These guns have always fascinated me. I didn't have the opportunity to acquire one until about a year ago. I just recently drafted this article to explain their place in firearms history. I hope you like it - comments welcome before I put it to bed.
John
In the waning years of the 19th Century, John Moses Browning, the acknowledged firearms design genius, began to devote his attention to developing some practical and effective semiauto pistols. One of his first tasks was to specify dimensions and characteristics for a suitable cartridge around which to design his pistols. He settled on a .38 caliber round which was first called the “.38 rimless smokeless,” but which today is known as the .38 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol). The exact same cartridge case was later used for the .38 Super, but loaded to higher pressure and velocity. Browning’s first pistols worked and worked well, but his subsequent improved designs eclipsed them in features. As a result, the early landmark pistols are today only hard-to-find and relatively expensive collector items. Here is their story.
Browning began his work on recoil-operated pistol designs in late 1894. Within the next three years, he had patented four pistols. One of them was selected by Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company for development. It utilized a “parallel ruler” concept in which the slide unlocked from the barrel in recoil as the barrel dropped evenly, attached to the frame by two links. In 1897, 1898 and 1899, both Browning and Colt’s fine-tuned the design with an eye on both military and commercial use. A couple of military trials were conducted, but the pistol was first placed on the civilian market in early 1900. This was the first American semiautomatic pistol commercially introduced. An improved version was marketed in 1902 and given the name “Sporting Model” to distinguish it from a similar “Military Model” with increased magazine capacity (8 rounds vs. 7) and a newly developed slide lock. The slide lock served to hold the slide back after the last round was fired from the magazine. Both of these pistols had 6-inch barrels. The Military Model had a more squared-off frame at the heel to accommodate a lanyard ring. In the latter part of 1903, a shortened, handier version of the Sporting Model was marketed as the “Pocket Model.” This pistol did not have the external slide lock, and no provision was made for locking the slide to the rear. All models were blued.
The year 1908 saw a few changes. The Sporting Model was dropped, and a new form of hammer with a spur instead of a rounded top became standard for the Pocket Model. The Military Model also used this new hammer. These two pistols were made with few changes until 1927. In the meanwhile, .32 and .380 hammerless pocket pistols were introduced as the Models 1903 and 1908. The older .38 ACP Pocket Model has since become known to collectors as the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer to distinguish it from its smaller hammerless cousins. The features of all the .38 ACP models are similar.
The pistol illustrated for this article is a Colt Pocket Hammer which was shipped from the Colt Factory in Hartford, Connecticut in 1913. This century-old example has seen some honest wear, but it is still quite functional. The right side of the slide is lightly stamped “AUTOMATIC COLT / CALIBER .38 RIMLESS SMOKELESS”. The left side is marked in the same manner “COLT’S PT. F.A. MFG. CO. / HARTFORD, CT. U.S.A.” The pistol measures 7 ˝ inches in length, and the barrel is 4 ˝ inches long. It weighs 32 ounces unloaded. The rampant Colt logo is behind the retracting grooves on the left side of the slide. There are 19 vertical grooves on each side, located over the gutta percha grips. The serial number is stamped deeply in the left side of the frame over trigger guard. The standard “VP in a triangle” Colt proof mark is stamped on the left side of the trigger guard. The sights are fixed; the rear sight is drift-adjustable for windage, and the front sight is of the half-moon variety.
The slide is secured in the frame by a transverse wedge or mortise which is in turn locked in place by a spring-loaded plunger under the muzzle. Pressing the plunger in and pushing the wedge out from right to left initiates field stripping. There is no manual safety on the pistol. The only safety devices are a half-cock notch on the hammer, and the disconnector system that prevents firing until the slide is fully forward. The spring-loaded firing pin is of the floating type, shorter than its channel. It therefore requires a full blow of the hammer to fire a cartridge. The gun may be carried safely, chamber loaded, with the hammer lowered slowly and carefully all the way down. The magazine holds seven rounds of ammunition, and is marked “PKT / COLT / 38 CAL” on the bottom plate. There are six witness holes on each side. The barrel has three transverse ribs in front of the chamber, which lock into corresponding recesses in the upper part of the slide when the slide is forward. As the pistol recoils, the slide and barrel move together to the rear. The links on the barrel drop the barrel down uniformly, parallel to the slide, to disengage it from the slide. A recoil spring under the barrel returns the slide forward and into battery, stripping a round from the magazine and feeding it into the chamber. The disconnector system which provides for semiautomatic fire will be familiar to anyone who has fully disassembled a 1911 pistol. The trigger moves straight to the rear, its yoke surrounding the magazine, nearly identical to the later 1911 pistol. The magazine release is a spring-loaded tab in the heel of the frame. Squeezing it forward with the thumb while pinching the lip of the magazine down with the index finger removes the magazine from its well in the frame.
Production figures for the Sporting and Military models have been very hard to ascertain. Although it’s somewhat difficult to estimate due to some intermixing of serial numbers between models, it appears that about 22,000 of the Pocket Hammer model were made. Although production ceased in 1927, the distribution and sales of this model continued for several years until existing inventories were exhausted. The Military Model was also dropped in 1927, although, similarly, sales continued for a while. Both were superseded in 1929 by the introduction of the .38 Super pistol, which was based on the frame and action of the Model 1911A1.
Contracts for the .38 Military Model never materialized, although trials were conducted not only by the United States, but also by Great Britain, Norway and Sweden. The principal problem cited was caliber – bigger was considered better. Somewhat under 200 “U.S”-marked trial pistols, marked “Model 1902” were sold at public auction around 1906. These, of course, are quite valuable today. A few Military Models were reportedly purchased by Siam for military and police use, but for the most part, this model never got off the ground. However, many of its features paved the way for the Model 1911 .45 pistol, which is one of the most enduring designs ever made.
These early .38 Colt semiauto pistols are mostly just curiosities today, but still are highly sought after by collectors and students of history. They gave John Browning a proving ground for principles upon which he based his subsequent 1911 and 1935 pistols, both of which have achieved immortality. Any of these pistols, many of which are over a century old, should be examined carefully by a competent gunsmith before firing with proper .38 ACP ammo. Although .38 Super rounds will chamber and fire, that would invite destruction of the weak old actions and very probable injury to the hapless firer. Values on decent condition .38 pistols continue to rise as they become more scarce, victims of the passing years. They are definite milestones in firearms history and very interesting classics, well deserving of study. It’s my hope that this summary will give those who encounter them a greater understanding of their place in history and essential characteristics.
(c) 2013 JLM
Early Colt .38 automatic pistols - some history
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