Smug line removed and eating of crow substituted.
Quote:
There were several versions of the early FN 25. Later ones were exactly like the Colt model. Parts will usually interchange.
Colt NEVER made guns for FN, or marked FN.
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FN made 1905/06s were NEVER identical to Colts (or vice versa, as the Colts came after the FNs.). There are some major differences and some minor differences. The slides are completely different and the manual safeties are completely different. The grip safety is different as well as the sear spring and do not interchange. Some small internal parts are also different, as well as the Tansley magazine disconnect.
In fact, the only interchangeable parts are the extractor/pin/spring, the barrel, the striker/spring/spring guide, the trigger/pin, the connector (aka trigger bar), sear/pin, recoil spring/guide (pre Tansley safety models) mags and mag catch.
There are only two variations of 1905/06 FN .25s that I know of.
(Nope, wrong, it turns out there are three.) First variation (probably pre-WWI) with NO external manual safety of any kind and no magazine disconnect; Second variation
(which actually turns out to be a third), made until production ceased, with external manual safety and internal magazine disconnect very similar to those used on the .32 FN 1910s, and having no resemblance whatsoever to the Colt.
Please understand that the FN marked gun I saw was identical in EVERY respect to a Colt, not an FN 05/06. I know the differences.
Everything else is deleted, 'coz it was all wrong and based on a 40+ year old lack of a very important piece of information.
It turns out that FN did make a gun that was almost externally identical to a Colt VP using a style of safety allegedly designed by Browning and used on the Colt. Made after the first run of .25s with no external safety, only an estimated 30,000 or so were made before they redesigned the guns and introduced the so-called triple safety model (Triple Surete). As over a million 1905/06 were made until production was stopped in 1959, 30,000 made before WWI isn't a whole lot and probably most people will never see one. I collected and it was the only example I have ever seen.
EDIT: See second edit in my first post above.