Mark_C
Established Member
In the pile of goodies left by my wife’s uncle, I have a semi-auto pistol with the stamp “FABRIQUE NATIONALE DARMES DE GUERRE HERSTAL BELGIQUE” on the upper left side of the slide and “BROWNING’S PATENT DEPOSE” underneath that first stamp. The bolt is stamped along its top with the crown of Queen Wilhelmina, a star over a uppercase G with serif, a lion over an overlined “PV” and then on the lower part of the bolt is the stamp”7mm65”. All the serial numbers match and are 5 digit starting with “264”. The grips are plain and do not have the HERSTAL logo at the top. There is no eagle and swastika stamp below the bolt on the slide so I don’t think that this was one of those assigned to members of the Wehrmacht or Luftwaffe during WWII. I haven’t disassembled the gun yet to check for the internal QA stamps used by the German certification authority. I believe that the presence of Wilhelmina’s crown on the bolt indicates that this was produced pre-war for the army or police.
I’ve attached some photos. If anyone knows about these, I would appreciate your input.
I’ve attached some photos. If anyone knows about these, I would appreciate your input.