Buy a Baby Browning Magazine Fn Vest Pocket Pistol

Ever since I began my written report of defensive handguns, I've been fascinated with pocket pistols. These are the smallest of the small semi-automatics designed to be discreetly concealed for up shut-and-personal defensive situations. I believe my preoccupation with petite pocketables can be traced back to one gun in particular: the Baby Browning .25 ACP. Not only is it an exceptionally well-fabricated case of the vest pocket size pistols of the mid-20th century, it's too a lilliputian slice of family history as well.

The story begins with John Moses Browning, the famous inventor of the 1911 pistol. He designed the .25 ACP (half dozen.35×16 mm SR) semi-rimmed pistol cartridge for what would go the M1905 Belong Pocket pistol. It was literally designed to fit in a business man's vest pocket, the i usually reserved for coins. By 1931, Fabrique Nationale d'Armes de Guerre in Herstal, Kingdom of belgium (FN) launched an even smaller .25 ACP pistol developed by the company'southward principal designer, Dieudonné Saive.

The Baby Browning in .25 ACP.

It was dubbed the Infant Browning for the marketplace cachet his name offered, even though Mr. Browning had passed abroad in 1926. It is a simpler and more refined pistol than the 1905 with features that included a magazine condom and a more than intuitive external thumb safety lever, which was moved from the slide downwardly behind the trigger baby-sit. The Baby Browning finally fabricated its way into the U.South. marketplace when the Browning Arms Co. decided to conduct it in 1954.

It was a popular seller for several years because of its minor size, reliability and high quality of industry. However, when the Gun Control Act of 1968 kicked into gear, the Baby Browning was amid those small defensive handguns banned from importation. FN continued to make it until 1979, including beautifully hand engraved Renaissance models and the Lightweight version with its 6061 T6 aluminum frame.

A closer look at the chamber markings on the Baby Browning.

My family's history with the Belgian Baby Browning began in the fall of 1969 with the purchase of a blued steel model fabricated in 1968, which made it into the country just alee of the ban. My dad had moved the family to Texas in order to participate in a lucrative construction project. Within a few weeks, he noticed irregularities in the staff, work arrangements and inventory provided by the projection'southward partners.

Most of the supervisors had no construction background, whole truck loads of building materials mysteriously disappeared from secured work sites and and then on. Some boosted excavation on his role revealed that what seemed like poor management on the partner's role turned out to exist company-wide abuse involving boot-backs, bribery and theft.

A size comparison of the Infant Browning to a manus.

Since he didn't take the kind of hard evidence needed to evidence the presence of the abuse he had uncovered, he used his authorisation every bit the Full general Superintendent to tackle the problems on his own. But he presently learned that he had kicked a hornet'south nest filled with con-men and fresh-from-prison felons working to constitute a foot-hold in Texas for a well-known offense syndicate.

There was an 'accident' at a worksite that almost put him in the hospital, a mysterious dent that appeared on his car while driving that was most the aforementioned size and shape as a rifle bullet. And and so in that location was a late-night meeting that would have gone quite differently for my dad if not for a few ex-armed forces members of his work coiffure that tagged forth, just in case.

The Infant Browning disassembled.

Later on that meeting, Dad decided he wasn't going to continue with the construction project unless he was armed. Driving to a gun store on the other side of boondocks, he looked over the pistols they had in stock. A big, powerful handgun capable of medium- or long-range shots would not fit his needs. He wanted something he could always accept on-paw in example of an up-close, brusque-range encounter. A modest, lightweight pistol that could ride in the pocket of the sport coats he wore to work and church building would have to practise.

The pocket pistol options in the shop were limited. Snub-nosed .38 Spl. revolvers produced a noticeable burl. A Walther PPK was the right size and thickness for his pocket, merely the weight of information technology acquired a tell-tale sag. He kept looking until he found the Belgian Baby Browning . He wanted a quality gun with a proper noun he could trust, and Browning was hard to beat. He paid effectually $50 for information technology, or about $350 in today's dollars.

The Baby Browning on a pistol residue at the range.

The simplicity and features of the Baby Browning are surprisingly satisfying to modern defensive pistol sensibilities for a 90-yr erstwhile design. This blow-back operated semi-automated is striker fired with a unmarried-action trigger, a cocked striker indicator and a magazine rubber. The tiny stock-still sights are the smallest I've ever seen on a handgun but the top strap of the rounded slide is serrated to reduce glare, just in instance you want to squint at them.

The trigger exhibits a brusk, clean trigger pull of 5-lbs. 1-oz. The 1960s-era nylon impregnated black polymer grip plates are checkered with the word "Browning" in a circle at the top. The single-stack mag holds six rounds of ammunition and is secured by a heel-mounted magazine release.

The pistol's clean lines are appealing, and it has the precision machining of a Swiss scout. It's ane of the few .25 ACPs that can be counted on to run reliably. Nevertheless, this is not the easiest pistol to main. The Infant Browning'southward slick, thin grip frame only provides plenty room for a one-finger grip. Therefore information technology tends to cadet and twist when information technology recoils.

The Baby Browning and Federal American Eagle 50-gr. FMJ ammunition used in the accurateness examination.

The lack of a beaver tail above the grip frame exposes the shooter's hand to the sharp edges of the recoiling slide. As a result, information technology will 'bark the pare' off the shooting-hand thumb knuckle if the operator is not paying attention (the inside joke in my family is that the Baby'due south slide bite is about as lethal as the cartridge it fires).

Information technology'south been some time since I shot this pistol, and I had yet to chronograph it. I rustled up a box of Federal American Eagle fifty-gr. FMJ cartridges and a LabRadar chronograph and headed to the range. This load generated a 10-shot average muzzle velocity of 787-f.p.southward. for 69-ft. lbs. of muzzle energy. With the aid of a pistol rest, I was able to tap out a best single five-shot grouping of 2.29" at 7 yds. with a v group boilerplate of 2.52".

The Baby Browning compared with the Ruger LCP II and Kel-Tec P-32.

By today'due south pocket-pistol standards, the Baby Browning is too small for a few reasons. Most folks take bigger pockets and more than sophisticated holster systems, which allow for larger-caliber pistols to be carried. So the absolute smallest isn't a requirement these days. The Baby's slick i-finger grip, the vestigial sights and the very existent risk of slide bite makes it a tough gun to work with, and that's coming from someone who shoots handguns for a living.

And so there's the .25 ACP cartridge itself. With performance comparable to a .22 LR pistol, small .25 ACPs are hands outclassed past similarly sized .32 ACP and .380 ACP pistols. In speaking with my dad, he agreed that if he had access to the slim, flat, light-weight polymer semi-automatics bachelor today, such equally the Kahr Arms CW 380 or Ruger LCP 2, he definitely would have called a more than powerful option. But as information technology was, the Baby Browning was the best fit for the job.

A view of both sides on the Babe Browning.

Thankfully, my begetter made information technology out of that situation without ever having to describe his little .25 ACP. Working with associates in law enforcement (who also watched his back), he gathered the evidence needed to launch an official investigation and then moved his family unit out of state. Although I'm not in a position to share more of this story hither, I can say that I am alive, well and able to write this article today because, one-half a century ago, good guys with guns kept bad guys with guns from putting an abrupt end to my begetter'southward life.

You see, I wasn't born until a few years later these events took identify. This piece of family history is just ane of the reasons I have our 2nd Amendment rights personally. Let'southward piece of work together to ensure that, 50 years from now, nosotros'll accept more stories to tell our grandchildren almost how we took activeness to ensure that they, too, would take the ways to protect their homes and families.

Specifications:

Manufacturer: Fabrique Nationale d'Armes de Guerre, 1931 to 1979

Model: Baby Browning

Action: Blowback-Operated Striker Fired Semi-Automatic

Caliber: .25 ACP (6.35×16 mm SR)

Finish: Blued Carbon Steel

Grips: Textured Black Polymer

Sights: Fixed

Trigger: Single-Activeness

Trigger Pull: 5-lbs. 1-oz. (As Tested)

Barrel Length: 2.00"

Overall Length: 4"

Height: 2.75"

Width: 0.75"

Weight: 9.70"

Chapters: vi+i Rounds

Burglarize Grooves: 6

Collectors Pricing: $400-$1,200 Depending on Finish and Condition

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Source: https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/the-baby-browning-a-25-acp-pocket-pistol-for-personal-protection/

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