The path to excellence: from the smallest Colt to the largest
Pistol "Colt" M1908. Right view. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
“Baklanov, yelling, quickly drew a Colt and fired—almost point-blank—at two of them. The swordsman saw how bloody wisps flew out from behind them and both of them collapsed to the ground. The third round was skewed, and the Colt stopped working. ”
"Defeat" A. Fadeev
"Defeat" A. Fadeev
stories about weapons. Back in 1903, when John Browning launched the production of the M1903 pistol in the USA, he had the idea to release a very small, small-caliber, "ladies", as they said then, pistol for direct self-defense. The design of a pistol with a barrel connected to the frame with the help of three protrusions seemed tempting, and he decided to use it in this pocket pistol as well, since the power of the 6,35-mm cartridge made it possible. But first, the ladies' Colt FN M1906 appeared, for which an elegant suede holster-purse was invented.
M1906 pistol against the background of its holster. Caliber 6,35 mm (.25 ACP). Length 114 mm. Barrel length 53,5 mm. Weight 350 g. Photo http://www.littlegun.be
Despite its small size, the pistol had a grip safety, which turned off when the hand gripped the handle tightly ... Photo http://www.littlegun.be
Pistol M1906 in a holster. Photo http://www.littlegun.be
Great thing market! Since it is created for people, and people are all different, they also have different tastes, different needs and even eccentricities. It would seem that the latter should be fought or at least ignored, but ... you can’t sort out all the money on the market this way. Where better to indulge them. So Browning also went for it and released a model of his pocket pistol with ... a long barrel! Well, why does a pocket pistol need a barrel like a combat one? Who needs it, and most importantly - why? But, apparently, such originals were found, because the M1906 pistol with a long barrel is known.
Here it is - this gun is for the originals! Photo http://www.littlegun.be
By the way, the "Browning" of the 1906 model was also on the list of pistols that the officers of the Russian imperial army were allowed to buy at their own expense and carry outside the ranks.
And this is how he took it apart! Photo http://www.littlegun.be
The success of the pistol in Europe caused, accordingly, the beginning of its release in the United States. There, the Colt M1908 model was named "vest pocket pistol” (Vest Pocket Pistol) and was also produced over the years.
The 1908 Colt was advertised in the 1929 catalog as follows:
“A small pistol (a hammerless, self-loading .25) is especially popular with women. Its size, shape and weight provide the most protection for a weapon that fits the hand of a lady and is easy and comfortable to carry."
Pistol "Colt" 1908 "Vest Pocket Pistol" release in 1921. Photo http://www.littlegun.be
The pistol gained simply unheard of popularity, so that by 1914 about 503 copies were produced and sold. By the beginning of World War II, when the production of the M434 model was completed, about 1906 of them were made. Naturally, other manufacturers immediately began to copy and produce this pistol. Especially many imitations were made by arms companies from the Spanish city of Eibar, so that even their generalized name arose: “Eibar type”.
Pistol "Browning" "Baby". Right view. Nothing special, as you can see, but what a finish! And the mother-of-pearl handle is generally chic! Overall length 104 mm. Barrel length 58 mm. Photo http://www.littlegun.be
Cartridges are fed from a box magazine for six rounds in a single-row arrangement. Caliber 6,35x15 mm Browning (.25 ACP). Magazine latch at the bottom of the handle. Sights of the open type consist of a front sight and a rear sight. The initial speed of the bullet is 210 m / s. The range of an accurate shot is within 10 m, but this was quite enough for the "ladies' pistol". In any case, no one complained about the insufficient range of this pistol.
The same pistol. View from the left. Photo http://www.littlegun.be
And then at FN they thought that the design of the "ladies' pistol" could be simplified even more. After the death of John Browning in 1926, Fabrique Nationale decided to make the M1906 pocket pistol even smaller. Its prototype was created by Dieudonné Saive in 1927, and it was produced from 1931 to 1983. The pistol was named "Baby", and its popularity is so great that in Canada, under license from Precision Small Arms and under the name PSA.25, it is still produced in small batches. And in 1972-1984 by Bauer Automatic in Michigan, USA, it was produced without a license.
"Browning" M1908 Romanian production in 1973. Tula Arms Museum. Photo Vitaly V. Kuzmin - Vitalykuzmin.net
However, Browning did not leave the hope of creating a powerful pistol for the US Army. It was now clear that it would use the .45 ACP (11,43x23mm) cartridge, and that only such a large-caliber pistol was in demand by the army. He already had similar pistols: M1905 and M1908. However, the designer wanted to make the gun even simpler and more reliable. For example, both of these models, which originated from the M1900 pistol, had two earrings under the barrel, and the barrel itself fell without tilting when fired. The 1909 model of the year already had one earring, but this pistol was not accepted into service.
Diagram of a 1911 pistol from US Patent #984519
In the new model of the 1911 model, the designer removed the second earring at the muzzle, leaving only one in the breech. The engagement of the barrel with the casing-bolt was now carried out by protrusions in the upper part of the barrel. Thus, the system has been simplified to the limit.
Scheme of dismantling the pistol "Colt" М1911
The fate of the pistol was decided at the 1910 competition of the year, in which two models competed - Browning and Savage. Pistols were dismantled and assembled for a while. Partial disassembly took Browning less time, but full disassembly took less time for Savage. Browning's pistol consisted of 64 parts, Savage - only 45. But in terms of shooting accuracy, his pistol was inferior to the Colt. It is interesting that the "Kolt" pistol pierced more pine boards, but for some reason Savage's pistol pierced oak. But in high-speed shooting, his pistol lost to his opponent. We calculated how many delays there were for 6000 shots. The Colt pistol had 11 of them, and Savage had 33.
Details of the pistol "Government Model"
Based on the results of the tests, the firms were asked to make improvements to their samples, after which, in March 1911, the tests were resumed. On these repeated tests, the significant superiority of the Browning design pistol in terms of reliability and strength became even more noticeable. In the conclusion of the commission, it was recorded that his pistol was superior to Savage in terms of reliability, strength, ease of disassembly and accuracy of fire. The gun was recommended to be tested in the troops. These tests were also successful, and the pistol was adopted by the US Army under the name M1911 "Government Model", that is, "Government Model". In addition, since 1913, these pistols began to be supplied to the Navy and the US Marine Corps. This model was also sold on the civilian arms market to ordinary American citizens. In a number of countries, the pistol was copied and produced under license.
Army pistol "Colt" M1914. Issue of 1928. Total length 217 mm. Barrel length 128 mm. Total weight 1,095 kg. Caliber 11,25 mm. Produced by Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk, Norway. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
Perhaps, this gun had only two noticeable drawbacks: it was a lot of weight and a small magazine capacity - only seven rounds. But on the other hand, it is believed, and not without reason, that if “the problem is not solved with the first three shots,” then you may not have to shoot further with a pistol. So he simply did not count on a long firefight. The main thing for which this pistol was valued was its powerful stopping effect, which made it possible to incapacitate even people in a state of drug intoxication and insensitive to pain with its help.
Model "Colt Commander". Total length 200 mm. Barrel length 105 mm. Total weight 805 g. Caliber 9 mm. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
The popularity of this pistol was exceptionally great. For example, during the First World War, Russia through England from February 19, 1916 to January 18, 1917 acquired 51 M000 .1911 ACP units. They were distinguished by the marking “ENG. ORDER" on the left side of the frame, in front of the trigger guard and above the slide stop lever. It was the largest international shipment of that time. So it is not surprising how Kataev's Petya and Fadeev's Baklanov had these pistols. These were by no means trophies, but weapons simply obtained from a warehouse or obtained from it.
Already after the First World War, Argentina also decided to adopt the Colt 1911 as its standard military pistol and eventually used the M1911A1 for this, which it began to produce as the Modelo 1927. And to begin with, Argentina purchased 10 pistols from an American manufacturer, and then began to assemble them from imported parts.
Argentine "Colt" М1911А1 release in 1927 - Modelo 1927. Photo http://www.littlegun.be
In 1943, full domestic production of the Modelo 1927 began under license from Colt, and the pistol was adorned with the Argentine coat of arms, indicating that it was a state-issued army pistol.
Model 1911A1 with magazine. Total length 217 mm. Barrel length 125 mm. Total weight 1,105 kg. Caliber 0,45 inches. Manufacturer: Auto-Ordnance Corporation, West Hurley, New York. Right side of the frame. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
And this is how the Colt M1911A1 looked at the time of the shot! Royal Arsenal, Leeds
In 1926, the Americans themselves also improved the basic model: they reduced the length of the trigger, made a notch on its front surface; changed the shape of the trigger needle; the rear protrusion of the automatic safety lever has been increased; the back of the handle has become curved; front sight and rear sight slot became wider; notches for fingers appeared near the trigger; the striker was hardened. Since 1940, the cheeks of the walnut wood handle have been made of plastic. This variant became known as М1911А1. But the improvements were not fundamental.
"Colt" M1911A1 production arsenal in Springfield, USA. Photo http://www.littlegun.be
And this is the "colt" M1911A1 with all the accessories that rely on it. Photo http://www.littlegun.be
The gun went through many wars, was in service with many countries and still continues to be used ...
One of the most "simple" pistols-decorations. Just nickel plating and mother-of-pearl cheeks! Photo http://www.littlegun.be
PS And this gun also ranks first in the world in terms of the number of luxuriously finished samples. A nickel-plated pistol with mother-of-pearl cheeks is perhaps the “poorest option”. And so the whole “golden pistols” are known, and engraved, decorated with a notch, whole “epic paintings” and “portraits”, and even the cheeks on the handle - from which they were not made. It is hard to imagine a greater bad taste than the M1911A1 pistols “decorated” in this way, but ... you can’t throw out a word from a song!
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