Pre-1911 semi-automatics

[Skeeter Lewis]

 We could be forgiven for thinking that semi-automatics didn't exist before 1911. It might be interesting if pards posted pics of early pistols, even though they aren't usable in this category. At the very least it's interesting in terms of the development of this type of handgun.For example....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_M1900

[Skeeter Lewis]

This is a good read...

http://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/1900FNB/1900fnb.html

[Evelyn Canarvon]

Well for places that are not so pickey I use a Luger P-08 which was developed before 1911.  Of course famously even before the 1899 cut off there was the C-96 Mauser (which I would love to own someday). 

[Skeeter Lewis]

Churchill carried a Mauser c96 during the Boer War.

[Skeeter Lewis]

A closer look at the Colt 1900...
http://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/1900ACP/00ACP14/00acp14.html

Browning's first patent for a semi-automatic was filed on Sept. 14 1895. What a genius...

[cpt dan blodgett]

Churchill carried a Mauser c96 during the Boer War.

Used one against the dervishes in Sudan as well

[Skeeter Lewis]

Thanks, Captain Dan.
Churchill writes wonderfully in 'My Early Life' of the campaign against the Mahdi. At the Battle of Omdurman he took part in what has been called the last cavalry charge in British history. He described it as the most exhilarating experience - if you survived.
Cavalry was used in the First World War. But I suppose Omdurman was the last full-out, blood-and-guts cavalry charge.
And, yes, he carried his Mauser.

[SlimPigguns]

The  charge by the Australian 4th  Light Horse Brigade on Beersheba in 1917 may have been the last successful  cavalry charge.
Pete