Pistols and Revolvers Beyond the Famous Names: Sidearms from the FN Model 1903 to the MP-443 Grach

The FN Model 1903 was designed by John Browning and made by the Belgian firm Fabrique Nationale, a semi-automatic pistol firing the 9x20mmSR Browning Long cartridge. Belgian production ran from 1903 to 1914, and the atlas records that military and police forces valued it for reliability, accuracy and light weight. A Swedish licensed version was built by Husqvarna from 1917 to 1942, which shows how far a single Browning design travelled.

Colt's Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless was another Browning design, a .32 ACP self-loading pistol built in Hartford, Connecticut. Despite the name it has an internal hammer under the rear of the slide, so it could be drawn from a pocket without snagging. It stayed in production from 1903 to 1945, and the atlas notes that the United States issued 1903 and 1908 pistols to couriers, intelligence officers and other specialized personnel, a reminder that armies use concealable pistols too.

The Steyr M1912, or Steyr-Hahn, was adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1912 and served as a principal sidearm through the First World War. It has an external hammer and a short recoil action with a rotating barrel. It was first chambered in 9mm Steyr, and later examples were converted to 9x19mm Parabellum for German police service, so the pistol outlasted the empire that ordered it and was still used in the Second World War.

The M1917 revolvers answered a wartime shortage. The United States adopted them in 1917 to supplement the M1911 pistol, and both Colt and Smith and Wesson built six-shot double-action revolvers chambered in .45 ACP. Because that cartridge is rimless, both designs relied on half moon clips to extract the cases. The atlas records service in American hands and also with the British Army, the Home Guard and the Royal Navy, in a pattern of stopgap weapons that lasted decades.

The Beretta 70 series was introduced in 1958 to replace the earlier 7.65mm Beretta M1935. It is a single-action semi-automatic pistol, and certain pistols in the series were sold as the Falcon, New Puma, New Sable, Jaguar and Cougar. The atlas calls it the first compact Beretta to bring in several features that Beretta pistols carried for the rest of the century. Production ended in 1985.

The Manurhin MR 73 is a French double-action revolver designed by Gilbert Albert Rene Maillard and introduced in 1972 for police tactical use. It fires .357 Magnum and .38 Special and became the standard sidearm of the French National Gendarmerie. Elite French units including GIGN and RAID carried it, and it has been made with barrels from 2.5 to 10 inches, which makes it a late example of a revolver chosen deliberately over the pistol.

The Beretta 93R is a selective-fire machine pistol designed between 1977 and 1979 for Italian counter-terrorism units during the Years of Lead. The R stands for Raffica, Italian for burst or volley, and it fires either single shots or a three-round burst in 9x19mm Parabellum. It was produced until 1993, and it shows the handgun being pushed toward automatic fire for a specialist police role.

The Jericho 941 was introduced in 1990 by Israel Weapon Industries, known as Israel Military Industries before 2005. It is a double-action or single-action semi-automatic pistol whose design was influenced by the CZ-75, and its manufacture drew on components from the Italian maker Tanfoglio. The atlas records it in service with Israeli and other forces since its introduction, an example of a pistol that borrowed a Czech design and an Italian supplier.

The Walther P99 was developed by Carl Walther in Ulm and designed by Horst Wesp for law enforcement, security personnel and civilian shooters. Development began in 1994, and the finished pistol was unveiled and put into production in 1997, replacing Walther's earlier P5 and P88. It was offered in 9x19mm Parabellum, .40 S&W and 9x21mm IMI, and Walther announced that production would end in 2023.

The MP-443 Grach, meaning rook, is a Russian 9mm semi-automatic pistol whose formal designation PYa stands for Pistolet Yarygina. It was developed under Vladimir Yarygin after Russian military trials that began in 1993 and was adopted in 2003 as one of the standard sidearms of the Russian military and law enforcement, alongside the Makarov, GSh-18 and SPS. Mass production began in 2011, which closes the path with a current Russian service pistol.