Among the variety of weapons, there have always been popular models and those that few people knew about. But even a popular weapon at one time could not remain the same after several decades, and most often it was forgotten. Of course, there are exceptions, which are usually revolutionary inventions that are turning the world of handguns upside down, but there are not many. With this article, we will try to restore justice and get acquainted with an already forgotten, but once quite common sample of weapons, namely a pistol designed by the German gunsmith Theodor Bergman. This pistol had many modifications, during which its name changed, but the main essence of the weapon remained unchanged, and the numbers in the name and prefixes after the sale and resale of rights could not affect the characteristics of the weapon.
It all started in 1903, it was in this year that Theodor Bergman released the first batch of his pistols on the arms market under the name Bergman Mars. These pistols were built according to the automatic scheme with a short barrel stroke, or rather, with a short receiver stroke, inside which the bolt moved. The barrel bore is locked when the locking element moves in the vertical plane. So, in the normal position, this locking element is raised upward, since it is acted upon by a protrusion in the frame of the weapon. When the barrel and bolt move backward, this locking element is lowered and released from engagement with the grooves in the bolt, which frees the bolt and allows it to move separately from the barrel with the receiver. In order to be able to cock the bolt manually, there were cylindrical protrusions from the rear of the receiver.
The appearance of the pistol did not stand out in any way against the background of other samples of that time, however, Mars Bergman had some convenient innovations. First of all, it should be noted a wider handle for holding, which was a definite plus when using a sufficiently powerful ammunition in the weapon. Of no small importance is the fact that the pistol was fed from detachable magazines, albeit of small capacity. By the way, the magazines were double-row, so it's a useful innovation for short-barreled weapons. But, despite this, the main feature of the pistol I would like to highlight the ammunition that was used in it.
The cartridge was also developed by the gunsmith, and 5 years earlier than the pistol itself, that is, the weapon was already built around a completely finished ammunition and under it. Metric designation of the cartridge used in the Bergman Mars 9x23 pistol, this cartridge, by the way, is still in production, although it is no longer in such demand as before. A powder charge was placed in a 23 mm long sleeve, which accelerated a bullet weighing 8-9 grams to a speed of 370 meters per second, that is, the kinetic energy of the bullet was more than 550 Joules, which is very good for a pistol cartridge of that time.
In 1905, the pistol and cartridge were adopted by the Spanish army. Bergman, on the other hand, decides not to engage directly in the production and supply of weapons, but resells the contract to a Belgian arms company that produces weapons under the Bayard brand. After that, the weapon changes its name, although no design changes were made, after being adopted by the Spanish army, the pistol became known as the Bergman Bayard M1908.
In 1910, Denmark became interested in the pistol, which added cutouts for the fingers in the receiver of the stores, for more convenient extraction of the weapon; in this country, the weapon already received the name M1910. In 1914, the production of pistols was curtailed, but the further development of weapons did not stop there. Denmark continued to develop the pistol, in which the Danish designers added a support screw instead of the magazine cover, and also replaced the wooden grip pads with plastic ones. True, then they returned to the tree anyway. This model has already received the name М1910 / 21. This, unfortunately, was the last modernization (if it can be called that) of the weapon.
As you can see, no serious innovations in the pistol have been introduced for almost 20 years, although it was an opportunity to do so. At the same time, the weapons were actively used by the armies of not the most recent countries, which indicates the high reliability and thoughtfulness of the original design of the weapon. Sadly, many modern gunsmiths have a lot to learn from the masters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
