For Sale: Savage Model 1907 Pistol French Military Contract

The Savage Model 1907, born from a cooperative agreement between its designer Elbert Searle and the Savage Arms Co., first saw production in 1908. Chambered in .32 caliber, Savage viewed the Model 1907, so named for the Searle’s 1907 patent filing for the final design, as a competitive entry into the civilian compact, semi-auto pistol market. Although initial production was slow, for a variety of reasons, the appealing look, reliable shooting characteristics, and a strong advertising campaign soon increased the model’s popularity. The most significant benefit the Model 1907 had over its competitors, at least from an advertising perspective, was the double-stack magazine design capable of housing more ammunition (10 rounds) than typically found in the market at that time. Beginning in 1912, sales of the Model 1907 began to slow and despite cutting production, Savage found itself with increasing surplus inventory.

With the advent of World War I in 1914, France, whose military particularly favored .32 caliber pistols, searched for very much needed small arms. With an excess supply, Savage found itself in good position to meet this demand and began providing Model 1907s in November of 1914. In 1915, to satisfy French requests, Savage added a lanyard ring to the lower corner of the backstrap and shipped pistols with this modification until early 1917. In all, 30,000-40,000 military contract pistols were shipped to France with most of them seeing hard service use.

This Savage Model 1907 pistol, officially designated Model 1907-13 Modification No. 3, is one of the contract pistols sent to France during the war (most likely shipping in 1916/17). This pistol has the correct lanyard ring, cartridge indicator, ‘FIRE’ and ‘SAFE’ markings for the safety lever, and ‘SAVAGE’ stamped on the left side of the frame. In addition, the top of the slide has the correct ‘CAL .32./7.65. M-M.’ marking for such contract pistols. The SN also overlaps with Portuguese contract Model 1907s, however it remains outside of the main serial number grouping for this contract. Except for the Portuguese emblem that replaces the Savage Indianhead logo on the black rubber grips, there are no additional markings to differentiate Portuguese and French pistols. Although most Portuguese pistols had their original grips replaced with Savage grips when they were surplussed back to the US, the rarity of these pistols, along with the SN, leads us to conclude that this is indeed, a French contract pistol.

Overall, the condition of this Savage Model 1907 pistol is as expected of a French military contract pistol and reflects use in the field. The bright blue finish has thinned, dulled, and worn through due to service use and small areas of pitting appear throughout. The black rubber grips are in good condition with no cracks. As typical of a used pistol, the ‘TRADE MARK’ within the Indian’s headdress is no longer visible. The bore is dull with worn rifling. The action is strong and functions properly. A partial ‘O’ inspector’s mark is visible in the indent behind the magazine. This pistol remains a good example of the hard-to-find French contract group.

See pictures for overall condition. FFL or C&R required for purchase.