Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless
model of semi-automatic pistol
The Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless is a .32 ACP (7.65mm Browning) caliber, self-loading, semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning and built by Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut. It is also called the Model M.
The Colt Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless is a variant introduced five years later in .380 ACP (9mm Short) caliber.
Despite the title "hammerless", the Model 1903/1908 does have a hammer. The hammer is covered and hidden from view under the rear of the slide, which allows the pistol to be carried in and withdrawn from a pocket quickly and smoothly without snagging.
History
Approximately 570,000 Colt Pocket Hammerless pistols were produced from 1903 to 1945, in five different types. Some were issued to U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force general officers from World War II through the 1970s; these were replaced in 1972 with the RIA Colt M15 general officer's model, a compact version of the M1911A1.
The Shanghai Municipal Police issued the M1908 to its officers in the 1920s and 1930s and it was a popular model with police in the U.S. such as the Boston Police Department.
In addition to lawful owners, many gangsters of the pre-World War II era favored the Model 1903 and Model 1908 because they were relatively small and easily concealed. It is said that Al Capone kept one in his coat pocket and Bonnie Parker used one to break Clyde Barrow out of jail after smuggling it into the jail by taping it to her thigh. Bank robber John Dillinger was carrying this model of pistol when he was shot by FBI agents outside the Biograph theater on July 22, 1934, and another famous bank robber, Willie Sutton, had one when he was captured by police in Brooklyn on February 18, 1952.
“Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless” enters the record as model of semi-automatic pistol. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Colt, Model and Pocket can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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