The Mann Semi automatic pocket pistol,By the 1920’s the gun market was saturated with small .2
The Mann Semi automatic pocket pistol,By the 1920’s the gun market was saturated with small .25 acp semi auto pocket pistols. The key to getting ahead in such a market depended on being able to produced a pistol which was lighter, smaller, and easier to carry than all other competitors. In 1920 the German manufacturer Fritz Mann came up with what is perhaps the smallest .25acp semi automatic pistol. It was smaller and lighter than all other pistols of its day, with a slide that was half the weight of a typical pistol slide.Of course having a lighter slide posed technical problems. After all in a recoil operated semi auto pistol the opposing mass of the slide absorbs the force of a gunshot, allowing for the recoil spring to set the slide back into place. If a pistols slide was too light for its power, the slide could literally blow off the pistol. Mann solved this problem first by using an extra large recoil spring located above the barrel rather than below the barrel. Secondly and more importantly Man had a groove machined within the chamber. After a discharge, the spent casing would travel along the groove, thus absorbing the force of discharge and slowing the slide before ejecting the empty casing.The Mann pistol used a five round detachable magazine. Unfortunately, being such a small semi auto pistol, it suffered from serious reliability problems due to dust, moisture, and gunpowder residue. The design never caught on and was discontinued sometime around 1923 or 1924. Only 20,000 were produced. -- source link
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