Saturday night after dinner I went along with my dad to his club's indoor range and had the place to ourselves. We put 100 rounds of PPU 7.63x25 through the Broomhandle and it ran perfectly.
My first 15 shots, fired at 7 yards:
My point of aim was 6 o'clock on the black. The flyer was my first shot, fired one handed. I switched to a two-hand hold for the remainder.
Shooting impressions:
Loading a pistol with a stripper clip definitely isn't as handy as a detachable box magazine. In the case of the this pistol and these clips, you need to wiggle the clips down into the charging slot. They are a tight fit.
At ~40 oz. empty, the recoil is pretty mild but after awhile the edges of the frame start to dig into the web of your hand. When shot as a carbine it recoils like a .22.
The trigger is similar to that of a Mauser rifle. I.e., it is a two-stage trigger. It's a bit heavy but not at all unmanageable. There's little to no creep and not much overtravel.
The barleycorn front sight is hard to see with 48 year old eyes. It's worse when you shoot it as a carbine, because it's closer.
Muzzle blast and flash is definitely more noticeable when shot as a carbine, since the muzzle is closer to your face, but isn't too bad. I noticed the amount of flash varied. Some rounds had little visible flash but others had a nice fireball. However, the rounds without much flash had just as much recoil and blast as the flashier rounds.
Cases ejected straight up towards the front and then bounced all over the place with most landing in front of the firing line.
When I did my part it shot into about a 2" group at 7 yards when shot with two hands. Mean POI was about 1.5" to 2" high.
Dad took a short video of me shooting the Broom with the stock on*:
Having fired a stocked pistol now, I'm even more annoyed with the NFA. A modern stocked pistol with a micro dot sight would be the tits as a traveling gun, a real pocket carbine. Especially in a hot, flat shooting round like 7.63 Mauser or 7.62 Tokarev.
I have wanted a shootable Broomhandle for 40 years and now I finally have one.
* A reminder for those late to the show: According to the BATFE an original Mauser C96 with an original German stock is not considered a Short Barreled Rifle under the NFA.
So, as a follow up, I field stripped the Broomhandle tonight after dinner. Getting it apart was difficult, because the old grease or oil had congealed and glued the floorplate on, and the lock work into the receiver. I dribbled some FP-10 on and let it soak it for a few minutes and was able to get it apart. I spent some time tonight scrubbing congealed goo off the metal parts with a copper Chore-Boy. I'd love to know how many decades it's been since the last time this pistol was taken apart.
The floorplate and grip serial numbers don't match the frame, but at least the floorplate is an old replacement. The grips probably are, too. They are correct for the pistol.
Now that I am able to look through the bore from breech to muzzle, I am amazed. It looks new.
I currently have the lock work soaking in Hoppe's No.9 and FP-10. I'll disassemble it all the way to get out the remaining grease tomorrow. It's hard to tell from the pic but the bolt stop and safety still have a lot of the fire blue left. You can see some of the fire blue on the rear sight's elevation slide. It's almost the same color as blue Dykem layout fluid.
In early 2015 I sent the barrel and bolt to Redman's to have the barrel relined for 7.63 Mauser but he returned it to me because it wasn't a good candidate for such work. Specifically, he uses a piloted reamer to enlarge the bore enough for the liner, and my gun's bore was already too large for the pilot. He was concerned that the reamer would wander and I'd end up with an off-center bore. Worse, it appears that the barrel had already been relined once, which made it unsafe to do again.
At this point the only way to restore that pistol to shooting condition would be to cut the barrel off, bore out the barrel extension, and weld on a new barrel. This was sometimes done back when these guns were in service. See here and scroll down to where the discussion of "hashed barrels." I'm not aware of anyone currently offering this service, and it would be awfully expensive.
Naturally, this didn't sate my desire for a functional Broomhandle, that I've had since I was a kid in the '70s, even before seeing Han Solo wax Greedo in Star Wars.
Well, this weekend I went to a gun show in Oaks, PA and came home with this:
It's another Wartime Commercial with a serial number about 20K lower than my other C-96, which is in far worse shape.
The caliber is 7.63x25 Mauser. It was supposedly a WW2 bring back and came from a high-end York, PA collection. Given the condition, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a World War One bring back. Either way, it appears to have spent the past century being well-cared for.
The original blueing is in excellent shape and the serial numbers on the barrel extension, frame, and bolt match. The bore is excellent. There is still some of the original fire blueing on the rear sight leaf and it's basically intact on the extractor.
There is still some old grease visible in the bolt and the hammer recess. I haven't taken it down yet.
The stock which is in excellent shape is original, but not matching. Since it's an original German stock, BATFE doesn't consider the gun to be an SBR when it's attached. (I have an email to this effect from Tech Branch, addressed to me. See my post from December 16, 2014.) The stock has some pretty nice grain on the left side and it's even visible inside the stock where it's cutout to hold the pistol.
The attachment of the stock to the grip frame is solid, with no wobble. Out of curiosity I attached it to my other C-96, and the fit on that gun is sloppy.
I have some original stripper clips and a few hundred rounds of Prvi Partisan 7.63 Mauser ammo that I bought after I got the first Broom. Damn skippy I'm going to shoot it after I verify that the locking block is in good shape. On my other C96 I replaced all the springs and this one is still more difficult to cock. Because it appears that the gun has seen very little use I'm going to hold off on replacing any springs.
Without getting into specifics, the cost was reasonable for the condition of the gun and stock.
Last month I picked up a Mauser C-96 Broomhandle. I got it to the range after detail stripping it, cleaning out the last bits of the Western Front, lubing it, and replacing the hammer and recoil springs. Unfortunately, the bore is so worn that bullets keyhole and there's enough blow-by that the gun fails to eject empties. It will be definitely be sent off to Redman's for relining to the original 7.63x25 caliber.
While I had the gun apart I took pictures. If you right click on each pic and select View Image (or your browser's equivalent, you'll see a descriptive file name.
The Mauser C-96 is one of the finest examples of the machinist's art you'll ever find. It's remarkable how this was able to be mass produced on manual machinery.
As Tam likes to say, "The Internet likes gun pics." So, here's a pic of my latest acquisition, something I've wanted since I was a kid, even before I saw Han Solo blow away Greedo*:
It's a wartime commercial Mauser Model 1896 "Broomhandle," AKA, "C-96," chambered for 7.63x25 Mauser. It was made around 1915 - 1916. How I acquired it is a bit of a story, but first, some history.
The Mauser C-96 is generally considered to be the first successful semiautomatic pistol. It was produced from 1896 up until 1937. About a million were made (not including copies). It saw service in numerous wars and copies were made in Spain and China, where it was especially popular. Unlike modern semiauto pistols, it had a fixed, 10 round magazine located ahead of the trigger, loaded with stripper clips. Most C-96s are chambered for 7.63x25 with some in 9x19. The first Broomhandles in 9mm were built at the behest of the German Army in WW1, when production of the standard P-08 Luger couldn't meet demand. Most of these 1916 Prussian Contract guns have grips with red "9"s on them, to differentiate them from the guns in 7.63mm. Many C-96s with shot out barrels have been bored out to 9mm and had Red 9 grips installed. A lot of these were done in the 1980s and '90s, when thousands of very well used Broomhandles were imported into the US from China.
One of the most unique features was the C-96's construction, which contained only one screw -- the one holding on the grip panels. Everything else fits together like a jigsaw puzzle.
While the gun looks a bit ungainly to 21st Century eyes, it actually handles pretty well. It's a little heavier than a full size 1911 but the balance is different.
Among the most well known users of the Broomhandle were Winston Churchill and T.E. Lawrence. I also ran across of photo of a young Ritter von Leeb packing a C-96.
My dad bought the gun earlier this year. A couple weeks ago he was over at my house to share some Woodford Reserve bourbon and conversation, and I asked him when he was sending the Broomhandle off to get relined (since the bore is shot out). In reply, he asked me if I wanted it, in trade for a nice Polish Radom VIS-35 that he'd given me a few years ago. As nice as the Radom is, the Broomhandle is one of my grails, so I didn't hesitate even a microsecond before agreeing to the trade. (Odds are I'll eventually get the Radom back anyway.)
The exterior of the gun has some pitting and may have been reblued at some point in the past century. As alluded to previously, the bore is in bad shape. It looks like the entire Heer marched through it.
I plan to shoot it. Before doing so I am going to replace the original springs with a kit from Wolff. (I'll keep the originals in a plastic bag along with the gun.) I have some Hansen (Prvi Partizan) .30 Mauser ammo to try in it. With the bore in such poor shape I am not expecting much in the way of accuracy.
Redman's Rifling & Reboring in Washington State offers a relining service for Broomhandles. I'll probably send the barrel and bolt off to them in early January.
Some thoughts on the correct ammo for Broomhandles in 7.63:
When I was younger the consensus was that 7.63 Mauser was loaded hotter than the dimensionally identical 7.62x25 Tokarev. At some point this reversed and nowadays, the common belief is that Tokarev ammo is loaded hotter than Mauser ammo, and is unsafe to shoot in Broomhandles. However, after doing a lot of research, my belief is that there isn't much of a difference between them, unless you are talking about post-WW2 Czech 7.62 SMG ammo or current Prvi Partizan high pressure 7.62 TT ammo. There is a good discussion of ammo on 1896Mauser.com. (And don't get me started on the myth that the CZ-52 pistol is stronger than Tokarevs. It's not.)
Another characteristic feature of the C-96 is its ability to accept a combination holster/shoulder stock. Normally, in the US, attaching a shoulder stock to a pistol with a barrel less than 16 inches long creates a Short Barreled Rifle, regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934. However, certain curios and relics have been exempted from the purview of the NFA by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. What is sometimes unclear is whether one of these C&Rs is exempt if a replica of the original German stock is attached, rather than an actual original German stock. Being able to use a replica would be ideal because they are available on eBay and other places online for much less than original stocks, which start around $400. I have found scans of letters from BATFE saying replica stocks are OK to use, while there are other ATF letters extant taking the opposite position.
Here's a video from Iraqveteran8888 demonstrating how the shoulder stock is attached and used:
Since I have already invited The Man into my life by building a silencer on a Form 1, I felt that discretion was the better part of valor and emailed the ATF's Firearms Tech Branch, inquiring whether it was legal to attach a replica stock so long as it is substantially identical to the original design. Here's the reply I received:
Received from: Fire_tech@atf.gov
Date: 12/12/14
Dear Sir,
On page 38, in Section III of the Firearms Curio & Relic List, the Mauser Model 1896 is listed with the specific requirement that it be “accompanied by original German mfd. Detachable wooden holster/shoulder stocks…. (Bold in original email.)
ATF – Firearms & Technology Division
From: Dave Markowitz
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2014 9:46 AM
To: Fire Tech
Subject: Question regarding the legality of a Reproduction Mauser Model 1896 Stock
Dear Sir:
I own a Mauser Model 1896 (AKA "C96") pistol manufactured in 1915 or 1916. The pistol is chambered for the original 7.63x25mm cartridge and remains unmodified.
After reviewing the Curio and Relic list at <http://www.atf.gov/files/publications/firearms/curios-relics/p-5300-11-firearms-curios-or-relics-list.pdf>, I see that the Model 1896 manufactured before 1940, and fitted with an original German-manufactured holster/shoulder stock has been exempted from the provisions of the National Firearms Act ("NFA"). See Section III, page 38 of that list.
Can you confirm for me whether or not a Model 1896 manufactured prior to 1940, but fitted with a reproduction holster/shoulderstock that is substantially the same as an original holster/shoulder stock would also be exempted from the NFA?
Thank you in advance.
David S. Markowitz
[ADDRESS REDACTED]
Sigh. I guess I'm in the market for an original stock, rather than an inexpensive replica.
Wikipedia has a nice article on the C-96, but the best site I've come across about the Broomhandle is 1896Mauser.com. The Mauser C-96 is a significant development in small arms history and has made appearances in many movies, including From Russia With Love, not to mention the Star Wars franchise, as the basis for blasters used by Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. I'd love to see a modern made replica to get as a shooter, even if I had to pay a grand for it.
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