Mauser Showdown at the Range – C96, Carbine, and Schnellfeuer

I’ve been promising this range video for a while now, and here it is. We took all three configurations of the C96 Broomhandle Mauser – a pistol, a carbine, and a machine pistol – out to the range for some comparisons.

The Mauser pistol we used was a fairly standard model – a commercial variant with a 4″ barrel in 7.63 Mauser caliber.

The carbine was also a commercial piece, because the carbine versions ,of the Mauser pistol were never adopted by a military force. They were sold as commercial sporting weapons only.

The machine pistol, known as the Mauser 712 or Schnellfeuer, was issued to German reconnaissance and naval troops for a short time until it was replaced with full size submachine guns that were much more effective. The full auto pistols were also very popular in China in the 1920s and 30s, and that is where more Schnellfeuers were sold (where they were competing with automatic Astra pistols).

6 Comments

  1. Yeah,
    Schnellfeuer 712 is a way better than any other models and very big succesor of C96 series,no wonder why German SS troops liked it soo much….

    A little Question for you Ian,which model does shoots faster M712,Stechkin APS,Beretta 93 R,Glock 18C or it actualy VP70 after all after it have incredible rate of fire 2200 rds/min??

  2. Oh,
    Its matter becouse not just fast firing but also less jamming also important,seems H&K VP70 less jamming automatic pistol..

    Germans cannot make faulty or malufanctional guns,their models are best to work and contain mostly less parts than other guns and this is secret of any firearm to have less moving parts as possible..

  3. Really enjoyed this video, I had no idea that a machine pistol version of the C96 was built. That 7.63×25 Mauser is a pretty hot round and I was really surprise at the cyclic rate of the action. While the idea of a machine pistol seems useful in CQB, what it lacks is true one handed control, if I need both hands and/or a stock then I need a SMG. With our understanding of barrel porting and muzzle brakes it seems possible to eliminate muzzle flip and send the recoil forces straight back. The Soviets got the cartridge right with the 9×18 and some of their machine pistols showed real promise, although I am not sure how battle proven they were. The Å korpion vz. 61 is another great design and built in several pistol calibers. Keep up the great work.

  4. Hi, Ian, congrats on another amazing video.

    One queastion – does the carbine version of c96 have any modifications to automatics – c96 pistol operates on short reciol, so the barel weight is important to the cycling of the gun. How germans achiewed reliable cycling of carbine with barel that mouch heawier than on the pistol? I know that for, I think, the similar reasons p08 luger carbines have extra spring in wooden forend to push barel forwards.

    I think as a gunsmith you can explain that stuf for mee.

    Greatings from Lithuania.

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