With the failure of the No.4 Bergmann 1896 to attract military interest (which couldn’t have been too difficult to predict), Bergmann and Schmeisser realized that the straight blowback mechanism of the 1896 model pistol would […]
With the Bergmann No.3 proving to be a popular pistol and commercial success, Bergmann and Louis Schmeisser made another attempt to break into the military market. This was done by adapting the No.3 to use […]
Of the three calibers available in the 1896 model Bergmann pistol, the 6.5mm No.3 was the most popular. Approximately 4,000 of these guns were produced, and they found a worldwide following. We have examples below […]
US World War I doughboys with M1911 pistols on display. Trigger discipline wasn’t what it is today.
After several years of work and at least two Swiss military trials, Louis Schmeisser’s design of the Bergmann self-loading pistol was still not quite good enough to become a commercial success. Only a few pistols […]
As Theodore Bergmann and Louis Schmeisser embarked on the process of perfecting and improving their production pistols, they used a numbering system to identify the different models that were made. There are also model years […]
Today we are starting the story of the Bergmann automatic pistol – one of the early successful self-loading handguns, and one which led to a less prominent firearms dynasty than some other big names of […]
Here’s a subject I don’t know much about, and I’m hoping some of the folks reading this can help educate me: cavalry use of handguns. How many groups actually experimented with handguns as a primary […]
The C93 Borchardt was the first truly commercially successful self-loading pistol, and it was the basis for the P08 Luger which would become one of the most iconic pistols in history. I had the opportunity […]
We all know of Hiram Maxim for his groundbreaking work in machine gun development – but not many people are familiar with his automatic pistol designs. In fact, this is at least partly because the […]
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