BabyBrowning

Updated: 15th August 2013

My gun was manufactured and imported in 1968. It was purchased new for $50, by the father of one of my friends, who was a gun dealer at the time. He put the gun in his safe, still in the wax paper and pouch where it stayed for thirty years untouched and still unfired.

Made in Belgium, this is a great gun for concealed carry. These guns are very accurate at distances under 25 ft. and totally reliable in my experience.

Let's look at the transaction from an "investment" point of view. My friend's father doubled his money every ten years on the gun, i.e., 1968=$50, 1978=$100, 1988=$200 and finally 1998=$400 when he sold the investment to me. When I originally wrote this I asked the question, "Do I think it will double in value by 2008?" At the time I said, "I think so. I have seen one like mine sell for $750 on gunbroker.com recently."

Well, in 2008 my question was answered. I was offered $800 for the Baby, and I turned it down.

Analysis of this Handgun from 1968 to 2008

Important Note: The fact that the gun is unfired, condition of the original finish, it has the original manual, is in the original wax paper and has the original pouch all influence and enhance the value of this gun.

Although I'm not into gun collecting as an investment, I do like to collect guns that I believe will hold their value or increase in value. I look for value in everything I purchase, cars, musical instruments, down to my wrist watch. My friend's father was able to put this gun in a safe and leave it alone for thirty years, (possibly because he was a gun dealer and had plenty of other guns to keep him busy)!

Enthusiast Rather Than Collector

As you can see, I have the gun out on the kitchen counter taking pictures, holstering it and even loading the magazine and carrying it on certain occasions. I have resisted the temptation to fire it, but only by buying a used blue gun of this same model to practice with.

The Browning 6.35mm (or .25 caliber to us Americans) was manufactured by Fabrique Nationale (F.N.) in Belgium. John Browning had contracts with Colt and F.N. and this is why the Baby Browning was not imported to the U.S. until 1954, even though it had been in production for twenty-five years or so. Colt stopped producing the vest pocket .25 pistols and got out of that market in 1953.

Many gun enthusiasts will laugh at the mention of a .25 caliber gun and call them a mouse gun. This little gun earned my respect and the respect of a lot of others through it's service to the French Resistance during WWII. It saved many lives. This gun went places, undetected, where a larger gun could not have gone. I've read more than one story of this gun being concealed inside cigarette packs.

A word of caution if you own one of these with the pearl-lite grips: I have seen many examples where sunlight had yellowed the grips so badly that they just looked awful. Sunlight will cause extreme discoloration.

Havea Question?

Comments and feedback welcome ...
There is an old saying that "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." The 1968 Gun Control Act was a stupid, whimsical, whiplash knee-jerk reaction, nonsensical piece of legislation. Please remember that.

The 1968 Gun Control Act (signed by President Johnson on October 22, 1968 in the wake of the King and Kennedy assassinations) prohibited the importation of these guns. The funny thing is, Kennedy was shot with an Iver Johnson (American made gun) and King was assassinated with a Remington 760 Gamemaster rifle (also American made). With the American market cut-off, F.N. produced far fewer guns from 1969 to 1979, for export to other countries like Spain. Some of these guns are showing up in the U.S. recently.