Mauser c96

[Crazybuldr]

I have a wartime Mauser with all the correct markings and parts BUT my serial number is pre war. Can anyone help

[JonInWA]

No expert on C96s, but they were a substitute standard pistol. Assuming you are talking WWII, Mauser production would have been centered around P.08 and P.38 pistols ( and 98K rifles, etc.). A C96 could have been made/ batch produced earlier, warehoused, and sold/issued significantly later. Same with WWI ( sans the P.38). Best, Jon

[ralph]

I have a wartime Mauser with all the correct markings and parts BUT my serial number is pre war. Can anyone help


As John pointed out above, it could've been made earlier, if I recall correctly, Mauser made these until sometime in the 1920's. So, it's quite possible that it was pressed into service in WWII, The Germans were'nt shy about using leftovers from WWI, especially when it was clear they were losing, and their manfacturing base was literally being flattened.. They needed guns, and they needed them now, and a C96, while not as sexy as a Luger, or a P-38, would work well enough.. check out forgotten weapons, I'm sure there is at least one video on the C96,
www.forgottenweapons.com

[Crazybuldr]

Thank you
All the documentation I have found shows that I have a wartime gun but the earliest serial numbers for my gun are in the 270,000 range and my gun is in the 233,000s
Go figure🥴

[TGS]

I have a wartime Mauser with all the correct markings and parts BUT my serial number is pre war. Can anyone help

What's your actual question?

[Crazybuldr]

Thanks
It was just my serial number is way low for a commercial wartime C96
But all the parts on mine are commercial wartime
All numbers are matching, so I was curious if any one knew of any commercial wartime’s in the 233,000 range 😀

[TGS]

Thanks
It was just my serial number is way low for a commercial wartime C96
But all the parts on mine are commercial wartime
All numbers are matching, so I was curious if any one knew of any commercial wartime’s in the 233,000 range 😀

1) How do you know its "commercial wartime" when the serial numbers say it's not?

2) Commercial Wartime for WWI? C96s weren't produced during WWII, as pointed out by Ralph and Jon.

In other words, it's not a commercial WWII pistol. It's a commercial WWI pistol. 233,000 serial number is right smack somewhere during the first years of WWI, possibly just before.

[Crazybuldr]

Thank you

[Crazybuldr]

By Serial Number

Classification by serial number doesn't work all that well either. Although the Mauser serial number system is simple in theory - start at 1 and go up to whatever - it was violated in practice. Mauser skipped some sizeable blocks of numbers in the early days, sometimes filling them in subsequently with later-production pistols. And some contract guns had their own serial numbers, starting again at 1. The Schnellfeuer had its own series, also starting at 1. So Mauser actually made at least four C-96s with the serial number 4095 (to pick a number more-or-less at random). Low serial number guns with later production features turn up, implying smaller and otherwise unknown contract runs with their own serial ranges, so exactly how many guns with a particular serial number were actually made can be hard to determine. Higher serial numbers are unique, though, as the highest serial contract gun would be about 139000, from the 1916 Prussian Contract, and the highest serial Schnellfeuer was somewhere around 95000. So a high number like 881837, as seen on one of my M-30s, is a number unique among C-96s.

It remains difficult to account for "flyers" - guns with serials substantially separated from their sisters with identical production features. A good example is 232232, by all appearances a Wartime Commercial. But the immediately previous version, the Prewar Commercial, is found with serials well into the 270000 range. Nearly all surviving Wartime Commercials have serials above the 290000 range. So what exactly was going on at Mauser between the times the 232000 and 290000 ranges were made? Was 232232 actually made at the same time as the 290000-range pistols, but given a lower number to fill in a previously-skipped number block? At this late date it is generally impossible to say.
To finish up the mysterious case of number 232232: The best theory is that 232232 started life as an ordinary Prewar Commercial, but was returned to the factory for a defective safety. She was then retrofitted with the New Safety hammer and safety lever. Since the only differences between the Prewar and Wartime commercial guns were those two parts, 232232 was magically transformed from a Prewar to a Wartime Commercial. Perhaps that's how it happened, but absent a paper trail, we can't say for sure.

[HCM]

Have you shot your C96 ?

[Crazybuldr]

Not yet
Ordered some stripper clips and am waiting for them

[ralph]

By Serial Number

Classification by serial number doesn't work all that well either. Although the Mauser serial number system is simple in theory - start at 1 and go up to whatever - it was violated in practice. Mauser skipped some sizeable blocks of numbers in the early days, sometimes filling them in subsequently with later-production pistols. And some contract guns had their own serial numbers, starting again at 1. The Schnellfeuer had its own series, also starting at 1. So Mauser actually made at least four C-96s with the serial number 4095 (to pick a number more-or-less at random). Low serial number guns with later production features turn up, implying smaller and otherwise unknown contract runs with their own serial ranges, so exactly how many guns with a particular serial number were actually made can be hard to determine. Higher serial numbers are unique, though, as the highest serial contract gun would be about 139000, from the 1916 Prussian Contract, and the highest serial Schnellfeuer was somewhere around 95000. So a high number like 881837, as seen on one of my M-30s, is a number unique among C-96s.

It remains difficult to account for "flyers" - guns with serials substantially separated from their sisters with identical production features. A good example is 232232, by all appearances a Wartime Commercial. But the immediately previous version, the Prewar Commercial, is found with serials well into the 270000 range. Nearly all surviving Wartime Commercials have serials above the 290000 range. So what exactly was going on at Mauser between the times the 232000 and 290000 ranges were made? Was 232232 actually made at the same time as the 290000-range pistols, but given a lower number to fill in a previously-skipped number block? At this late date it is generally impossible to say.
To finish up the mysterious case of number 232232: The best theory is that 232232 started life as an ordinary Prewar Commercial, but was returned to the factory for a defective safety. She was then retrofitted with the New Safety hammer and safety lever. Since the only differences between the Prewar and Wartime commercial guns were those two parts, 232232 was magically transformed from a Prewar to a Wartime Commercial. Perhaps that's how it happened, but absent a paper trail, we can't say for sure.

And that's the problem, as almost all of Mauser's documents were destroyed during the war, that's why for example, no service manuals exist for Mauser rifles, and most likely not for pistols either. You'll probably never know for sure exactly what happened,or what it's past history is.. God only knows where it's been. If these things could only talk..

[Crazybuldr]

So true

[HCM]

Not yet
Ordered some stripper clips and am waiting for them

They are a lot of fun.

[Jeep]

They are a lot of fun.

I have always wanted a Mauser 96. But they cost a lot, parts can be a problem, and ammo isn't cheap.

So I shoot a Tokarev as kind of the Chevy version of the real thing.

[UNM1136]

I have wanted one forever, too....but I would not be kind to it, most likely. I would likely modify it to be a Han Solo blaster.

pat

[morgandollar21]

Hey chatters.
Sorry to barge in on your tape, but i just wanted to ask the specialists here about markings on Mauser C96 series number in 423XXX series. I got one with a Star of David on the underbarrel and was wondering if anyone knows what this marking might be about, or other markings in the picture . see the picture.

https://gbapics-bbhmapccg7fxbje0.z01.azurefd.net/pics/1033720000/1033720664/pix711725055.jpg