Browning 1910 (.380 ACP)
Kim du Toit
April 28, 2005
12:00 AM CDT
Another of John Moses Browning’s designs, the Model 1910 featured a recoil spring which wrapped around the barrel rather than around a guide rod underneath the barrel (hence the slender slide).
It was made from 1910 until about 1983, when it was replaced by the double-action BDA in the same caliber. I’ve always liked the sleek, old-fashioned looks of the 1910 myself, and if I were a collectin’ kinda guy, I’d own one already. They’re not especially rare—Browning made zillions of them over the seventy or so years of its production, and if in reasonable condition, you can shoot it without any problems at all (it’s a John Moses Browning gun, fer gawdsakes).
Here are two facts about the 1910, one trivial and one not so much so.
1. It was the gun used by James Bond in Dr. No, where our intrepid secret agent used it to shoot at the fire-breathing armored car—well, he started to use a 1910, but in the very next cut the 1910 had morphed into a 1911. Oops.
The second fact is very interesting indeed.
2. The Browning 1910 was the model used in 1914 by Gavrilo Princip to assassinate the Austrian Archduke and his wife in Sarajevo—the event which would eventually lead to World War I.
But that’s not the interesting part. The Austrian authorities confiscated four 1910s from the Black Hand terrorist group of which Princip was a member, which number included Princip’s own gun, and stored them in Salzburg. (It is unknown as to which of the four guns was the one which killed Archduke Ferdinand and Duchess Sophie.)
What we do know is that when Salzburg was occupied by the American Army in 1945, the four guns were “liberated” by American troops, and are most likely somewhere in the United States still.
And here’s one last thing we know: the serial numbers of the Black Hand’s 1910 pistols are 19074, 19075, 19120, and 19126.
So write down these numbers before you go to your next ELGS, and if you see a Browning 1910 for sale, check its serial number. You may end up with a priceless gun—unless the current owners are also reading this post, of course—how ironic would that be?
Nevertheless, that’s worth a little snooping, I think.
Gratuitous Gun Pics
