This particular Chinese pistol is a great example of all the elements of a proper Chinese Mystery Pistol: sights that don’t function, gibberish markings, mechanical derivation from the Browning 1900, aesthetic elements form the C96 Broomhandle Mauser, and clearly handmade parts. However, this one is a particularly high quality example of the type.
Bolt Action Rifles
Vintage Saturday: Mr. Lee Goes to China
Note the bandoliers of individual cartridges – these Lee-Metfords predate the adoption of charger clips, and would have been reloading one round at a time.
Rocket launcher
The Ubiquitous RPG-7 (Video)
The RPG-7 is pretty far from being a forgotten weapon, but I was not going to pass up an opportunity to take a closer look at a live one. This example is one of the […]
Semiauto pistol
Shansei .45ACP Broomhandle Mauser at RIA (Video)
During the Chinese civil war in the 1920s and 30s, international arms embargoes made rifles difficult to acquire – which led to a lot of popularity for pistols with shoulder stocks. The C96 “broomhandle” Mauser […]
Dare I ask: What cartridge is it chambered for, with slots on both sides of the magazine, and additional inspection holes?
Also: where did those nice grips come from?
Thanks Ian.
Fantastic, your presentation, not so much the pistol.
Wanted to see some Chinese writings but there were none.
What was its caliber?
Maybe the bullets had to be handmade for it also.
🙂
Pat
Pretty sure it used .32ACP.
There IS an advantage of putting an ornamental hammer on a striker fired pistol slide; if one drops it in battle, the enemy can pick it up, but won’t be able to figure out how to shoot you!
fantastic pistol. I especially like the hammer.
PS: I am using Full30 and like it a lot, but I found out that it doesn’t matter if you subscribe to a channel or not. All the videos appear regardless. Can’t you change that?
The reason to subscribe it to receive email notification when new videos post – all the videos are supposed to be visible to everyone.
My guess is that it’s 7.65 Browning (.32 ACP), simply because that seems to be the “default” caliber for these weapons.
It seems a workmanlike copy of the 1900. And if you’ll pardon me going into writer mode, the real test is;
It’s 1932, and you’re on the Shanghai docks at 0200. A gang of local boohow doy want to “talk” to you, and Fairbairn and his cops are nowhere about.
If all you’ve got is this plus a Model 1918 LF&C trench knife, can you use them effectively enough to see the sunrise?
My guess would be, the pistol is no more likely to let you down than that trench knife is. You just have to know what to do with both.
cheers
eon
These pistols are quite fascinating! I have to wonder about the circumstances under which this one was made. Was a machinist commissioned to make it, or or did someone make it speculatively hoping to make a bit of money selling it? We’ll probably never know. However if you go to China today, there’s large numbers of small shops making various knock-offs of nearly everything. If there’s a way to make a bit of money, the Chinese will find it.
Fake barrel may lead accidents
It’s very cool, for something handmade.
How do you tell this is Chinese, not from Khyber pass?
It has characteristics much more in line with a Chinese pistol.
This is like the love child of the Chiappa Rhino and the R51.