In 1911, around serial number 220,000, the trigger was However, the safety was patented by FN on 10 November 1906, only a few months after the pistol went on sale. The gun, and only secondarily served as a safety. Some say the safety lever was primarily intended to hold the slide open for field stripping
REINHARD MEY MENSCHENJUNGES TEXT SERIAL NUMBERS
With later serial numbers received older slides with no safety. Place during 1909, but was not consistent-new slides with safety levers were installed in some guns with earlier serial numbers, while some guns Approximately 150,000 of the first variant guns were manufactured between 19.įor the second variant a manual safety lever was added. To fit the finger, with a smooth surface. The early trigger was a narrow, flat piece of machined metal, curved in front Mechanism to hold the slide open, either for reloading or for disassembly. The first variant of the FN Browning Model 1906, like Browning’s prototype, had no manual safety and featured only a grip safety. FN received Browning’s prototype in 1905, and the first production pistols went on sale in July 1906. Browning offered the diminutive pistol to Colt’s as early as 1904, but they turned him down, so he took the design to FN, who manufactured it as the Pistolet Browning 6.35mm. 25 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol).īrowning’s vest pocket pistol was essentially a miniaturized version of the Model 1903 with a striker to ignite the cartridge (in place of the hammer used in the earlier design) and with no manual safety. The cartridge was introduced into the U.S.
The cartridge was introduced commercially in 1906 by FN, and hasĪlways been referred to in Europe as the 6.35mm Browning. In June of 1904 Browning asked Thomas to manufacture 500 rounds for him to use in testing his prototype. John Browning asked William Morgan Thomas of the Union Metallic Cartridge Company (U.M.C.) to develop a new cartridge suitable for a small blowback operated vest pocket pistol. In turn, Colt’s received exclusive rights in North and Central America. Great Britain, Ireland, and Canada provided they paid a royalty fee to Colt’s for each gun sold. The agreement was modified on 1 July 1912 to allow FN to sell Browning’s designs in Markets in the United States, Great Britain, and Ireland where Colt’s had been licensed to sell Browning’s designs. On 7 July 1897 John Moses Browning and Fabrique Nationale (FN) signed an agreement giving FN the right to sell Browning-designed weapons in much of Europe, but specifically excluding them from