The more I learn about guns the more I stumble over his footprints. It's hard to think of another inventor in any field who so completely dominated it during their life, and whose designs continued to dominate a full century later. Even Edison's light-bulb has finally given way, but Browning's pistol, cartridge, shotgun, lever action and semi-auto rifle and machine gun designs all are still used and manufactured by a huge number of companies worldwide.
From Wikipedia:
.380 ACPThe .380 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) is a rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridge developed by firearms designer John Moses Browning. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case.[2] It was introduced in 1908 by Colt, for use in its new Colt Model 1908 pocket hammerless semi-automatic, and has been a popular self-defense cartridge ever since, seeing wide use in numerous handguns (typically smaller weapons). Other names for .380 ACP include .380 Auto, 9mm Browning, 9mm Corto, 9mm Kurz, 9mm Short, 9×17mm and 9 mm Browning Court (which is the C.I.P. designation). It is not to be confused with .38 ACP, 9mm Ultra, 9mm Makarov or 9mm Parabellum.
What's particularly amazing is that the .380 ACP was one of a family of four cartidges, all of which continue to be widely used by handgun shooters today. The other three are the .25 ACP, the .32 ACP and the .45 ACP. Each had a matching gun sized appropriately for the cartridge.
Here is a nice picture of early examples of all four pistols I am linking from a collector over at The Firing Line Forums.
From top to bottom:
Colt Government Model, Caliber .45 ACP, commercial version, manufactured in 1920
Colt Automatic Pistol -Pocket Model of 1908 in .380 from 1925
Colt Automatic Pistol -Pocket Model of 1903, in caliber .32 ACP from 1925
Colt Vest Pocket Pistol of 1908 in caliber .25 ACP, manufactured in 1921
A lovely matching pair of nickel=plated Colt Hamerless pistols in .380 and .25 ACP
The .25 ACP has faded from serious use as designers have put more powerful rounds into smaller and smaller pistols.
The .32 ACP was still popular in the 1990s in the Seacamp as a last-ditch backup pistol, today the smaller .380s are about the same size, and the .32 is fading, though it still has fans particularly in Europe.
The .380 ACP and .45 ACP are more popular than ever.
It would be interesting to see Kahr, the company that led the way on the micro-gun trend, build a tiny .25, I'm not sure they could best Browning's Vest Pocket Model.
