Roth Steyr Model 1907



The Roth Model 1907 pistol bears the distinction of the first semi-automatic (self-loading) pistol that was ever adopted by any major military force in the world. In this particular case, it was the cavalry of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The pistol was based on patents of famous Austrian gun designers Georg Roth and Karel (Charles) Krnka. This pistol was manufactured between 1907 and 1918, and some 90 000 Roth M.07 pistols were made at Steyr and FEG arms factories.

The Roth Model 1907 pistol uses short recoil action with rotary barrel. barrel has two sets of radial lugs, each consisting of two lugs. Front pair of lugs, which is located near the barrel, follows the cam tracks cut in the stationary barrel bushing, thus forcing the barrel to rotate upon recoil. The rear set of lugs locks the barrel to the forward bolt extension when barrel is in forward position. Upon recoil, the barrel rotates and the rear lugs leave their mortises in the bolt extension, unlocking the bolt and allowing it to recoil freely to complete operating cycle. The feed is from integral box magazine, which is located inside the grip. Magazine is loaded from special stripper clips that are inserted into the loading \ ejection port at the top of the gun. Once the clip is inserted, shooter presses the cartridges from the clip and into the magazine, then removes the empty clip and presses bolt release button, to close the bolt and make the pistol ready to fire. The trigger of the Roth M.07 pistol was of quite advanced design. The gun was striker-fired, and the striker was only partially cocked after each shot. To complete the cocking and then release the striker, shooter have to full the trigger all the way back. Since integral the magazine was loaded from the top, pistol had a special "magazine release" button, which allowed to unload all cartridges in magazine at once, once the bolt is manually locked back.