Contrary to common belief, the C96 was not invented by Paul Mauser,
but by the Feederle brothers (Fidel, Friedrich, and Josef). Fidel
Feederle
was the Superintendent of the Experimental Work Shop, and it is
reported that the C96 (then referred to as P-7.63 or the Feederle
Pistol)
was designed and prototyped without the knowledge and against the
wishes of Paul Mauser. Be that as it may, production began in 1896,
and
ended about 1939 with over one million C96 pistols produced.
Paul Mauser named the C96 the "Mauser Military Pistol" in the
hopes
that it would achieve large sales through its adoption by the
Germany
army or the army of one of the other major powers, but his hopes
were
never realized. While limited numbers of the C96 pistol were purchased
for issue to members of the armed forces and/or police of Germany,
China, Indonesia, Persia, Turkey, Italy, and possibly Norway (and
unofficially used by the troops of a large number of other countries),
it
was never officially adopted by any country as their primary sidearm.
Before getting into the variations and characteristics of the
C96 pistol,
some background and cautions are in order. All of the Mauser
production and corporate records retained at the Mauser plant
were
destroyed in 1945, by order of the U.S. Army officer in command
at the
captured Mauser plant. While I cannot tell you what I think of
this little
act of senseless vandalism (without resorting to language even
*I* find
offensive), I will say that this action has bedeviled Mauser collectors
ever since.
In the absence of factory records which show when which pistol
was
made (or even the number of pistols made in any given year) people
have attempted to determine the year that their specific pistol
was
produced based on serial number. Such attempts are fraught with
peril.
In the early years of production the big Mauser pistol was not
especially
popular, and sales were poor. In order to make it appear that
more
pistols had been sold than was actually the case, Mauser skipped
blocks
of serial numbers. In the later years it appears that some attempt
was
made to fill in these missing blocks of numbers. To add to the
confusion
pistols made under contract were usually (but not always) serial
numbered in their own series, beginning with number "1". All of
which
means that pistols which appear, based on their serial number,
to have
been made early may actually have been made much later. The
converse is also true.
All firearms tend to evolve over the years of their production.
Sometimes these changes are made to improve function or appearance.
Sometimes they are made to reduce production costs. Sometimes
they
are made for no discernible reason. Nowhere is this more true
than the
C96. Over the forty odd years that the C96 was produced a large
number of changes were made. Markings were changed, the shape
and
size of parts changed, at least four different types of safeties
were
produced, and even the milling patterns on the frames changed.
This evolution of the C96 has provided another technique which
has
been used to date specific pistols - dating by the mechanical
characteristics and appearance of a specific pistol. Unfortunately,
this
technique also has its problems. There appear to have been times
when
Mauser would make a change to the C96, produce several hundred
or
several thousand pistols with these changes, revert to the old
way of
making C96's for a dozen or a thousand or so pistols, then go
back to
producing the pistols with the changes. It's almost as if the
folks at
Mauser would find cases of C96 parts, lost in some forgotten corner
of
the warehouse for years, and include them in current production
until
they ran out, at which point the would return to making C96's
the way
they did before they found the lost parts.
It can be really very frustrating...
The significance of all this is that it is next to impossible
to accurately
determine even the year in which a specific pistol was made, much
less
the actual date.
And it has taught me to use the words "probably", "likely", and
"seems"
a lot. I have found that the times I'm most likely (there's one
of those
words!) to be wrong is when I'm most sure I'm right. Sigh...
-By
Kyrie Ellis
kyrieellis@aol.com
used
with permission
|
The
Mauser 1896 
