Colt M1900
semi-automatic pistol
The Colt Model 1900 is a short-recoil operated "self-loading", or semi-automatic .38 caliber handgun introduced by Colt's Manufacturing Company at the turn of the 20th century. The M1900 was the first firearm to be chambered in .38 ACP (not to be confused with the shorter-cased .380 ACP).
The M1900 was developed from John M. Browning's earlier prototypes in the late 1890s. The United States military tested the design against other semiautomatic pistols by European makers, and adopted some versions for trial use. The M1900 and variants were also offered commercially. Variants included the Model 1902 Sporting, Model 1902 Military, Model 1903 Pocket (only in .38 ACP models; the .32 ACP model was a different design), and the Model 1905, which introduced the .45 ACP cartridge. Starting in 1909, new designs removed the front barrel link, which was replaced with a simple bushing. These designs evolved into the related M1911 pistol.
Design
Unlike the designs of other early semi-automatic pistols, Browning's design used a full-length slide that covered the full length of the barrel, as opposed to other designs which utilized a barrel and bolt that slid in grooves machined in the frame. In the Browning design, the slide fitted into rails in the frame, and was integral with the bolt.
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This entry incorporates text from “Colt M1900” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.