twippyfan:
The Smith and Wesson .35 automatic pistol…one of the worst automatics ever made.
At the turn of the century, Colt and Savage were developing automatic sidearms. Between 1903 and 1908 the idea had caught on, production by these companies could hardly keep up with demand.
Smith and Wesson had not decided to develop a semi-auto, and by 1913 when auto proved to be more than a passing fad, they decided to get into the market. Most Browning variants by that time had be snatched up by Colt and Remington, and a number of foreign gun makers. What was Smith and Wesson to do?!
They decided to go with a Belgian Company Clement. This company was selling a .32 ACP (7.65) pistol. Smith and Wesson bought the rights to produce their pistol, and put their stamp on it. If they would have stopped there we might have been talking about a quaint antique that is somebody’s safe queen, however, the boys at smith and Wesson had to meddle. They did not like the .32 jacketed round. The smith and Wesson crew did not like the strain and wear jacketed rounds put on the barrel. So they developed a new round. A semi- jackted bullet where the tip was clad, so it could feed “poperly” and the base that traveled through the barrel was lead. The bullet ended up being longer than the .32 and because the thinking stopped at the projectile and did not extend to modifying the load or casing, the bullet itself had a lower hitting force than the .32.
It was a flop, from its weird design, to feeding and ballistic problems, it is today an unfair able paper weight. Maybe the moral to the story is to think out side of the box at the same time your competitors are….if you wait your Not thinking outside the box, your reinventing the wheelS&W35.jpg
The Smith and Wesson .35 automatic pistol…one of the worst automatics ever made.
At the turn of the century, Colt and Savage were developing automatic sidearms. Between 1903 and 1908 the idea had caught on, production by these companies could hardly keep up with demand.
Smith and Wesson had not decided to develop a semi-auto, and by 1913 when auto proved to be more than a passing fad, they decided to get into the market. Most Browning variants by that time had be snatched up by Colt and Remington, and a number of foreign gun makers. What was Smith and Wesson to do?!
They decided to go with a Belgian Company Clement. This company was selling a .32 ACP (7.65) pistol. Smith and Wesson bought the rights to produce their pistol, and put their stamp on it. If they would have stopped there we might have been talking about a quaint antique that is somebody’s safe queen, however, the boys at smith and Wesson had to meddle. They did not like the .32 jacketed round. The smith and Wesson crew did not like the strain and wear jacketed rounds put on the barrel. So they developed a new round. A semi- jackted bullet where the tip was clad, so it could feed “poperly” and the base that traveled through the barrel was lead. The bullet ended up being longer than the .32 and because the thinking stopped at the projectile and did not extend to modifying the load or casing, the bullet itself had a lower hitting force than the .32.
It was a flop, from its weird design, to feeding and ballistic problems, it is today an unfair able paper weight. Maybe the moral to the story is to think out side of the box at the same time your competitors are….if you wait your Not thinking outside the box, your reinventing the wheelS&W35.jpg