C96 broomhandle mauser 8.15mm

[colreed]

I have a great need for some expert advice concerning my C96 8.15mm
Broomhandle Mauser. This may be a little long, but I'm sure you C96
enthusiasts will be interested.
I recently acquired two C96 mausers and took one of them to the range
to fire. Using Fiocchi 7.63 ammo, the gun fired horribly. It just went
"poof" and did not cycle a new round in the chamber. Tried 10-15
times. Same result. At 25 feet, hits were all over the target, some
even a miss. I am a trained marksman with Camp Perry experience, and I
was terribly disappointed with my first experience firing a C96.
Took the gun to my gunsmith, ordered new springs, and he fought with it
for a week. Same results until he discovered that a 7.63 bullet would
drop thru the barrel. He pressed a soft lead slug thru the barrel and
made some measurements. The slug was roughly .325" on the flat and
.328" on the rifling. After some research, it turns out that my gun
is 8.15mm. The barrel is not shot out, it is bright and clean, and the
6 groove rifling is clearly evident. There is no evidence of being
bored out or sleeved. The barrel metal is the same as the rest of the
gun. The big mystery is that the SN of this gun is 349602.
The 8.15mm C96 is supposed to be limited to the 1930 model only and in
the 800,000-900,000 SN range.
I have researched much literature and been in contact with the
following people in order to find a C96 expert to authenticate this
variation.
Graeme Caselton (gcas...@gmail.com)
Kyrie (KYRI...@aol.com)
CMR International Classic Firearms Co.
(cmr.inte...@btinternet.com)
No luck to date. I was advised to seek help thru this Google group.
Apparently, the authors of the book "System Mauser: A Pictorial
History of the Model, 1896 Self-Loading Pistol", are on the group and
may see this. They are:
John W. Breathed, Jr. and Joseph J. Schroeder, Jr. If you know one of
these men, please refer him to this posting.
A little more about the gun. It is all matching numbers. It has
standard Mauser proof marks and no contract country markings.
Underneath the barrel, there is a six pointed star surmounted by the
letter M. This indicates the gun was overhauled or reworked by the
factory between 1919 and 1922.
It has a 0-1000 adjustable sight. The following parts are
nickel/stainless colored: Hammer, lock mechanism frame, bolt, firing
pin, bolt stop, safety, and trigger.
I compared barrel dimension with my other C96 - SN 235766, an obvious
7.63mm.
Using a micrometer,
SN235766 (7.63) SN349602 (8.15)
At the barrel end at the sight .495" .530"
At the barrel midpoint .550" .575"
Near barrel root (before flange) .580 .610"
To me, the gun is clearly not a fake as has been suggested to me as a
possibility. But my hair is now on fire to learn more. I have located
one other non-model 1930 in 8.15mm in N.J. The SN is 416,868. There are
obviously others but they are generally unknown to the C96 community.
I have professional digital photos of the gun for anyone interested. Am
dearly hoping for someone out there to reply.

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[Jack]

[posted and mailed]

Take a look at this website. It may answer your question. It seems that
many C96 Broomhandle Mausers were converted to 9mm, and yours is one of
them Jack

[ANDREWS]

Please repost. Your reference to a web site did not show up in your post.

"Jack" <forr...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:d8epkr$i8e$1...@grapevine.wam.umd.edu...
> ...

[old hoodoo]

Before stating an opinion I'd like to see some pics of this pistol.
Top, sides, from the rear, from the top down action closed, from the top
with action open, from the bottom, in color and in sufficient clarity to
read all the markings an perhaps a
close up of the metal surface in a flat area and in the milled out area.

My first very hesitant wild guess would be a 1930's era rework of a gun
that Mauser reacquired, rebored, and resold "commercially" in Germany
due to demand for pistols in that era (a comparable example could be
Mauser reworks of p-08s in the early 30's) but that is a wild, wild
guess without seeing pics.

Even if rare, not a particularly fascinating collector variation.
There is one item in the description that bothers me (I will not
divulge it), but I would
rather see pics of the gun than rely on the description which might
have been in error or a misinterpretation.

colreed wrote:
> ...