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I recently acquirred a 25acp browning patent pistol manufactured by FN in belgium. From what I can figure out I think it's a 1905 model. The problem I'm having is how to keep the slide open for cleaning and how to disassemble this piece. It has no thumb safety but only has a grip safety. The slide will not stay open with the magazine inserted or removed. I've been fooling around with guns since 1947 but this one has me completely snowed. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Hi.. I am not familiar with the pistol but I am sure one of the other forum members can / will help. Likely Bullseye can direct you to a reference. The crew may need a little more info, tho. Anything else you can provide in the way of description? Or even a pic may be useful.

Good luck.

maybe this can help??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSAgUSDWz6Y

The youtube shows a baby browning disassembly. The FN pistol that I have does not have any external safety levers to hold the slide back as shown in the youtube. I appreciate your assistance. Geno

derree, I searched the web for a good bit and did not find anything.

Have you tried following the same instructions for the Baby Browning with the manual safety with the exception of not using the manual safety to hold the slide back whilst rotating the barrel?

After the safety check and dry fire, you could hold the slide back the 8mm with one hand, and use the other hand to rotate the barrel 1/4 turn counterclockwise, then just remove the slide from the frame by pushing the slide forward (being careful that the recoil spring doesn't fly off).
The procedure would be nearly identical to the disassembly of a Glock style pistol, all that is different is that you would rotate the barrel instead of depressing the tabs on the Glock.

Try this for the FN Browning without the manual safety lever:

First remove the magazine and squeeze the trigger to decock the striker.

1. Hold the gun in the left hand. Push the slide back about 3/8 inch and hold it open with the left thumb. (You should be able to see the barrel lugs line up with the slots inside the slide at the ejection port.)

2. With the barrel lugs lined up with the slots in the slide, twist the barrel a quarter turn clockwise (as you face the front of the gun).

3. Ease the slide and barrel off the front of the frame.

You have to manually hold the slide back to align up the barrel lugs in order to rotate the barrel for removal.

R,
Bullseye

Bullseye,
Thanks a million for the detailed advice on the disassembly of my FN 25acp pistol. It may be a struggle for me with my 82 year old arthritic hands but I have a friend who will probably help me out. Thanks again Bullseye.

Having a friend help with the disassembly should do the trick. With no slide locking safety lever this little pistol can be troublesome for someone with arthritis to manipulate for field stripping.

R,
Bullseye

Here's a link to a PDF Manual for the Baby Browning from stevespages
http://stevespages.com/pdf/browning_baby.pdf

Give it a chance to load, PDFs are sometimes slow according to download speed.. Save it to your hard drive..
You gotta love this forum..

I found a little online in the past researching pocket guns before I bought my Beretta 21As.

You likely have an FN Model 1906 sometimes called 1905, which was the first gun made for Browning's then new .25ACP cartridge!

It was made from 1905 until 1959. There was a production stoppage during World War One, and production of the 1906 was lighter after the Browning Baby was introduced in 1931. About 1.5 million 1906s were made. Colt built a copy of the 1906, under license, from 1908 to 1946. Usually called the 1908 Vest Pocket, Colt production was about half a million.

I found a Wikipedia article about the Colt copy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Model ... est_Pocket