Colt 1903 Military Pocket Hammerless .32 Auto

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The Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless

The Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless (not to be confused with the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer or the M1903 Springfield rifle) is a .32 ACP caliber, self-loading, semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning and built by Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut. The Colt Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless is a variant introduced five years later in .380 ACP caliber. Despite the title “hammerless”, the Model 1903 does have a hammer. The hammer is covered and hidden from view under the rear of the slide. This allows the pistol to be carried in and withdrawn from a pocket quickly and smoothly without snagging.

Approximately 570,000 Colt Pocket Hammerless pistols were produced from 1903 to 1945, in five different types. Some were issued to US Army and US Air Force general officers from World War II through the 1970s; these were replaced in 1972 with the RIA Colt M15 general officer’s model, a compact version of the M1911A1. The Shanghai Municipal Police issued the M1908 to its officers in the 1920s and 1930s and it was a popular model with police in the United States such as the New York City Police Department. In addition to lawful owners, many gangsters of the pre-World War II era favored the Model 1903 and Model 1908 because they were relatively small and easily concealed. It is said that Al Capone kept one in his coat pocket and Bonnie Parker used one to break Clyde Barrow out of jail after smuggling it into the jail by taping it to her thigh. Bank robber John Dillinger was carrying this model of pistol when he was shot by FBI agents outside the Biograph theater on July 22, 1934, and another famous bank robber, Willie Sutton, had one when he was captured by police in Brooklyn on February 18, 1952.

Note: There was also a Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer pistol in .38 ACP, but this design is unrelated. The FN Model 1903 pistol design is related to the Colt Pocket Hammerless, but it is physically larger due to its chambering in the 9×20mm SR Browning Long cartridge.

Type I: Integral barrel bushing, four-inch barrel, no magazine safety, serial numbers 1 through 71,999
Type II: 32 cal separate barrel bushing, 3​3⁄4-inch barrel; 1908–1910, SN 72,000 through 105,050
Type II: 380 cal separate barrel bushing, 3​3⁄4-inch barrel; 1908–1910, SN 001 through 6250
Type III: integrated barrel bushing, 3​3⁄4-inch barrel; 1910–1926, SN 105,051 through 468,789
Type IV: integrated barrel bushing, 3​3⁄4-inch barrel, magazine safety
Type V: integrated barrel bushing, 3​3⁄4-inch barrel, military sights, magazine safety on both commercial and “U.S. property” variations. SN 468,097 through 554,446.