Dieudonné Saive is best known for finishing John Moses Browning’s High Power pistol and the famed FAL rifle. He piggy-backed on the Browning M1905 and created his own smaller version, shaving off 4 ounces and a half an inch in length.
The Browning-designed Colt 1908 Vest Pocket and FN 1906 were designed to fit in a man’s vest pocket, allowing shop owners and well-dressed people to conceal a gun without adding bulk. Browning designed the pistol for the .25 ACP round, which gained popularity worldwide as one of the first automatic cartridges.
While FN produced the M1905 under license, Saive further refined the pistol after Browning’s death in 1926 to make the design smaller and lighter. He eliminated the grip safety (ahead of his time, some would say) and extended the safety lever so that it could be actuated more easily by right-handed shooters.
He also lengthened the dust cover to match the barrel and slide, performed a slight undercut for the trigger guard, and kept the magazine disconnect safety that was present on the M1905. The updated pistol was officially released in 1931.
The Baby Browning
With the redesign and smaller stature, the gun took on the moniker of “Baby Browning,” with FN logos on the hardened plastic grips and “Baby” encircled logos under the raised portion of the grips. After 1960, the grips were polymer and simply said “Browning” at the top. This model is from the Guns.com Certified Used section and was made sometime after 1960.
While FN produced about 550,000 of these tiny pocket rockets, other versions also exist. FN-licensed versions were made in Canada initially and transitioned to the States after. Clones exist across the world and some are still made today by Precision Small Arms.
Today’s world is all about capacity and slimness for carry, but the early part of the 1900s focused more on tiny, snag-free concealable options.
Features
These guns are quite unlike guns made today, though many features are still in use. As with the Colt 1903, there is no slide lock, which helps with concealability and less parts breakage. The trigger is objectively heavy at 5.1 pounds after some take-up, which is not uncommon for a pocket pistol. There’s a safety lever on the left side of the gun, just behind the trigger. If you forget that, the next safety is the trigger heft.
The gun features rather crude, small, fixed sights that are more like nubs. The point of this gun was self-defense and extremely close use, so I don’t imagine many people have ever shot these at distance or used precision aiming in an actual fight.
The rear of the slide includes tactile, good-looking diagonal serrations in line with the grip angle. The slide is somewhat heavy and can be finicky when trying to rack it. There is no slide lock, so cleaning and clearing can be a little difficult. I was surprised at how far the slide travels versus the size of the round. I watched some videos on this and noticed the slide cycles incredibly fast. Most of its snappiness is due to not being able to grip it perfectly.
The most problematic feature for me is the mag release. It is the same mechanism as the 1903 and 1908 pistols, but due to its small size, I found it hard to actuate. There’s no spring release, either, so once you move the small, serrated button to the rear, you need to hold it there while the magazine is pulled out.
Specs
The 90-year-old Baby Browning was surprisingly modern for its time. Despite its small stature, the design is still used in many arms today. The gun is a semi-automatic, striker-fired, blowback design. It has a cocked striker indicator and a magazine safety. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but what were major innovations back then tend to be points of consternation today. Still, you must appreciate the utility, especially for the use case of this pistol.
These guns are beautifully machined, as was the case for most manufacturing of the day. This model is especially smooth and reminds me of the finish on my 1936 Walther PPK and 1931 Colt Pocket Hammerless.
While both of those guns are highly concealable, you can see in the photos just how small the Baby Browning is. It’s able to fit in a pocket without creating much bulge. The roll marks are deep and clean. Overall, this tiny pistol is plain, yet quite elegant.
What I love about this pistol (and many old firearms) is the lines. It is a nice mix of straight lines and graceful curves, with rounded edges perfect for concealment. One thing I’ve always appreciated is the lack of any sharp corners. It’s a classy gun.
The ergonomics, however, are not great. I can’t overstate this, but the gun is tiny. It looks proportional in my 5-year-old’s hands, but smaller than most toys in mine. I can get a decent grip on it in theory, but the webbing of my hand and the top of my thumb would seem to impede the slide travel.
At best, I’d expect some major slide bite. The gun is typically fired one-handed, and I doubt many did any training with it before throwing it in their pocket just to have “something” to fight back with when necessary.
Here’s a quick list of basic specs:
- Weight: 9.7 ounces
- Height: 2.75 inches
- Overall Length: 4 inches
- Barrel Length: 2.75 inches
- Width: .75 inches
- Trigger Pull: 5+ pounds
- Action: Single action
- Finish: Blued steel with plastic grips
Cool points
Some special operators in the early days of the Vietnam War were known to carry these little pistols in a wallet holster as a last-resort weapon. It could be suppressed as well. The .25 ACP does not pack much of a punch, though it does have decent velocity and it’s still a bullet.
Rather than adding another large sidearm to the kit, it was tucked away within these unassuming holsters. Coincidentally, these recon soldiers preferred another Browning/Saive creation: the Hi Power, due to its 9mm round and capacity of 13 rounds.
Another fun note is that the Baby Browning was no longer imported due to it being “too small,” much like the Walther PPK. FN did not make it bigger the way that Walther created the PPK/S. So, if you do find pre-68 models, they typically won’t have the gaudy import markings. This leaves the steel much more sterile and beautiful, in my opinion.
In Closing
The Baby Browning was a sign of its times. It’s a beautifully designed and purpose-built firearm. It may be out of place in the modern age, but historical firearms are always interesting. The design and finish is a marvel to behold. If you need an excuse, I know many people have a mailbox gun, and this could almost completely fit in your coffee mug.
