The Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, semi-automatic pistol available in the 9×19mm Parabellum and .40 S&W calibers. It was based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at FN Herstal. Browning died in 1926, several years before the design was finalized. FN Herstal named it the "High Power" in allusion to the 13-round magazine capacity, almost twice that of other designs at the time, such as the Walther P38 or Colt M1911.
John Moses Browning was an American firearm designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms, many of which are still in use around the world. He made his first firearm at age 13 in his father's gun shop and was awarded the first of his 128 firearm patents on October 7, 1879, at the age of 24. He is regarded as one of the most successful firearms designers of the 19th and 20th centuries and a pioneer of modern repeating, semi-automatic, and automatic firearms.
.32 ACP is a centerfire pistol cartridge. It is a semi-rimmed, straight-walled cartridge developed by firearms designer John Browning, initially for use in the FN M1900 semi-automatic pistol. It was introduced in 1899 by Fabrique Nationale, and is also known as the 7.65 mm Browning Short.
The .25 ACP, also known as the .25 Auto, .25 Automatic, or 6.35×16mmSR) is a semi-rimmed, straight-walled centerfire pistol cartridge introduced by John Browning in 1905 alongside the Fabrique Nationale M1905 pistol.
Clément-Bayard, Bayard-Clément, was a French manufacturer of automobiles, aeroplanes and airships founded in 1903 by entrepreneur Gustave Adolphe Clément. Clément obtained consent from the Conseil d'Etat to change his name to that of his business in 1909. The extra name celebrated the Chevalier Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard who saved the town of Mézières in 1521. A statue of the Chevalier stood in front of Clément's Mézières factory, and the image was incorporated into the company logo.
The 9×23mm Largo centerfire pistol cartridge was developed in 1901 for the Bergmann Mars pistol.
The FN Browning M1900 is a single action semi-automatic pistol designed c. 1896 by John Browning for Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (FN) and produced in Belgium at the turn of the 20th century. It was the first production handgun to use a slide.
The FN Model 1910 is a blowback-operated, semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning and manufactured by Fabrique Nationale of Belgium.
The Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless is a .32 ACP caliber, self-loading, semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning and built by Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut. The Colt Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless is a variant introduced five years later in .380 ACP caliber. Despite the title "hammerless", the Model 1903 does have a hammer. The hammer is covered and hidden from view under the rear of the slide, this allows the pistol to be carried in and withdrawn from a pocket quickly and smoothly without snagging.
Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. was a manufacturer of small arms in the Basque region of Spain from about 1905 until 1997.
The FN Model 1903, or Browning No.2 is a semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning and manufactured by Belgian arms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale (FN). It was introduced in 1903 and fired the 9×20mmSR Browning Long cartridge. It should not be confused with the US-made Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless, nor with the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer. The FN Model 1903 is based on the same mechanical design as the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless, which Browning sold to both companies, but enlarged to handle the more powerful 9mm Browning Long cartridge. The M1903's reliability, accuracy, light weight, and quick reloading made it a popular service pistol for many police forces and militaries. The pistol was initially introduced by FN as the Browning Modèle de Guerre or Browning Grand Modèle.
Astra Unceta y Cía was a Spanish weapons manufacturer founded on July 17, 1908, under the name Esperanza y Unceta by Juan Esperanza and Pedro Unceta. Initially based in Eibar, the centre of the Basque arms industry, the company moved in 1913 to Guernica.
Theodor Bergmann was a German businessman and industrialist best remembered for the various revolutionary firearms his companies released. Like many entrepreneurs of the era, his activities centered on bicycles, and the nascent automobile. Armament was not Bergmann's primary focus, but the one he was most attracted to, which was the reason most of his pistols were manufactured under license once they were created. He is famous for creating automatic pistols, and their ammunition.
The Type 77 is a 7.62×17 mm Type 64 caliber semi-automatic pistol in service with all branches of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the People's Republic of China, People's Armed Police and various Chinese police forces. The Type 77 has been the main sidearm of the PLA for over two decades and is slowly being phased out by the QSZ-92 pistol in both military and police service but is still in widespread use across the country amongst second line military units and provincial police forces. Beginning in 1990, several variants of the Type 77 were developed for the international market.
The Bergmann 1896 was a 19th-century semi-automatic pistol developed by German designer Louis Schmeisser and sold by Theodor Bergmann's company. A contemporary of the Mauser C96 and Borchardt C-93 pistols, the Bergmann failed to achieve the same widespread success, although Bergmann himself later went on to design one of the earliest practical and successful sub-machine guns, the MP-18.
The Bergmann–Bayard was a German-designed semi-automatic pistol produced under license in Belgium.
Anciens Etablissements Pieper was a Belgian arms manufacturer established under the name Henri Pieper in Herstal, Belgium in 1884, by Henri Pieper. In 1898, it was renamed to Nicolas Pieper, and it became the Anciens Etablissements Pieper in 1905. It stayed in business until approximately 1950. The company used the Bayard trade name and manufactured the Bergmann–Bayard pistol and the Bayard 1908 pistol. The company is also notable for having produced a small pistol with a tip-up barrel ("basculant") to facilitate loading.
The Smith & Wesson Model 61 is a subcompact semi-automatic pistol chambered in .22 Long Rifle and designed for self-defense, and was made from 1970 to 1973.
The FN Model 1905 or FN Model 1906 was a pistol manufactured by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal from 1906 to 1959.
Belgium 