Quick history of the modern Automatic Pistol.

[Dave Hoback]

Thanks for posting this. Some of the younger folks need to know the history of semi pistols.
Not pick nits too closely, but the C-96 was actually designed by a couple of P.P. Mauser's designers 'on their own time'. Mauser came to accept the design and the rest is history. I don't have my references at hand, but the actual designers are known. Also, around the same time, Georg Luger was hired to improve Borchardtt's pistol which was the first commercially successful semi-auto pistol. Again, the rest is history. It is interesting that all of this occurred before 1900.
That is a nice looking 1907, wish either of mine was nearly as nice.

Correct! It was actually designed by 2-brothers: Fidel Friedrich & Josef Feederle. It was Friedrich who actually worked for Mauser. And yes, Luger is another big name in there. I have a hunch this was quite common throughout the years of many firearms designs. But it takes a mind to bring things to fruition.

There is much else I could include in this. But it wasn’t meant as a complete history. More so, I simply wanted to highlight those which had the the greatest impact. It’s pretty amazing that while things have been refined & modernized, we are essentially shooting the same firearms from well over 100 years ago. And the fact that basically all these designs were created in a very short timespan, around the turn of the 20th century. Just incredible.

I agree on that 1907. I’ve never really been a fan, but this one really caught my eye so I had to include a pic.

[61Knuckle]

Same here, Dave. I wasn't a big fan of the 1907, but since I have a couple of 'brooms' and Lugers in my safe, I figured that I need one. You know how things like that multiply, now there are 2.
The ammunition is another interesting line of study. The Borchardtt cartridge [headspacing on the shoulder] was the 'parent', refined in the Mauser, and shortened in the Luger. The best story is for Luger to maintain the grip size but another good one is that Georg didn't want to share ammo with the Mauser. When the military wanted a larger bullet for the Luger, the 9mm Parabellum was born and we began headspacing semi pistol cases on the case mouth. And along came John Moses Browning...
Yes, the development is simply incredible, especially happening so soon after 'smokeless powder' came into reality.