Identify My Browning!

[brooTool]

I took this Browning into a gun store to see what its worth. The owner offered to trade me any gun or combination of guns in the store for it or $10,000 on the spot. Any idea's guys?

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[brooTool]

He wouldn't tell me the name of the gun and he told me the deal was off if I left the store.

[pacrat]

Appears to be a model 1955 pocket pistol .380 cal.

http://www.gunlistings.org/image/87602/1/pistols_model_1955_browning_380

http://www.gunauction.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=9559862

Maybe there is something significant about your particular pistol that distinguishes it from the norm.

JM2c

[P5Ret]

It's one of the 1900 series. Which one I can't tell for sure. I've never seen one with Browning labeled grips usually FN. I think you walked away from a great deal. I've only seen them go that high if they were engraved and part of a set.


eta. If I had to guess I'd say a 1910 new model.

[brooTool]

thanks guys.

[Gringo Bandito]

Tag

[saudadeii]

Check the last section:

http://www.corbins.com/guns.htm

[2761377]

I took this Browning into a gun store to see what its worth. The owner offered to trade me any gun or combination of guns in the store for it or $10,000 on the spot. Any idea's guys?

yeah- he was messing with you. somehow deduced you weren't in there to sell the gun and decided to make you feel like you missed out.

if you had tried to consumate the deal, he would have wriggled out, somehow.
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[xXRifleManXx]

Should have taken the deal, sweet little gun but one I would have let go

[blancrgaza]

me too, I think you walked away from a great deal. I've only seen them go that high if they were engraved and part of a set.

[brooTool]

so how much would you guys say it's worth?

[ziconceo]

so how much would you guys say it's worth?

Whatever you can sell it for

[Quiet]

so how much would you guys say it's worth?

on the auction sites they are selling in the $250-500 range depending on condition.

[The Gleam]

That is most assuredly a rather common Model 1910-FN (Model 1955) and nothing special - other than the slide does not appear to have any markings at all, which could place it as a prototype made/crated by John Moses Browning himself... but not likely. Your photos are too fuzzy to determine that, but I can't decipher any special roll-marks, military markings, or unique aspects to it other than it does not appear to have any import markings (but may not have had any considering the time it was made), and judging by the plum to gray coloration, the finish is not all that great either - just OK.

The serial number while distorted in the photo doesn't seem to be single or double digit only, and Browning made a lot of these. There is very little I can think of that would put the value of that pistol anywhere north of $350 to $400. It doesn't appear to be a Browning marked Model 1922 (10/22 FN) AND Nazi marked, the only thing that might make it a tad more "special" but even then, it's not slotted for a butt-stock (some of those were) that would have added thousands to the value, and Browning made more than 700K or so of each variation that were manufactured.

The ONLY possibilities I can hypothesize may be:

1) No markings at all; super low digit hand etched serial number or none at all, indicating it was a protoype for the .380 1910/55 but not likely.

2) There are some true Nazi/Skull-crossbones markings (not just German army markings) on the gun somewhere that do not show in the photos, which would be rare for the more standard Model 1910.

4) It has some other rare country's military markings.

5) It's THE original FN M1910, serial number 19074, chambered in .380 ACP used by Gavrilo Princip to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, an act that ignited WWI - but now wears Browning grips - and it has now turned up in your hands just a few days over 100 years later. Highly not likely.

6) The serial number matches to documentation the dealer has that relates it to a long-time missing gun of Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, Eliot Ness, Bugsy Siegel, Alvin York, Gene Autry, J. Edgar Hoover, or Dianne Feinstien (proof that she owns/carries).

7) It's chambered in .45ACP - yeah, I would also bite at $10,000 if that were truly the case - but you would have a better chance of being hit by lightning during a Great White shark attack in a hot tub as a naked Sofia Vegara read off your winning lottery ticket numbers to you.

8) Dude was messing with you!!!! - the most likely event. I am sure when you left the store, he and his buddies had a good laugh at your expense. You are one of many that probably have brought an old guns into their store just this week, wondering about a value.

[sealocan]

maybe it's just a trick of the photos but I don't really see the magazine release button / switch at the bottom of the grip.

obviously it's the over design "European style" magazine release.
and I can't imagine it operating without one.

it just looks from your 3 photos like it doesn't exist on your gun but again it could just be the way the photos are taken.