I snagged a .32acp/7.65mm version of the M1910 this afternoon. Was sort of curious as to just when it might have been made. I know all about the lack of FN serial number info from WWII and earlier..records lost during the war and such.

My 'new' FN has the FN logo horn grips so I figure it's likely pre-WWII(but might be post-war)....the serial number is in the 449,000 serial range...no German markings or anything other than normal looking FN markings..Supposidly these were made up until 1983 and in excess of 700,000 made

Anybody have a clue of approx. when a 449,000 serialed M1910 might have been made?

These are very historical guns as one was used to literally start WW I. A Serbian anarchist used a FN 1910 to assassinate the Archduke Ferdinand and Dutchess of Austria setting off a chain of events leading to the 1st World War.
This model also served as a platfom for the hugely successful model of 1922 which was enlarged version designed to meet a European military contract for Yugoslavia.
The 1922 was the mainstay of many European Police departments up into the 1970s. An excellent design but underpowered by todays standards.
These have really come around lately with increased collector demand and a correspondingly increase in prices.
IMO: Every collector should have at least one of these in their collection.
Jim

I got three FN 10/22s with WaA stamps. No frills, they work but I prefer the Walther PP among the .32 ACPs of that period.

The M 1910 was made from 1912 to 1975. SN in the 449000 range is before WWII, probably very early 1930's. They went over 460,000 by the start of WWII and over 700,000 overall.

They are EXCELLENT John Browning designed small pistols. I have several of the M 1922, one of which, a 1944 model with German police markings, I sometimes carry.

They are very well designed, very simple and rugged with good safety features and very good accuracy. The longer barrel and hotter European loadings of the 7.65 Browning -.32 ACP cartridge gives it more than adequate power and penetration to be effective. I recommend S&B ball ammo for carry.


The longer 4.5" barrel on the 1922 gives over 1000 FPS to the standard hardball round. The 7.65 was John Brownings favorite pistol cartridge, and is very accurate.

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Liberals made the USA

I'm a PP fan too(that sounds bad I know)..anyhow..I came home with the cool little FN and searched for ammo for it..no good..must be out of .32 auto. So I go to my man-cave and strip the cartridges out of my Walther PP mags. I go and try the M1910 and she works! Nice and smooth shooter...same tiny/silly sights as my FN M1906 .25acp too.

I know what I forgot to ask.....What's up with the caliber markings on the barrels of these pistols?

My 'new' pistol has the caliber on the barrel as 7m/m 65....I looked at a couple similar vintage M1910 pistols online and they are marked the same...so no mis-stamp. I would of thunk 7.65m/m would be the norm....

1910 FN Browning

Lots of good info @ the unblinking eye...


I like mine a lot.

I wish it was drop-safe, but it's not...

449,000 range on a 1910 is probably 1939 or 1940 as dogngun makes note of.

One interesting group of 1910s in 32acp in that range (around 449,000 to 495,000 ser#'s) went to Japan. The order was placed by a commercial sales distributor in Liege by the name of Schroeder (sp?) and the pistols were shipped to a city in Japan (Matshuhara or something like that,,spelling again!)
I don't think the end destination has ever been pin pointed, wether it was a retailer in that city in Japan, or perhaps the Gov't there.
The number of pistols within that ser# range that was in the shipment is unkn. Some have come to light with a single Japanese letter/number character stamping on the right side of the frame in front of the ser#.
Others thought to have been in that shipment (by their serial number, the Japanese made holster and accessorys and the Japanese Officers the guns were taken from) have no extra marks.
The thoughts are that some may have been private purchase Officers pistols from a retailer. Some perhaps procured and issued by the Gov't there.
That's about what I remember the story and collectors remarks about the late pre-war shipment of 1910's to Japan.

Hmmm..that's interesting. My pistol does have an interesting asterisk looking stamp to the immediate left of the serial number! I thought it might be a 'lion' like on the barrel proofs...could be a Japanese character I guess.

That's cool!...maybe I bought a vet bring-back from the Pacific war....

You may in fact have one of the Japanese procurement pistols.

The topic got the better of my interest and I did some looking around on the net.
Lots more info around now than there was when I was in to these.

Anyway,,the marking discussed is called a Kanji (sp?) and is often discribed as an asterisk looking stamp.

I looked for an example and found this one:
Browning 1910 with Kanji - Wehrmacht-Awards.com Militaria Forums

scroll down the page for a nice close up pic.

Do some searches on 'FN 1910 with Kanji marking' or FN 1910 Japanese shipment' ,,ect and you'll find quite a bit of info.

Quite a collectors find.....

If you're a member of Jan Still's gunboards Luger/axis pistol forums...I started a topic over there in the Japanese pistol forum.

Trying to fix my photo-bucket account so I can post pics...

I thought the Archduke was assassinated with a Browning M-1900. Seen that in print many times.

Who really knows? Is there a picture of the gun in some museum?

DWM made what looks like a copy of the M-1910 and some of those were sold in Japan, too. I think some Japanese officers also bought .32 Colts, in addition to those they captured from the Dutch in the Netherlands East Indies. They didn't all carry Nambus, etc.

Yes there is. The Mod. 1900 fallacy has long been debunked. I've got a pic of the original pistol on my computer at home, but can't get at it now; you can easily google it. There was an excellent article on this topic by Vanderlinden (THE FN pistol authority) in American Rifleman last year.

American Rifleman | The FN Browning 1910 Pistol and The Great War

Here is a picture of one of the four FN 1910s involved in the assassination on display and a link to the article.
Next to it is my own specimen. Came off the assembly line about a year before the assassins' guns. Closest I've ever been to a historic assassination

Attached Images

	gun franz-f.jpg (15.2 KB, 24 views)
	photoFN1910.JPG (176.7 KB, 30 views)

Browning M 1900 is an error that was reported for years in many publications. The actual pistol used, a FN Model 1910, is on display in a museum in Austria.
Four of them were given to the cabal of anarchists and the one actually used By Gavrilo Pricip,the shooter, was recovered from him right after the assassination.
Here's a reference for you:

Model 1910 Browning semiautomatic pistol like this one above** was used by Gavrilo Princip to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand and precipitate World War I. (Image Credit: Gun's World) On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip [wiki] shot and killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his ...Jun 21, 2007

**I couldn't copy the picture over .

Here's mine. It's 49383X.

Attached Images

FN.jpg (142.4 KB, 32 views)

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed