Camp Lejeune. Don't remember the exact price, but these were dirt cheap compared to other 9mms in it's class. Around this time, LNIB/NIB SKSs were being sold for about $90 and Norinco 1911s were below $200. I knew a few Marines who picked up one these. Seemed to work fine, at least with ball ammo anyway.


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