32 ACP is no powerhouse by today’s standards, you have to remember that none of the cartridges we take for granted today were available. Compare the Colt 1903 with the Glock 43 which is 6.25 inches long, 4.25 inches tall and one inch wide and the Glock 43 was designed for concealed carry in every way shape and form. Overall the pistol was 6.75 inches long, 4.375 inches tall and just a scant 7/8 of an inch in width. The early Colt 1903 had a four-inch barrel, then later a 3.75 inch barrel and they had various barrel bushings throughout their production, the earliest being separate and then later integral. Offered in blue or a nickel finish, the first Colt 1903’s came with hard rubber grips and later wore wood grips with a Colt medallion. This gave the 1903 Colt the ability to be carried in a pocket without worrying about it getting snagged. Although the name was misleading, the gun did have a hammer, but it was concealed inside the slide. The new gun was dubbed the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless, or behind closed doors at the plant, the Hammerless Model M. John Browning, however, had designed a new semi-auto pistol around the fairly new. Most of the choices were revolvers, the venerable 1911 was not even a blue print, and semi automatic pistols were in their infancy. If you wanted to buy a handgun at the turn of the century that was small and concealable, you options were pretty limited. But it was one pistol in particular that got the ball rolling for the pocket gun craze, and it’s been rolling on ever since, the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless. No one today gives any thought to the number of small pistols because so many options are available, but at one time the variety was not so plentiful.
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