Le Français Type Armée - A Strange Service Pistol

Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! The Le Français pistol was designed by Etienne Mimard in 1912, and listed in the Manufrance catalog in 1914. It was a .25ACP ( Browning) civilian defensive pistol for pocket carry, and designed with elements specifically for that purpose. It had a long double action trigger instead of a manual safety, and used a tip-up barrel to avoid requiring the slide to be manually cycled. In 1928, Manufrance introduced a much larger version of the gun chambered for 9mm Browning Long (9x20SR), named the Type Armée. It was envisioned as a military service pistol, and was tested several times by the Versailles Commission. It was never found satisfactory, basically because the loading mechanism and trigger were much more suited to a pocket pistol than a service sidearm. The lack of an extractor was also not appreciated by the military tria