Another recent find.
This turned up at a gun show in Columbus Ohio. A pre WWI Mauser C-96 in 7.63mm in nice shape and decent bore. These old beasts have a cult following, over the years I have been lucky enough to put several of these in my collection including one that is engraved with ivory grips. I am pretty sure I have posted that elsewhere on here.
Several years ago AIM had a fairly good deal on 7.63 Mauser and I stocked up so this one has been shot and is a very nice accurate shooter.
These classic pistols have been with us since the 1890s and were the first commercially successful semi auto pistols. When I hear politicians bemoaning the new deadly technology of semiautomatic firearms I chuckle at their ignorance, if only these airheads were not such a danger to our rights.
These guns served in WWI, were popular with Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution, loved by Chinese warlords and also saw use in WWII. They continued in use during the Chinese revolution and some turned up in Korea. China continued to use them as police pistols into the 1980s and eventually sold them for hard cash to American importers which was a joy to American collectors clamoring to lay hands on a classic Broomhandle Mauser no matter how rough. Perhaps the most famous owner of a C96 other than Kaiser Wilhelm II, was Winston Churchill who carried and used one during the Boer War.
Of interest to we who collect Imperial Russian and Soviet arms is that the Bolsheviks loved the Broomhandle Mauser and used them extensively in the revolution, especially the smaller variant which was nick-named the "Bolo" because so many went to the Bolsheviks. Also old Fedor Tokarev based his 7.62x25mm cartridge on the 7.63x25mm Mauser, but the Soviet round is hotter. You can use the Mauser round in a Tokarev, but the hotter Tokarev cartridge will damage the old C96 pistols, so be careful of what you put in the old Broomie.
My 1930s vintage engraved with ivory stocks C-96.
