First Gun Made for Various Pistol Calibers

It’s been awhile since I’ve written any of my “guns and history” articles so I thought I might do one for the new year. The problem is that I have not acquired anything recently that has an interesting backstory. So I was digging around the safe trying to come up with an interesting angle to write about when I realized that I have a mini-theme going. Most collectors will try collect along a theme. Otherwise it’s not really a “collection” rather than a random assortment of guns. My themes are early semi-automatic pistols,1911s, and WW2. But what typically happens is that as you acquire on your main theme a sub-theme starts to emerge.

The sub-theme that I am going to write about today is “firsts”. First pistol made in the various semi-automatic pistol calibers. I think it’s an appropriate topic as we approach the first of the new year. Note this is not a complete collection in that I don’t have a pistol in EVERY semi-automatic caliber. But I’ll share with you the ones that I do have.

Borchardt C93 - 7.65mm Borchardt

Any discussion about the first semi-automatic pistols should begin with the Borchardt C93 (Construction of 1893). While there may be handful of semi-automatic pistols that slightly pre-date the Borchardt, the Borchardt has the distinction of being the first (mostly) reliable, commercially successful semi-automatic pistol. In addition, Hugo Borchardt invented many of the pieces we take for granted in a semi-automatic pistol. For example, a removable box magazine that holds the rounds and the location of the magazine in the grip of the gun. Hugo also invented the ammunition pattern that pretty much everyone else copied – the rimless cartridge. Prior to the Borchardt, handgun ammunition had a rim at the base of the cartridge to hold it in place in a revolver. Borchardt was the first to design rimless ammunition specifically for a semi-automatic pistol. The original Borchardt cartridge fired an 85 grain bullet at 1280 fps. Unfortunately original Borchardt ammunition is extremely rare, so I don’t have any in my collection. However DWM the company that manufactured the Borchardt gave away his bullet design to their other subsidiaries (see Mauser next).

Mauser C96 - 7.63mm Mauser

Three brothers (Fidel, Freidrich, and Josef Feederle) all worked for the Mauser company. At the turn of the century every manufacturer was attempting to come up with a semi-automatic pistol design. When Paul Mauser discovered the brothers working on the pistol during company time he was furious. They reverted to only working on it in their spare time so progress was slowed.

However due to the commercial success of the Borchardt C93, Mauser needed a semi-automatic pistol quickly! Paul Mauser remembered the Feederle brothers’ project and asked them to work on it as a formal project. The result is the C96 (Construction of 1896) “Broomhandle” Mauser. The name “Broomhandle” is a result of the grip of the gun resembling the handle of a broom.

By this time DWM had controlling interest in Mauser and essentially shared Borchardt’s bullet design with them. The cartridge is officially known as the 7.63mm Mauser. It may appear different in name from the 7.65mm Borchardt. However they are essentially the same. The only difference is that the Mauser action was stronger than the Borchardt so the ammunition could be loaded hotter. 7.63mm Mauser fires an 86 grain bullet at 1420 fps. Up until .357 magnum came along the 7.63mm Mauser was the highest velocity cartridge in the pistol world.

Luger P08 - 9mm Parabellum

Georg Luger was a salesperson for DWM and was tasked with demonstrating the C93 Borchardt to European militaries. While there was interest in the Borchadt the feedback was nearly unanimous – the gun was just too unwieldly to use, mainly because of the big “blob” at the back of the gun. Luger provided the feedback to Borchardt but he refused to redesign the gun. “[I]dass die Pistole, so wie sie ist, bleiben musse, weil eine zweckdienliche Aenderung ganz unmoglich sei”[/I] (that the pistol, as it is, must remain, because a useful change is quite impossible). Eventually Georg Luger took it upon himself to redesign the gun and the result is the famous Luger pistol. The Swiss were early adopters of the Luger, which was originally chambered in 7.65mm Luger. Just like with Mauser, DWM shared Borchardt’s bullet design with Luger. He shortened the case slightly to better fit into the angled grip of the luger.

The Germany military was also interested in the pistol, but they requested a bigger caliber. So Georg Luger simply removed bottlenecked portion of the 7.65mm Borchardt casing which resulted in a bullet diameter of 9mm. He called it the 9mm Parabellum. Parabellum was derived from the Latin saying “[I]Si vis pacem, para bellum”[/I] (if you seek peace, prepare for war), which was also the motto for DWM. Today the round is interchangeably called 9mm Luger, 9mm Parabellum or simply 9mm. It is arguably the most popular caliber in existence.

Colt 1900 - .38 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol)

In the race to come up with locked breech semi-automatic pistols, the USA was represented by none other than John Browning. A few years earlier Colt had entered into an agreement with Browning where Colt had the rights to manufacture his locked-breech designs. The first of which was made in 1900. It was simply called the “Automatic Colt” because, well, there was only one. To go along with this new gun Browning designed a new cartridge, the .38 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol). This was a reasonable first attempt by Browning but the gun had some drawbacks. The main complaint was that there is no slide lock system, so there is no way to know when the gun is empty. In addition, Browning choose to implement a “sight safety” system. The rear sight also acted as a safety. When it is in the downward position (as seen in the picture), it blocks the hammer from contacting the firing pin. To fire the weapon the rear sight is rotated upwards which unblocks the hammer. This also served a very tiny rear sight which is nearly impossible to use.

Colt 1905 - .45 ACP

In 1899 America entered into a war with the Philippine islands. During this conflict US servicemen were armed with revolvers chambered in the rather weak .38 Long Colt. There were many reports that the bullet was unable to stop frenzied charges from local tribesmen, even at close ranges. Colonel Louis LaGarde made this report “Antonio Caspi, a prisoner on the island of Samar, P.I. attempted escape on Oct. 26, 1905. He was shot four times at close range in a hand-to-hand encounter by a .38 Colt's revolver loaded with U.S. Army regulation ammunition. He was finally stunned by a blow on the forehead from the butt end of a Springfield carbine.”

After the war the US military commissioned a study on the optimum caliber that should be used in military handguns. The study was led by John Thompson (inventor of the Thomson machine gun) and Colonel LaGarde. The men conducted various experiments including hanging cadavers and measuring the swing from impact of bullets as well as number of shots needed to take down livestock. Ultimately the study concluded that the military should adopt a caliber of not less than .45.

So the race was on to arm the US army with a semi-automatic pistol chambered in at least .45. Browning designed the .45 ACP cartridge and attempted to modify his earlier Colt 1900 design to accommodate it. Most people think that the Colt 1911 was the first pistol to use .45 ACP but that is not the case. There were a series of intermediate guns that came before the 1911, the very first of which to use .45ACP was the Colt Model 1905. While the gun was tested by the military it was deemed insufficient to meet their needs. Most notably the operating system did not have the longevity demanded by the military. Browning would need to go back to the drawing board to come up with an entirely new action, which eventually became the Model of 1911.

Colt 1908 - .380 ACP

Colt entered into an agreement with Browning, but only for his locked breech designs. Colt felt that these designs would have the greatest chance of winning military orders. That turned decision worked out well for Colt. However Browning had more than just locked breech designs. He also came up with several direct blowback designs.

As an aside a quick summary of locked breech vs direct blowback. The “breech” is the opening in a slide where the spent casing is ejected. For a gun to operate you want to keep everything closed up so that the gas takes the path of least resistance (namely pushing the bullet down the barrel). But once the bullet is fired, you need to open up the chamber and eject the spent brass. The tricky part is getting the timing right. If you open up the slide too fast the gas could blow out the side of the brass case instead of pushing the bullet down the barrel. Direct blowback is simpler where the slide is pushed backwards using the same gas that is pushing the bullet. Springs are used to slow down the opening of the slide where hopefully the gas levels have decreased before the breech is fully opened. In a locked breech gun another mechanism is used to mechanically lock the breech until the gas levels are safe to open it up. Direct blowback is more suitable for small calibers while locked breech designs are more suitable for powerful calibers.

Ok back to our story, Colt originally licensed Browning’s locked breech designs but not his direct blowback designs. Instead he licensed those to Fabrique Nationale (FN). FN had some success selling their Browning designed pistol in the US, especially to people looking for a smaller, concealable pistol. In 1903 Colt finally asked Browning to design a direct blowback pistol for them and the result is the Colt Pocket Hammerless (It actually has a hammer but is encased inside the pistol). In 1908 Colt came up with a more powerful version of the Pocket Hammerless which used a newly designed cartridge by Browning – the .380 ACP.

On the other side of the ocean FN quickly updated their Browning pistol to use the new .380 ACP as well. In Europe the round was known as the 9mm Browning or 9mm Kurz (Short). The .380 (9mm Kurz) has the distinction of being the round that killed Archduke Ferdinand, setting off World War I.
Today the .380 continues to be a popular round primarily in small, concealable pistols which is exactly what Browning designed it for.

Webley Automatic Pistol - .455 Webley

England pretty much stayed with revolvers even when the rest of the world was making the switch to semi-automatic pistols. When the United States adopted the Colt Model of 1911, England felt that it perhaps needed to look more seriously into semi-automatic pistols. But rather than adopt one of the existing designs, they asked the Royal revolver manufacturer Webley & Scott to see what they could come up with. William Whiting came up with the Webley Automatic Pistol which internally resembles a revolver much more than a semi-automatic pistol. I'm not sure what they were smoking, but when the British Army tested the weapon they declared it as “superior to the Colt in all aspects”.

The pistol never really caught on. The army continued to buy revolvers even during WW1. The Webley pistol sold just a few hundred units a month which dwindled to a handful a month post WW1. At the start of WW2 Webley inquired if the army would order any other pistols, to which they responded that no pistol orders would be coming. At that point Webley melted down their entire stock of parts to recycle into raw materials for revolver manufacture. Ironically shortly after all the parts were destroyed a big order came in for the pistols as it looked like war with Germany was inevitable. The .455 Webley is just a footnote in semi-automatic pistol and cartridge development.

Colt Super 38 - .38 Super

In the 1920s law enforcement found themselves under armed to deal with the gangsters of the prohibition era. At that time law enforcement was typically armed with the .38 special which was an improvement from the .38 Long Colt cartridge that lacked stopping power in the Philippine-American war. But just like before police found .38 special to be under powered to go up against the gangsters, who were armed with Tommy Guns and 1911s. In addition automobile use was at an all-time high thanks to the Model T bringing forth the automobile era. Police found that their .38 special revolvers lacked power to penetrate automobile steel. So the request was put out to gun manufacturers of the time for a weapon and cartridge with more penetration capability.

Colt responded by modifying the chambering of their Model of 1911. What not just use .45 ACP? Because one of the drawbacks of that big bullet was less penetrating power. Instead they modified the 1911 to fire the venerable .38 ACP bullet first invented by Browning way back in 1900! Note that the original name for this gun was the Colt Super .38. But in the original release it was the same old .38ACP bullet as the Model of 1900. The ballistics of the original round were good enough to meet the law enforcement requirement of penetrating call doors. The .38 ACP fired a 130 grain bullet at 1,050 feet per second (compare that to .45ACP which fires a 230 grain bullet at 850 feet per second). Shortly after the release of the gun ammunition manufacturers realized that the new gun could take a more powerful load. So they took the original .38ACP round, increased the pressure, and called it “.38 Super.” This new loading fired the same 130 grain bullet at 1,280 feet per second.

Bren Ten - 10mm Auto

In the early 80s two gun enthusiasts tried to come up with something new. Thomas Dornaus and Michael Dixon thought that there was a growing gap in power between semi-automatic pistols and revolvers. Revolvers had very high powered loads like the .357 magnum and .44 magnum but semi-automatic pistols used relatively weaker cartridges like the 9mm luger or .45ACP. Dornaus and Dixon thought that there was a market for a high powered semi-automatic pistol.

In their research they came across Colonel Jeff Cooper, who we known today as the “father” of the modern technique of pistol. Cooper taught that shooters should use a two-handed stance and also invented the firearm conditions of readiness that we often hear today “condition 1 – round chambered, magazine in place, hammer cocked, safety on”, etc. In addition Cooper believed in the “big bore” concept – the caliber should be as large as possible to take down the threat as quickly as possible.

The two friends teamed up with Cooper and formed Dornaus and Dixon enterprises. At that time Cooper was enamored with the CZ75 pistol (which was not available in the United States). They started with the CZ-75 and made lots of modifications to make it fire a high power cartridge. Since Cooper was a believer in big calibers, the 9mm that the CZ75 was chambered in simply wouldn’t do! They worked with ammunition manufacturer Norma to invent a brand new round, the 10mm. At its introduction the 10mm had more energy than the .357 magnum. In fact Jeff Cooper used to brag that the 10mm had more energy at 100 yards then the .45 ACP has at the muzzle.

The gun was popular thanks to a starring role as Sonny Crockett’s gun on Miami Vice. Unfortunately the gun was released before it was really ready. The company had a hard time with the magazines. After a firing or two, the enormous pressure of the round would bend the magazine out of shape. Due to the difficulty in getting working magazines, the company started shipping guns without magazines. The running joke was that gun enthusiasts would follow Don Johnson (actor who played Sonny Crockett) around on set of Miami Vice hoping he would drop a magazine or two. A combination of many things including the magazine fiasco led to Dornaus and Dixon closing up shop in 1986.

However the 10mm cartridge was unexpectedly given a second chance. As with the Colt Super 38, Colt simply rechambered their venerable 1911 for the new cartridge. It was called the Colt Delta Elite. In 1986 a law enforcement incident occurred which brought 10mm into limelight.

The 1986 FBI Miami shootout was a gun battle that occurred between 8 FBI agents and 2 bank robbers. Seven of the eight agents were wounded or killed despite outnumbering the robbers two to one. In the aftermath the agency blamed lack of stopping power of their service weapons – primarily 9mm pistols and revolvers firing .38 special +P. The FBI immediately began the search for a new service weapon. It found that NONE of the common calibers at the time to be suitable for their needs. It was only by chance when an agent submitted his personal Colt Delta Elite that the FBI tested the ballistics of the 10mm cartridge. It was deemed suitable for the agency.

Smith & Wesson Model 4006 - .40 S&W

While the FBI picked 10mm because of its ballistics, it found that actual field use to be sub-optimal. The fact of the matter was that the round produced too much recoil for all agents to handle effectively. Through experimentation it found that it could lower the pressure of the round while still maintaining adequate performance. This new load was called the “10mm FBI” or “10mm Lite”. Smith and Wesson observed that with the FBI load there was no reason to maintain the original case length since less powder was required for the new FBI load. In fact by reducing the case length firearm frames could be used that were similar in size to 9mm, which would be easier for agents to handle. This new round was named the .40 Smith & Wesson.

To go along with the new caliber, Smith and Wesson introduced a new pistol – the Model 4006. The 4006 was widely adopted by law enforcement and stayed in production from its introduction 1990 all the way to 2009. The California Highway Patrol, Colorado State Patrol, Atlanta Police, are among the departments that used the 4006. The 4006 is widely regarded as a tough, reliable service weapon that is only being replaced now by lighter plastic pistols.

While the 4006 was the gun that introduced the .40 S&W, it was beat to market by several weeks by the Glock 22. Glock simply took the Model 17 and modified it to fire the new round.

Magnum Research Desert Eagle - .50 AE (Action Express)

I’m not sure what Magnum Research was thinking when they designed the Desert Eagle other than “let’s make the biggest, most outrageous handgun possible”. Hey if you’re going to buy an outrageous pistol why not go all the way and get it in tiger stripe? We’ve already talked about the differences between a direct blowback and locked breech handgun. So how do you make an operating system work for the most powerful of handgun calibers? Answer – make it work like a rifle. That’s basically what the Desert Eagle is – a rifle action housed in a handgun frame. The bolt is pretty much a clone of the bolt you find in AR rifles right down to the rotating breech face and gas tube.

The gun is chambered in .50 Action Express (AE). U.S. firearm laws designate any gun with a bore diameter over ½ inch (.50) to be a “destructive device”, requiring special licensing. To test for this a gauge plug is used. If the plug does not drop through the bore then it is less than ½ inch. If the gauge drops through then the bore is more than ½ inch and is a “destructive device”. The original barrel used traditional rifling which passed the plug test. However a manufacturing change to polygonal rifling allowed the plug to drop.

In order to avoid the gun from being labeled as a destructive device a change was made to the .50AE round. The bullet itself was reduced in diameter by .010 inches, resulting in a tapered case that is wider at the bottom and narrower at the top.

Today the .50 AE remains mostly a novelty round. The gun is widely featured in movies and video games including the Call of Duty series where it is typically called the “deagle”.

Guncrafter Industries Model One - .50GI

Another novelty caliber, the .50GI was invented by Guncrafter Industries and first introduced at SHOT show 2004. While the bullet itself is .50, the rest of the round is intended to mimic .45 ACP. The round uses a greatly rebated rim so that standard .45ACP frames, slides, and extractors will work. In fact the gun above comes with a .45 ACP conversion kit (different slide, barrel, and magazine). While size is similar to .45 ACP the larger projectile carries with it significantly greater kinetic energy, but not as much as the Desert Eagle’s .50 AE.

Well there you have it, on this first day of 2017 the “first” pistols for different semi-automatic calibers. Some of the calibers are indeed obsolete and long gone: 7.65 Borchardt, 7.65 Luger, 7.63 Mauser,
.38 ACP, .455 Webley. Others are mere novelties: .50 GI and .50 AE. However many continue to be popular even today: .380 ACP, .45 ACP, .38 Super, 10mm, .40 S&W, and of course 9mm Luger.

 I hope you enjoyed this short history of semi-automatic pistol calibers and the guns they
were introduced with.