#Carrying a 1908 colt 25 manual#

But this one is, and other examples of the Vest Pocket I have shot, a bit clumsy to shoot. I have never had a problem with grip safety, hell I carry a 1911 more often than not. This pistol is tiny and getting a good grip while pressing the grip safety can be a challenge. The recoil is not an issue, a steel framed pistol in. This is not as fun to shoot as the Pocket Hammerless. Before I shot it for the first time, I detail stripped it and replaced the recoil and striker spring. This example was made in 1920 and has the magazine disconnect. We will address the to refinish or not to refinish in a future article. Not that the Vest Pockets are super rare or valuable but this one looks, for lack of a better word, cool with some natural wear. I thought about rebluing this one like I did to the 1903 in the previous article, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It originally had rubber grips but I found a set of original pearls to fancy it up a bit.Īs you can see there is very little of the original finish left on this example. I bought it for her a few years back as a “dress up” pistol. Very little original finish on this one but lots of patina. Ivory and pearl grips were also available for order. Most were shipped with hard rubber grips with checkered wood grips being available in the late 1920s. There were silver or gold plated and engraved models that were available for custom order. The Colts were mainly offered in blue or nickel finishes. Colt also added at magazine disconnect around 1917.

#Carrying a 1908 colt 25 manual#

The first models that FN produced did not have a manual safety that is on the Colt made ones. Typical of the Browning designs from this era, the Vest Pocket has a grip safety. It is not the first striker fired pistol, but it is an early one. There is one big difference, the Vest Pocket is striker fired. The Vest Pocket is basically a scaled down version of the bigger pistol. Take a look at the photo of the Vest Pocket next to the Pocket Hammerless. Simply put: FN made the ones for the European market and Colt them for North and South America. Browning had an agreement with FN and Browning for the production on his designs. The FN 1906 and the Colt 1908 (when they finally decided to make it) are almost exactly they same. He then went to FN in Europe and they jumped on it and introduced their version in 1906. The design was originally submitted to Colt in 1904 but they turned it down. This is what I've heard, but I've never fired them and have no personal experience.Side-by-side the Pocket Hammerless and the Vest Pocket. They were known for jamming and not being sound mechanically 100% of the time. On a side note, I've heard these were far from the perfect pistol. Maybe lube the side of the sear and the trigger rails if you really want to (but go lightly). The springs don't need lubed if they're squeaky clean. Put a good lube on the rails (Slip 2000, Lucas Oil lube), and put some on the barrel and guide rod. They're small, but they're simple to take down.Īlso, I've always treated the 1908 like a 1911 when it comes to oiling. Here's a diagram picture I found of the pistol with all the parts out: There isn't a lot of room in the reciever for everyhting to move, so if you have dirty, gunky, springs with dust and debris all over them, it'll snag and it sounds like there's so much crud it's siezing a bit. If you didn't do it already, it wouldn't hurt to degrease. Did you dissassemble the pistol or did you just oil what you could see? It sounds like the springs are gunked up, the oiling you gave them is freeing them up enough to work properly.