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The Colt Model 1910 Owned by the Most Instrumental and Innovative Firearms Inventor of the 19th and 20th Centuries
LOT 423
Extremely Rare Historic Colt Model 1910/1913 John Browning Prototype Semi-Automatic Pistol Serial Number
3, Extensively Documented in Two Monumental Reference Books - Serial no. 3, 45 ACP cal., 5 inch round bbl., blue finish, walnut grips. Originally manufactured in 1910, this is an example of the extremely rare Colt Model 1910 prototype pistol, an extremely important evolutionary piece in the story of the adoption of the Model 1911 by the U.S. military. There were possibly as few as eight of these pistols ever made, possibly as many as 12, making them incredibly rare and often a missing piece in U.S. military automatic pistol collections. These pistols were initially manufactured to be an improvement upon the “straight-gripped” Model 1909. They were initially submitted for testing on 9 February 1910, when Captain Walter G. Penfield described the “improved model” as having the mainspring cap simpler, smaller, and attached to the spring, extractor inside the breech, ejector made square, angle of the grip changed, the sear, trigger, and grip safety springs made
in one piece, butt of the grip sharply angled instead of rounded, barrel slightly lowered, and the ejection port slightly enlarged. Even with all of these “improvements”, the pistol failed it’s initial test fairly miserably, jamming seven times in the first 157 shots, and John Browning withdrawing it from the test to try to improve the design. The second test occurred five days later, with the pistol operating much better this time, only having one misfire in 1,000 shots. It still wasn’t perfect however, as Browning had to straighten the recoil spring retaining piece multiple times, and it eventually broke completely. Browning believed this was due to the piece being made too thin and of inferior steel, an issue that could easily be remedied. In July of 1910, a special grip was requested by the ordnance department, the main feature of which being a smooth right panel which slightly swelled into the palm. The special grip was tested by the School of Musketry, who did not favor the “improved” grip over the original checkered grips. In August of 1910, two Model 1909 pistols were fitted with thumb safeties, which the Ordnance Department found favorable, especially for use with mounted troops. On 10 November 1910, the Ordnance Board met to pit the Model 1910 Colt and Savage pistols against each other for the second to last time, with the main feature of
this trial being an endurance test, with 6,000 rounds fired through each. After this trial the Board’s assessment was that “That neither automatic pistol in its present design is believed to be satisfactory for adoption in the service because of insufficient strength of parts... The Colt automatic pistol is believed to be much the more satisfactory of the two.”
SERIAL NUMBER 3
Important Historic Note
This experimental pistol, owned by John Browning, has multiple features intended to address the perceived short-comings of the pistol design.
THIS HISTORIC PISTOL WAS DESIGNED TO BE ABLE TO BE DISASSEMBLED WITHOUT USE OF A SCREW DRIVER. NOTICE THE GRIPS HAVE NO SCREWS, BUT RATHER ARE HELD IN PLACE BY A DRIFT PIN AND RETAINED BY A SLOTTED FASTENER. THIS DESIGN IS EXTREMELY INNOVATIVE AND CAN CLEARLY BE SEEN IN THE INCLUDED COPIES OF THE BLUE PRINTS
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