The smallest Colt in history: how it appeared and why it became popular with women (5 photos)

It was appreciated not only by beautiful ladies - even the American commandos liked the compact and light weapon.





In 1903, John Moses Browning created a "pocket" version pistol. It was “sharpened” for 6.35x15 mm cartridges and really liked it weapon lovers: light, reliable and compact. But there was a nuance was called the American corporation "Colt". She had an agreement with Belgian Fabrique Nationale on the division of arms sales markets, invented by Browning - and first of all, the company laid eyes on new small pistol.



Pistol "Browning". From it they "copied" the new "Colt"

The Colt engineers did not particularly suffer and completely copied Browning. Then the gunsmiths realized that it was necessary to add at least something of their own and “renamed” the cartridge: in the USA it was called 25 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol). Then added a flag fuse - the upper part of its lever entered the groove in the shutter, and if you turn the lever counterclockwise until it stops, he blocked with his rear ledge shutter in the rearmost position.





And this is a descendant of the "Browning" - "Colt" in 1908. The photo shows an antique sample that has survived to this day.

Although this fuse is not their idea. It was invented and patented by Browning, American designers only succeeded again “borrowed” in 1910. But in 1917, the miniature Colt received and American know-how: designer George Tansley added more one fuse, it excluded an accidental shot with the magazine removed.

The final version of the weapon was as follows:

Overall length - 114.3 mm.

Barrel length - 51 mm.

Weight - 368.5 g.

Cartridge - 25ACP (6.35x15 mm Browning).

Magazine capacity - 6 rounds.

The miniature Colt was positioned for both men and women. women. Here is what they wrote in the “female” advertisement in one of the weapons catalogs of the 190s:

Small pistol (smokeless, self-loading 25th caliber) is especially popular with women. Its size, shape and weight provide maximum protection among weapons that comply with lady's hand, easy and comfortable to wear.



"Colt" and holster-wallet

And for men they indicated:

The pistol is unmatched in power, accuracy and efficiency. Accidental shot from a Colt automatic pistol absolutely impossible.

Marketers of that time did not fail: the gun willingly both lovely ladies and American commandos bought. The latter also appreciated compactness and efficiency of this “baby” and took it with them on tasks.



Pistol "Colt" model 1908

In total, the pistol was produced for 40 years: from 1908 to 1948. Behind during this time, 420,705 weapons were produced. And here is his "progenitor" - European pocket "Browning" - produced until 1944. And was much more popular - a total of 1,311,000 units were sold. So in this In this case, the copy is clearly inferior to the original.