PERFECTION LIES IN SMALL THINGS

Some people love to make things. They have the patience and focus to figure it all out with their head and their hands...

We manufacture a world famous pocket pistol. You've seen it before. Below is a picture of a hot blued "Standard" unit that we machined and built for Fabrique Nationale at our 155 Carlton Road, Charlottesville, Virginia facility sometime during the 1980's. More than half a million of these semi-automatic pocket pistols were manufactured in Europe. We've made tens of thousands more in North America. Those of you in the USA know this classic concealed carry pocket pistol as the "Baby Browning". The rest of the world knows it as "Le Bebe".

The DNA of this celebrated pocket pistol made its first public appearance in the John Moses Browning designed semi-automatic pistols of the early 1900's. Fast forward to the late 1920's. A man by the name of Dieudonné Saive decided he could do better. Saive was in charge of Fabrique Nationale's factory operations. He tinkered with Browning's small pistol designs and came up with the most celebrated limited blowback, semi-automatic pocket pistol the world has ever seen: the 1931 Fabrique Nationale 6.35mm, 6+1 shot Baby. And he got the pistol right the first time. No need to mess with it since.

1931 was a time when some things of consequence were better made then ever before - and greatly valued by folks throughout the world because of this simple fact. The 1931 Fabrique Nationale "Baby" pocket pistol was one of those "better made things". Back then FN's factory was located in Liege, Belgium. The Baby was manufactured in a large building utilizing hand drawn blue prints and leather belt-driven machinery to carve metal. Skilled labor from the nearby town of Herstal was used in the manufacture and assembly of each pistol. Decades later, the Baby was manufactured by Manufacture D'armes de Bayonne, one of FN's subsidiaries located in Bayonne, France. Precision is the only company engaged by FN outside of Europe to ever manufacture the 1931 FN 6.35mm, 6+1 shot pocket pistol.

1986 was the year FN transferred the technical data package for the 1931 6.35mm 6 shot "Baby" pocket pistol to our Canadian parent company - Precision Small Parts Ltd. At that time, FN also issued to Precision an order for 40,000 of the "Standard" model Baby pistols. Our primary objective was to produce the Baby at a level of quality that exceeded the original Belgium made version. To accomplish this goal, we utilized state-of-the-art engineering and computer numeric controlled machine tools. After machining the parts, we assembled them into functional pistols, tested and then packaged them for export.  We were uniquely qualified to perform this detailed work because we were the "best-of-the-best" of fully integrated Swiss screw machine shops in North America. And the fact that we had served as a major sub-contractor to FN on several of its tier-one weapons systems, including the M-240 machine gun for the US Army, made us the natural choice for the "Baby Project".

Canadian firearms law being what it was during the 1980's, the first FN source inspection of the completed Baby pocket pistols took place in our Charlottesville, Virginia facilities during December 1986.


The first batch of these pistols shipped to FN during April 1987. Back then all of these exquisite pocket pistols were exported to Belgium for re-shipment by FN to various re-sellers throughout the world.  Because of the US Gun Control Act of 1968, none of them made their way back into the USA. And this upset folks. By the late 1980's we were both manufacturing and distributing the Pistol in limited quantities throughout the USA. And in keeping with the times, we marked the Pistol as the "PSP-25". Below is a picture of the two models offered back then: the "Standard" and a hard chrome version. The grip plates had blank ovals.

In 1995 we separated small arms manufacturing from the rest of our aerospace and defense related business and set small arms manufacturing up on its own. And then we re-christened the Pistol. It was known thereafter as the "PSA-25". Since those days in Virginia, we have manufactured this Art Deco classic in federally licensed workshops under our ownership, control and direction in California, Colorado, Illinois and Nevada.

Some folks who know a thing or two about limited blow-back, semi-automatic pistols claim that the 6.35mm, 6+1 shot pocket pistol we manufacture is the pre-eminent example of an elegantly designed, well machined, finely finished, exceptionally accurate firearm. And we agree with them. In support of this view, we maintain a federal configuration patent on its classic good looks.

Like all things well made, the process is the product. In keeping with the original mandate from Fabrique Nationale, we continue to manufacture this Art Deco classic utilizing the very latest technology available. This technology includes the use of computer generated, 3 dimensional, interactive, detailed engineering drawings. These drawings give rise to thousands of lines of machine code. This "G code" is passed along to multi-axis, numeric controlled machine tools. They direct the machine to use specific cutting tools and make exact cuts. We super-charge these machine tools with laser-guided, dimensional inspection probes that assure the accuracy of machined metal parts, regardless of cutting tool wear. Implementing this technology has been no simple thing to accomplish. Below is a picture of a steel cube with five-sided fixturing for the Baby frame bolted to a 4th axis indexer of a CNC mill. 

An extraordinary amount of time, engineering skill and money have gone into making things "right". 

All of this activity and effort is at the heart of what we do to carve metal parts for the PSA-25 pistol. Put simply: it comes down to having the requisite pre-conditions in place in order to achieve the desired results. Note the precise fit between frame and slide in the picture below. As a result of such tight tolerances, the PSA-25 pistol generates 2 inch groupings when shot using a Weaver stance at 20 feet.

After machining - and the specialized hand work of deburring, sanding and polishing - each of these beautifully crafted pocket pistols is assembled by a single craftsman from 26 different parts. And then each one is function tested to make sure that it does what it is supposed to do. The continuous quality control effort that infuses all we do when crafting a PSA-25 pistol is about building a near flawless, all steel firearm. Each must stand the test of time and regular use.

To summarize: the DNA of the PSA-25 Baby is drawn from the early 1900's small pistol designs of America's most celebrated firearms designer. And it also reflects the genius of the man who ran Europe's largest small arms manufacturer from the 1920's into the 1930's - and his sense of Art Deco style - as manifested in cold, hard steel. This celebrated semi-automatic pocket pistol is a rare thing in the world today: a functional work of art in production for almost 100 years. You should take comfort from this single fact alone. The 1931 6.35mm 6+1 shot FN Baby Pocket Pistol was designed right the first time. And it continues in production to this day right here in America. The PSA-25 pocket pistol will appeal to your sense of historical significance, quality and usefulness. Consider acquiring one from us today.