Last year I had the opportunity to visit the John M. Browning Museum in Ogden, Utah and I was thrilled to see Browning’s hammerless 1911 prototype on display. Very little has been written about the development of this particular pistol. The pistol is briefly mentioned in John Browning and Curt Gentry’s 1964 biography of John M. Browning, explaining that during the US Army’s long process to select a new service pistol John M. Browning decided to provide two versions of his .45 ACP pistol – one with an exposed hammer and the other with a shrouded hammer similar to that seen on his Colt 1903 and 1908 Pocket Hammerless commercial pistols.
