Although I guess the company itself never used the model designation of 1908, that is a later "Collectors Name" for this little guy. Known to the manufacturer, Anciens Etablissements Pieper simply as the Bayard Self Loading Pistol until the early 1920s, when after the introduction of newer designs, as the "Old Model Bayard".



Initially appearing on the market in late 1909 or early 1910, offered in .32 ACP, it was a relatively compact simple blowback pocket pistol. However in 1911, they went and chambered it in .380 ACP, and ended up with what was, for quite a while, about the smallest .38 caliber pocket gun you could get.

This is a later production version, and of course, I got the .380. Here it is compared to a perhaps better known "pocket pistol" of the time, a Colt 1903.



Or, to get a real idea of just how small this little guy is, in the hand:


It really does almost disappear in the hand. Of course, modern polymer construction pistols weigh less, but weight (and maybe the lack of a conventional disconnect safety) aside, this is a really amazing piece of engineering, especially considering when it was developed.

Bill R

Cool! I don’t think I’ve seen one of those before.

Even today, almost nobody (except maybe Seecamp) makes a .380 that tiny. It must be quite a handful to shoot (if you want to shoot it).

I love the .380=9mm marking. It’s so “it’s not the size of the ship it’s the motion of the ocean”

Like was said above I bet that thing is a bit of a handful to shoot. Very interesting little pistol that you would absolutely think would be a .25 or .32 at the biggest, not the big bore she is.

not the first I've seen one but great historical info. I really like all these first gen pocket pistols. things like the P365,G43,shield etc just go to show the more things change the more they stay the same.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
Even today, almost nobody (except maybe Seecamp) makes a .380 that tiny. It must be quite a handful to shoot (if you want to shoot it).

I’m going to give it a try…. I can just about get two fingers worth of solid grip, so we will see how it does.

One thing, with the barrel set under the recoil spring it has a very low bore axis, maybe that will help!

Bill R