fn 1900 questions

American1776 · Dec 30, 2018

I've become intrigued by the FN 1900. President T. Roosevelt carried the 1899 in his pocket. It seems to be super reliable. JMB's first autoloader design with a slide.

I'm looking to get a nice one, to keep in as a collectors item and also to carry occasionally.

Questions: 1) are these drop safe enough to carry condition 1? I've seen that the safety disengages the sear, and the recoil spring doubles as the firing pin spring. Would this set up be strong enough to prevent an inertial discharge of the striker if dropped on its muzzle? 2) During this time, heat treating wasn't prevalent. What sort of longevity do these little guns have?

Thanks, and happy new year.

DWalt · Dec 30, 2018

I own a very high condition FN 1900, but I do not carry it nor do I know anything about how good its drop safety is. As there were about 750K made, I'd think that if the problem existed it would be fairly well known by now, and I do not remember reading or hearing anything about it. I can't believe that whether it has or doesn't have heat treating makes any difference. Back in the early pre-WWII days, M1911s had no heat treating either, yet they held up very well.

While I greatly admire the FN 1900, it's not a pistol I would personally choose to carry. Mine is my "dining room" gun (I also have kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, and utility room guns). And that is where it usually is, loaded with Winchester Silvertips. I occasionally take it out for a little fun, but not often. BTW, there was also a FN 1899 pistol.

Stevie · Jan 2, 2019

Don't know how drop safe they are...I try not to drop mine loaded or un-loaded.

I would say the FN 1900 metal is fine. Mine appears to have seen substantial service and still works and is tight.

The trigger pull on these ain't match grade. Takes a good screwdriver to take it apart. The mag latch is what it is and it's weird to use. Grips can fall off if the screws get loose

The FN 1900 is a good little pea-shooter and all....but it's an odd duck as a carry gun. They are sort-of fun to shoot and I like the FN 1900 pistol better than FN's sister gun the FN 1910. The FN 1910 grip safety is a liability for accurate shooting...not to mention the near lack of sights on the FN 1910. The only real advantage the FN 1910 has over the FN 1900 is a more normal design(to modern eyes) and a more useful mag release

They say the 1900 was extremely popular and remained in production even after there were more advanced FN Browning pistols on the market. I believe it pioneered the 7.65mm/.32acp cartridge

DWalt · Jan 2, 2019

The FN 1900 (actually the 1899) was the first pistol to use the blowback action design, and also the first to use the .32 ACP cartridge. It was probably much more popular in Europe than in the US as it was the first of its breed - a compact pocket pistol. I have read it was widely used in the French Foreign Legion. For a long time it was claimed that the 1900 was the pistol used by Gavrillo Princep to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, touching off WWI, but as it turns out its successor, the FN Model 1910 in .380, was the true assassination weapon.

fn 1900 questions

American1776

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Stevie

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DWalt

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