Author Topic: Curious Relics #001: FN 1900 The Great Grandfather to Modern Pistols  (Read 472 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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ALLOUTDOOR by Sam.S   12.02.20

Welcome to our recurring series of “Curious Relics.” Here, we want to share all of our experiences, knowledge, misadventures, and passion for older firearms that one might categorize as a Curio & Relic  – any firearm that is at least 50 years old according to the ATF. Hopefully along the way you can garner a greater appreciation for older firearms like we do, and simultaneously you can teach us things as well through sharing your own expertise and thoughts in the Comments. Understanding the firearms of old, their importance, and their development which lead to many of the arms we now cherish today is incredibly fascinating and we hope you enjoy what we have to share, too!

It only seemed right to kick this off with John Moses Browning’s FN 1900, the great grandfather to all modern handguns and the first to feature a sliding action.  A fitting start to a segment I have been looking forward to for a long while now. I have owned this firearm for a few years now and had hunted one down as a gift to myself as a reminder of the time I  spent as a product service technician at FN America.
History Abridged: FN 1900

John Moses Browning as the firearm world well knows is responsible for some of the most magnificent innovations that we take for granted in this modern day. Things like pistols with a sliding action for example. Prior to 1900, granted there were few mass-produced autoloading handguns, but some examples would be the Borchardt C93 with a toggle action, and the Mauser C96 with a short recoil action. In 1897 the birth of a handgun that kicked off a carry gun craze was on its way with John Moses Browning going to visit Colt in hopes they would buy his design.



Surprise! Colt was not interested in Browning’s design this time around for the fact that it was a straight blowback action and it was more of a pocket gun of sorts rather than a potential military sidearm. No one should blame Colt for its missed opportunity because who would have known that the modern pocket gun would be such a desired thing at the turn of the century. Another fine minded fellow by the name of Hart O. Berg was on a business trip from FN to look into US manufacturing processes with the intent to satisfy FN‘s want to produce bicycles after FN had lost its ownership of military contracts to Mauser (or what would become Mauser).

The circumstances of how Browning and Berg met while on their trip around Connecticut are unknown. What is important is that Browning was kind enough to lend Berg his prototype to bring back to FN. When the engineers at FN put in some time at the range they were figuratively blown away after the gun functioned flawlessly for 500 rounds straight. By today’s standards that is a rather pathetic test but if you look at it from an 1890’s era standpoint that is absolutely astonishing. On July 17th, 1897 John Moses Browning signed a contract with FN and began a long relationship with the company which would repeatedly make history!

More: https://www.alloutdoor.com/2020/12/02/curious-relics-fn-1900/