Seen at the Gun Show:1896 Broomhandle Mauser Carbine

Navy Arms imported a fair number of "reproductions" from China. This is likely one of them. They run about a $1,000 to $1,500. Original Carbines (likely less than a thousand made) run $10,000 to $20,000.

That looks like the wrong blueing for the Broomhandles. They were REALLY Blue. Not that grayish blue. Perhaps it's been refinished. The one's I handled back when I managed a gun store always had a very high polish and exceedingly bright blue finish. . . even the military models. This would not have been a military model so I would have expected a very fine finish.

ping

i sold one of these back in the early '70s. We thought it was 30 mauser. which was a hard ammo to find then. The buyer had me order a box. I had gotten it from an upholstery shop/gun shop that had gotten it in with the shoulder stock holster and destroyed it because of the 1968 gun control act made the combination illegal at the time. HORRORS.

Any way, the customer came in and picked up his box of .30 mauser ammo and headed off to the range. He was back shortly later.

"This Ammo don't fit!" sez he.

I looked at the gun and at the ammo, which was certainly .30 mauser. The gun was not a 9mm. But he was right. The ammo was to big to go in the chamber. and the bullet was to big for in the barrel. What the hell?

I took into the back and had the gunsmith mike the barrel. He had the oddest look on his face when he came back with the gun. It miked to 7.1mm across the lands.

It took me a week of heavy research. The damn thing was 7.16mm French Experimental! No ammo had been made for it since the gun was made for the French government in the 1920s. What a crying shame. The gun could have been kept complete with the shoulder stock! It was not capable of firing! No AMMO!

Another one i sold was what appeared to be standard 9mm. The person who bought it picked it up after the standard five day waiting period and bought a box of light powered 9mm (you do not want to fire anything heavy out of these) and went to the range! He was back about an hour later irate!

"You guys almost got me arrested!!!!" He yells at me.

"Why?" I asked.

"This thing fired like a machine gun!" Says he, "An ATF agent was practicing a couple of stations over. He came over and demanded to see my Broomhandle. I thought I was going to be arrested!"

The ATF agent looked the gun over and didn't see the tell tale "Schnellfeur" (spelling?) switch and told the guy he must have a worn sear and to get it fixed. . . and gave the gun back to him. My customer hightailed it out of there and came back to the shop FAST.

I stripped the gun (these guns are beautifully made). . . and was shocked at what I found. It was not a normal Broomhandle inside, nor was it a normal machine pistol. . . but it was.

Instead of the Schnellfeur switch, this gun had a THREE position safety switch. One position was full safe, half way was a detent with single fire, and the full position had a detent that engaged a straw colored part that looked the same as all the other internal parts, and seemed the same vintage as the gun itself, that reached up and over to strike the sear, enabling controllable machine gun fire. It had to be an experimental model.

He didn't want it, so I refunded his money. The store owner decided we had to call ATF about it. (RATS)

Great stories. They almost make you cry at the stupidities inflicted on us by our insane gun laws.

“Why are repos from China $1500? Seems the price should be half that, it even that high.”

First, they are not imported from China anymore, and have not been for over 15 years.

Second, there is a lot of precise work that goes into converting a Mauser pistol into a Mauser carbine.

500 meter sights? That’s optimistic.