W+F Bern P47 Experimental Gas-Delay Pistol
Semiauto Pistols
•
8m 28s
The Swiss were the first country to adopt a self-loading service pistol; the Luger in 1900. They would keep those in service clear through World War 2, at which point they began seriously looking for a more economical and more modern replacement. During the 1940s, a number of experimental designs were developed at the SIG and W+F Bern factories in hopes of becoming the new Swiss service sidearm.
This example is a P47, one of 10 guns made in 1947, at the end of W+F Bern’s developmental series. While the preceding guns had been largely based on the Browning High Power, the P47 was a gas-delayed blowback action similar to the H&K P7, Norinco 77B, and Walther CCP (although predating all of those). Its barrel had gas ports just in front of the chamber which led into a gas piston that acted to hold the slide in battery when pressurized. Thus the slide was delayed from opening until the bullet has left the muzzle and gas pressure had dropped enough for the recoil spring alone to safely control the opening of the action.
Unlike Bern's previous experimental pistols, these 10 P47s were all identical (and have serial numbers in the low/mid 40s to low/mid 50s). I had a chance to shoot one of these (serial number 46), and it was a pleasant enough piece, although in my experience the gas delay system did not provide a substantial improvement over what was ultimately adopted by Switzerland, the SIG P210.
Up Next in Semiauto Pistols
-
Development of the SIG P220, aka the ...
The SIG 210, aka the P49, was a magnificent pistol, but really too expensive for a modern military sidearm. In the 1960s, the Swiss military began looking for a new service sidearm that would be a bit less costly, and SIG developed the 220 in response, which would ultimately be adopted as the P75...
-
Polish and German Police Silenced CZ-...
Today we are looking at two suppressed CZ-27 pistols, one Polish and one German. The Polish one was issued by the Ministry of Public Security, an agency which only existed from 1945 until 1954. It uses an aluminum suppressor with 5 baffles and 5 rubber wipes, threaded onto an extended barrel. It ...
-
Unique Military Trials Steyr-Hahn M19...
Today we are looking at a unique military trials Steyr-Hahn M1911 pistol which has been fitted with an adjustable tangent rear sight. The standard model of the Steyr-Hahn has a fixed rear notch, but it seems that a potential client requested (or Steyr anticipated that someone would request) and a...
