FN M1900

The FN Browning M1900 is a single action, semi-automatic pistol designed ca. 1896 by John Browning for Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (FN) and produced in Belgium at the turn of the century. It was the first production handgun to use a slide.

History

The design was presented to arms manufacturer FN Herstal in 1898, with production commencing the following year (then under the designation Modele 1899). In 1900, an improved design featuring primarily a shorter barrel was introduced as the M1900. Production ceased only 11 years later, with a total of about 700,000 units having been produced.

United States President Theodore Roosevelt owned an M1900, which he regularly kept on his person and in his bedside drawer.^[1] Eugen Schauman used an M1900 (serial number unknown) in his 1904 assassination of the Russian Governor-General of Finland at the time, Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov. Contrary to many reports from various sources, an M1900 was not used to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914; the handgun used by Gavrilo Princip in that notorious incident was instead a FN 1910. An Jung-geun used an M1900 in his 1909 assassination of the Japanese Resident-General of Korea, Itō Hirobumi. A Chinese copy of the gun saw usage during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War.

The North Korean Type 64 pistol is a copy of the M1900. Specimens examined by western authorities were marked with the date of 1964. A silenced variant was produced that featured a shortened slide to allow the threaded barrel to protrude far enough to attach the silencer.^[2]

Ammunition

The weapon is chambered for the .32 ACP, also known as 7.65×17mm Browning SR, "SR" denotes semi-rimmed.

Synonyms

This model is known by several names, including:

• FN M1900
• FN Mle.1900
• Browning M1900
• Browning No.1

See also

• Colt M1900
• FN Model 1903

References