Colt Model 1905

About the Colt Model 1905

The Colt Model 1905 is an American single-action, recoil-operated semi-automatic pistol designed by John Moses Browning and built by Colt's Manufacturing Company. It was the first handgun chambered for the new .45 ACP cartridge, which Browning developed alongside it, and it used a tilting barrel locked by two swinging links, one at the muzzle and one at the breech. Fed from a seven-round detachable box magazine with a heel release and fired by an exposed hammer, the Model 1905 was submitted to the U.S. Army handgun trials of 1907 and served as the direct ancestor of the legendary Colt Model 1911.

Marketed by Colt as 'The Most Powerful Small Arm Ever Invented,' the Model 1905 paired the punch of the new .45 ACP cartridge with semi-automatic operation. Its performance in the 1907 Army trials, where it ran 900 rounds with relatively few stoppages for an early autoloader, set Browning and Colt on the path that culminated in the Model 1911.

Colt Model 1905 specifications

Early examples used a rounded hammer; a spur hammer was adopted in 1908. The pistol had no manual safety, relying instead on a half-cock notch. A 1907 trials variant added a grip safety and loaded-chamber indicator; 50 examples fitted with lanyard loops were shipped to Britain in 1907, and roughly 440 carbine versions with detachable shoulder-stock holsters were produced.