Baby Browning vs. Colt Vest Pocket .25
Sven - -
Nope, not the same piece at all.
The Colt is a good deal larger, and has a grip safety. If you compare this and the 1903 .32 Pocket Auto, you can see the definite kinship. As already mentioned, though, the .25 is striker fired, where the 1903 .32 and the later 1908 .380 have an internal hammer.
FN also produced the same little .25, marked "Browning's Patent," for a good many years, but I think it went out of print before the Hartford-produced Colt's .25 did. The latter did not return after the WWII hiatus.
Later on, I believe during the 1960s and possibly into the '70s, Colt had a .25 ACP produced for them in Spain by Astra - - This was an entirely different piece - - Exposed hammer and such.
The Baby Browning was a postwar piece - -Far smaller and lighter than the early Colt and FN pistols. The Baby was quite small - - Not as small as the tiny Bernardelli, but close. Held six plus one and had the mag disconnect safety. Very well made, and, given their itsy, bitsy, teeny-weeny sights, were really quite accurate. I know one Secret Service Agent who paid big bux to have an S&W J-frame adjustable sight mounted on his. Browning also made a version with an allow frame - - Very neat!
The Baby was too small to meet the factoring criteria imposed by the Gun Control Act of 1968, so they dried up and became more prized as collector items than for carry. Then, around 1971, the Bauer Company, Frazier, Michigan, began producing a line-for-line copy, in stainless steel. This was a very good little pocket piece, and brought back some measure of rational price structure to the .25 pistol market.
I bought the first available Bauer I saw in Fort Worth (the first two went to employees of Knight's Gun Shop.
I got one the following day.) I made a little wallet type pocket holster for it and it was my "always gun" for several years. I was the first guy I knew who handloaded for .25 ACP, and (he modestly admits) got to be pretty good with that little
pistola. Carried it cocked-and-locked for a lot of miles. I later learned how risky this practice can be and practiced chambering a round one handed.
As mentioned above - - You should be aware of the potential safety problems with carrying such a small, striker-fired pistol, particularly since most are carried without holsters.
With todays ultra-small .32 and .380 pistols, especially those with polymer frames, the Hoo-Ha over the ideal .25 seems very quaint and far away, but 'twas of intense interest to some of us,
back in the olden days . . ..
There: More than you really cared to know.
Best,
Johnny