So, I went to a LGS and found this nice FN Browning Model 1900 tucked away in one of the cases. I paid $300 for it, which I think is a pretty decent price.



I don't know a lot about these pistols, except for what i have read online. I know the grips are not original, but it looks like they have been on the pistol for quite some time. The bluing is at least 90% and it functions fine. While disassembling it yesterday I could not believe how tight fitting the slide is to the frame. The one main draw back is that a previous owner used an electric pencil to put some number on the front of the grip frame. Serial number is 396409 and they all match. Rough guess is that this pistols is form about 1905-06.

So, one of my questions are, which type of plastic grips should this pistol have? The ones with the picture of the pistol on them or the ones with just the FN logo? Anything I should know about when firing this pistol? It does have smokeless powder proofs on it, so I am not worried about firing it.

Thanks for any information that can be provided.

Decent looking pistol at a good price. Congrats.

Looks like a mighty good deal to me.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I may be wrong, but this may be the first pistol with a slide.

LedFowl, you are correct, it is the first pistol with a slide. It is also John Browning's first pistol as well.

What slide? The 1900 does not have one in the conventional sense, a la the M1911, M1903, M1910, etc. But it was the first automatic pistol which operated on the blowback principle. Only the earliest 1899s and 1900s had the pistols on the grips. I don't know when that stopped, but fairly soon after it came on the market. The normal grips are black hard rubber with a script FN in a lozenge at the top. Good original grips for the 1900 are tough to come by, but there are many replicas on the market. Many original grips suffer insect damage. FN apparently filled the rubber (I think it was Gutta Percha) with wood flour which some bugs liked to eat, resulting in wormholes. I've seen many "Holy" FN grips and buttplates.

$300 is not a bad price for one that nice-looking, even without the original grips. 1900s are sturdy, reliable pistols, and still make a good carry piece even today. Something like 750,000 were made, so they are not rare. Many are found in good cosmetic condition as they spent most of their lives in someone's sock drawer. They were great favorites with the French Legion Etrangere. I think Teddy Roosevelt carried one.

If you read up on JMB, it mentions that he liked to carry this pistol on his evening strolls, to plink with. I think Arch Duke
Ferdinand was snuffed with one of these starting the 1st World
War. I've had a few of them, the run like a clock, but I was
never able to hit much with them. All the ones I had, were
black rubber FN grips. One of them had a lot of extra numbers
probably police armory numbers. One was in flap military
holster with extra clip.

I've never owned or fired one, just read a little about them. How is the slide unconventional?

The recoil spring is over top the barrel, ala S&W 41/422 ect.
I always thought it was a slide, but I'm not one to split hairs.

The Arch Duke and his wife were assassinated with a Browning Model 1910.
The actual pistol used is on display at a museum in Austria.
Jim

The story about the Browning 1900 being Princep's assassination weapon has been around forever and is often cited. But it now seems to be settled that it was really a Model 1910 in .380, one of several supplied by the Serbian secret society, The Black Hand. That single gun in Princep's hand was the trigger for the deaths of millions, making it possibly the deadliest firearm ever. Now, who knows what pistol was used by Prince Felix Yousopov to shoot Rasputin? Some say it was a Nagant revolver, some think it was a Browning 1900. Maybe it was something else. Every account I have read is unclear on that point.

In the NRA's exhibit at Tulsa they had Teddy Roosevelt's engraved, gold inlaid,pearl stocked FN1899 (first version almost identical to 1900, only minor differences) It was stunning!

Yours should have the FN hard rubber stocks. JMB took it to Colt first and they turned it down because they wanted to concentrate on larger caliber gun for military. When they saw high sales #s for FN they decided they needed small caliber too and Colt 1903 was soon produced. JMB was a genius Neat gun!!

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PTLAPTA!

I must be holding my 41 upside down; the recoil spring was under the barrel every time i took it apart. Don't know about the 422, but I think it was over the barrel on these.

The Model 61, 2213, 2214, 422, 2206 all have the recoil spring over the top of the barrel. I may be missing a model or two there. The ejection port even looks a bit like the 1900 on these models as well.

The Arch Duke was wearing a new, excellent quality, bullet resistant vest. He was shot thru the neck. The Secret Service had one on order for President McKinley. It arrived two weeks after he was shot to death.

Interesting! I had not heard this part of the story before.
Jim

Franz Ferdinand's wife Sophie was also killed by Princep. I wonder if she had a bulletproof vest? It wouldn't have taken a very good quality vest to stop a .380 bullet, but no vest will stop a bullet to the neck or head. I don't know where on her body Sophie was shot. One of the tragedies of history was Ferdinand's decision to visit Sarajevo, as it was well known that it was a very dangerous and high-risk city. In fact there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Ferdinand using a bomb or grenade shortly before Princep's effort succeeded. Had Ferdinand any brains, he would have fled the area immediately after the first attempt.

See my nice M1900 showing the correct stock style:

If I recall correctly Sofie was hit in the head, but I wouldn't care to bet on my recollection. I was primarily interested in the bullet resistant vest information and not the secondary players-collateral damage.