On the first 4,800 pistols, the end cap included a shallow groove on top through which the shooter squinted at the front sight. It’s also very modern in concept, as only the breechblock required major machining, and the slide simply encloses the operating components.Ī screwed-in end cap held the striker in place. This unique design avoided either the close tolerances in barrel-to-frame fit necessary in Browning pistols or the loose slide-to-frame fit Walther pistols require. The Model 1913 had a fixed 3-inch barrel, around which the recoil spring was placed, and a separate breechblock with the slide being a simple steel tube hollowed from the rear. 32 ACP (7.65mm Browning) cartridge-a world standard in smallish automatic pistols since FN introduced it in their Model 1900, John Browning’s first automatic pistol. Heinz Zehner’s original design, patented May 20, 1912, entered production as the Sauer Model 1913, which chambered the. Manufacturing others’ handguns made Sauer want to market their own. Sauer, begun in 1751 in the eastern German city of Suhl, commenced handgun manufacture with outside designs, including the Reichsrevolver, in 1880, the unusual double-barreled Bar repeater from 1900 to 1914, and the Roth-Sauer long-recoil automatic pistol from 1905 to 1909.
![sauer model 1913 variant 2 .32 acp sauer model 1913 variant 2 .32 acp](https://www.gunsamerica.com/UserImages/4239/986501450/wm_6289816.jpg)
now forms a separate business entity from either the Swiss or German firms). (Readers in the USA should be aware that Sig Sauer, Inc. Sauer & Sohn GmbH of Eckenforde, Germany, began partnering with SIG, the Swiss Industrial Company, to build impressive modern service pistols.