Kommer Models 3 and 4: German Browning Copies
Forgotten Weapons
•
11m
Theodore Emil Kommer was born in 1866, son of a German gunsmith. He took the same profession, and at the age of 23 in 1889 opened his own business making guns. He initially focused on sporting rifles and single-shot pistols, but expanded into semiauto pocket pistols after World War One. His first design came out in 1920, mechanically a copy of the Baby Browning in .25 ACP. The first model had a curved grip frame, which was replaced by the Model 2 which was a closer copy of the Browning, with a straight grip and 6-round magazine. In 1927 he added the Model 3, identical to the Model 2 but with a longer grip and 8-round magazine. In 1936 he added a Model 4, a copy of the FN 1910 in .32 ACP.
All of Kommer’s guns were simplified from their Browning parents, with the grip safeties and magazine safeties removed. They were produced in a single serial number range with just under 20,000 total made by 1940, when production ceased. Kommer died in 1942, and his company ended with him.
Up Next in Forgotten Weapons
-
Holloway HAC-7L: A Specifically Left-...
Bob Holloway designed the HAC-7 rifle to be the ultimate combat infantry rifle in 1984, drawing on his experiences in Vietnam and Rhodesia. It is a very interesting hybrid of AK, FAL, and other design elements, but it was not commercially successful. Only about 280 were made before the Holloway A...
-
Estonian Home Guard Browning High Power
Estonia purchased several batches of early FN High Power pistols in the 1930s. First in 1936 120 were ordered for the police, and then much larger orders followed in 1937. The military bought 5,338 and the Home Guard bought an additional 3,038. Both batches have their own serial number ranges, an...
-
Dardick Model 1500: The Very Unusual ...
The Dardick 1500 was a magazine-fed revolver designed by David Dardick in the 1950s. His patent was granted in 1958, and somewhere between 40 and 100 of the guns were made in 1959, before the company went out of business in 1960. The concept was based around a triangular cartridge (a “tround”) an...
