Hey Look! It's a WTH is that gun thread!

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ZombieHunter

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http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...dID=43968856&albumID=1810305&imageID=33183598

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...dID=43968856&albumID=1810305&imageID=33183645

Pic 1 and Pic 2.

It seems to be French as the slide says:
Fabrique Nationale D'Armes de Guerre Herstal - Belgique
Browning's Patent Depose

The sight is really neat, it's just a little groove on the top of the slide with a post at the front site. It's a heavy little gun and the grips look like they have an F superimposed on an N. And it's chambered in .25Auto.


Any clue?
 
FN/Browning/colt vest pocket pistol.

FN Model 1905
Colt Model 1908 Vest pocket pistol
.25 caliber
 
Like FN who makes the FAL? So that's probably a WWI bring-back? Belgians speak Flemish? So it was made between 1905 and 1908? Wow...I have a 100 year old gun sitting on my coffee table...wow that's some history right there...

Burning thanks for posting the pics, I kind of suck at certain aspects of the internet.
 
Yeah, flemish is a funny language. Written it looks like french, spoken it sounds like german mixed with french but every fourth or fifth word sounds english.
 
Like FN who makes the FAL? So that's probably a WWI bring-back? Belgians speak Flemish? So it was made between 1905 and 1908? Wow...I have a 100 year old gun sitting on my coffee table...wow that's some history right there...

Burning thanks for posting the pics, I kind of suck at certain aspects of the internet.
Click to expand...

yes that FN

Fabrique Nationale de Herstal, of FAL fame. they also built the original BHP (browning hi power) currently bult US M16 rifles on contract ( in america), their P90 SMG and a large number of other guns

John Browning was a weapons designer. he built the Colt 1911, colt 1903, along with dozens of other guns with hundreds of other pattents. but thats for another day

some designs were sold to Colt, some were sold to FN. some were made by both Colt (USA distribution) and FN ( European distribution). the gun you posted is an example. the FN made versions were called "FN M1905 " and the American made versions were "Colt 1908 Vest pocket pistol"

this would indicate a 3 year gap in Belgian and American production, but CERTAINLY is not the time frame it was made. Colt made them up to 1948 *. im not sure how long FN made them. but FN and Colt both had license to build these guns

it probibly would have been a civilian firearm, but battle field pick up is possible.

do not confuse this with the "colt 1908 hammerless" which is a FN/colt 1903 in .380ACP

* correction, 1948 vs 1921 (http://www.coltautos.com)
 
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you would tell the date by the serial number. i cant find any info on FN numbers.

this link
http://books.google.com/books?id=eW...&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result
suggests your gun is a "2nd variation " as it has a safety lever. it says it would have been made post 1908

i couldnt find anything more significant in a web search. but theres always specialty books if you want to know bad enough. maybe soem one else will know.

(oh and i had a typo. colt made guns to 48 not 28. its already been corrected)
 
Dear ZombieHunter (& Cheesewhiz)

Flemish isn't THAT weird. It's just Dutch, basically, although
some of the dialects are unintelligible but for native speakers.
(The same goes for French & Walloon dialects).
You could compare Dutch & Flemish about the same way as English & American (who was it said that England & the US are 2 countries divided by a common language ?)

Aaanyway I'm more than happy, willing & able to translate any Flemish, Dutch or French you can throw my way into English (or Americanese)

Regards.
 
Hoppy590, you could actually be correct with your battlefield pick up hypothesis. My grandfather brought home a FN model 1910 in .32acp from WWII that he picked up from a Japanese officer who no longer had need of it.
From what I've read, the Japanese army required their officers to purchase their sidearm. They could either go with the army issue stuff or purchase their own. With the quality of the Japanese pistols being what it was, its not surprising many looked to Europe for better choices.

I'm also happy to report that it shoots nicely to this day and spends its off hours sleeping happily in my nightstand.
 
Clean97GTI

ya, just by the sheer number of them made, 1,086,133 from F&N and their popularity as a civilian arm its possible it cam from either war, either front. whether traded to a GI or carried by an enemy soldier for the comfort of having a pistol right there should you wake up and notice some extra people in your trench/foxhole

and your right about Japaneses officers buying their own gun. and its probably a good thing. Nambu's are horrible.
 
Wow...so 1.1 million made roughly...if we assume they were numbered sequentially and mine had a low 5 digit SN that'd make it very old indeed. Think FN would be able to give me a rough idea?

LOL Chriske! I've never heard that about USA and the UK but I like it.
 
Thanks for straightening out "Flemish". I was beginning to scratch my head at some of the descriptions of it. And the guy who said that, his first name was Winston. I fergit his last name. Oh, I just remembered -- it's Churchill.
Cordially, Jack
 
ZombieHunter,
I just fired off an e-mail to FNH USA in the hopes they might have some production info on these older guns.
 
A lot of the Pre-1945 FN guns are very difficult to date accurately b/c of the Nazi occupation. Many of the records were lost/destroyed.
 
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