Watch: Bergmann Model 1 / Model 1894

Ian of Forgotten Weapons takes us on another cool tour, this time of a weird old popper that testifies to the creative genius of the human mind. It’s one of the first commercially-available blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols, preceding John Browning’s Model of 1900, which of course would go on to eclipse these in popularity, but not for another several years.

It’s a single-action, with a “monkey tail” magazine system that seems odd to us now, but which was actually fairly common among firearms of that period.

Interestingly, it doesn’t have an extractor (not always a necessity on a blowback action).

Cool.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.