Posted on 01/08/2020 1:52:25 PM PST by MrEdd
Okay, I was reading old pulp novels and finishing off the Christmas oranges and I got the idea (Okay, I stole the idea from the book and extrapolated it) to look into seeing what modern gunsmiths (who have access to allows and machine tools never imagined 90 years ago) might do with replicating the weapons most appearing in the books I was reading?
I have seen the double barrel Colt 1911 models...but what about the Mauser C96? With modern steel could one be made to fire small rifle cartridges of the period (30-30 maybe?) And how about the Thompson Submachine gun?
Does someone have some websites or YouTube chanels dedicated specifically to doing cool things with classic ninteen hundred to nineteen thirties designs only with modern materials?
Sloe gin has nothing to do with this post.
A sloe gin fizz at this hour? mmmmmm......OK. In college that was the first cocktail I got truly smashed on.
I have several C96 & C1930. Some in 7.63mm Mauser with shot out bores were rebored to 9mm, others have relined barrels.
The frame & action are quite strong but it’s best to enjoy them with factory loads. Might go to youtube for some vids on firing, maintenance, etc.
The Mauser `Broomhandle’ is a classic gun with charisma & a fit & finish unknown today.
In 1984 after Ronald Reagan repealed the import embargo on surplus military firearms, Broomhandle pistols flooded in from China where it has the same legend there as the Colt Peacemaker does here. Go to gunbroker.com and browse, and good luck.
I love the C96 and owned one for many years.
Churchill loved his too.
I love the C96 and owned one for many years.
Churchill loved his too.
I don’t know of any articles, but a .30-30 out of a pistol that weighs less than 3 lbs? Yowch!!! I think you’d want to use the stock, but if it was re-chambered to a different cartridge, I think it would lose its special status as a collector’s item and qualify as a short-barrel rifle subject to the NFA.
Also, .30-30 is a rimmed cartridge, where the C96 was designed to feed the rimless 7.63 Mauser.
A short-barreled firearm with modern materials and a magazine feeding in front of the pistol-grip sounds a lot like an AR pistol.
I have seen Ruger Blackhawk Revolvers in .30 M1 Carbine. That is also a rimless cartridge, so it could be possible to upgrade the C-96 to that, but the broomhandle grips would likely be a real problem with anything much more powerful than 9mm.
They’re a cult classic, that’s for sure. The ergonomics are weird, and they’re about the only gun that can beat the Ruger MK II for takedown / reassembly nightmares.
Got to handle a M712 once, but alas didn’t get a chance to fire it. Probably just as well.
Just checking back on this. Looks like my autocorrect changed alloys into allows.
Yeah, I know that 30-30 is rimmed, and about the weight issue but people have done rim fire conversions on Mauser rifles, and as you said there is that stock. Maybe you could make a recoil dampening spring hidden in a stock that looked...like a stock stock. And sell it on ...oops stop this sketch, its too silly.
Anyhoo, the double barrel Colts use modern grades of steel whether they have one wide slide or two seperate slide and they have one hell of a recoil to I would imagine.
The Idea is not to make something practical, but to make something that looks cool actually functional...even if you have to clamp it to the table to keep from spraining both your thumb and your wrist when you fire it. Technically it works.
One of those “hold my Schnapps” sort of things.
And finally the BIG question: Why?
Oh.
For the same reason as the double barrel colts.
Because it’s cool.
Even if its not practical you can write books and make movies where someone runs around with one.
“It shoots through schools”
People look for weapon on the internet and watch it blow up hams and turkeys, and mythbusters tells everybody why they would never want one...but secretly we all want one anyway we just don’t want it at what it actually costs.
Why do kids melt plastic army men with magnifying glasses, or put firecrackers in trash barrels.
A local gun store had a Broom Handle in good shape for $500, but the honest store manager said he would recommend NOT firing it. I came close, but didn’t buy it. It’s on my bucket list for a bunch more money.
The coolest non-typical guns ever were on “Gun Stories” on The Outdoors Channel: a right and left-handed pair of M 1911’s completely made from a meteorite.
If I saw that Broomhandle for $500 & the finish was OK, I would have bought it. The only real firing hazard is a worn bolt stop, which is easily replaced.
Hope it is still available. Broomhandles are getting costly these days. I should point out that Broomhandles made in China were produced in the 1920’s & 1930’s and are generally of good quality. These were not made under communism but were the result of the Great Powers embargo which forbade import of handguns and rifles, although the Broomhandle under the embargo was neither fish nor fowl and could be imported.
My favorite is the Chinese Type 43 which was a Chinese made frame on a German made barrel & extension, that takes detachable magazines. These are in 9mm only.
Let me know if I can help with more info. Been collecting since 1986 but my interest goes all the way back to the movie Lawrence of Arabia (1962) where the enemy Turks carried Broomhandles and one dazed trainwrecked Turk tries & fails to kill Lawrence with repeated misaimed shots.
At age 15 I said, “I want one of those!”
;^)
Don’t forget ... Han Solo carried a McGuffined C96!!!
Thanks
Very pretty. I bought the CO2 bb gun version because no way am I going to pay 2K+ for a paperweight.
(And if I want a paperweight, I’ll buy a Luger instead, marginally more useful)
WHY,,,?
SLOE GIN.
Yup nostalgia.
I joined the Marine Corps at seventeen and the drinking age then was eighteen. When I reported to 29 Palms after basic I was old enough but never cared to spend time at it.
When I was nineteen my glasses were broken and the corpsmen kept screwing around getting new spectacles. So I learned to drink and then drank enough to get a pretty good case of alcohol poisoning.
I learned to handle a large tolerance in later years but I have always been a cheap bastard. When we were stateside I talked the platoon into everybody getting a motel room in Jacksonville instead of bar crawling outside Lejeune.
I bought a Mister Boston guide, some tools and a shaker and would load up at the package store. Guys with girlfriends could have them in their room, we had a swimming pool, I could play wargames or roleplaying games in my room and even after paying the motel it was a helluva lot cheaper than bar crawling.
I have never been much for sour drinks but a lot of the girlfriends wanted Sloe Gin Fizzes. I learned to like them a bit.
I’m still too damned cheap to shell out for someone else to be bartender though.
“A local gun store had a Broom Handle in good shape for $500...”
Last time my local gun store had a C96 they wanted $1400 for it, about 10 years ago. It was and is the only one I’ve ever actually laid eyes on, and I want one REAL BAD. I’ve also been trying to find blueprints for them. And I’m building my own machine shop in case I ever manage to do so. :(
I think this gun wasn’t safe to fire.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.