Mauser c96 Caliber

[alvin]

There were a few prewar bolos being 9x25mm Mauser Export caliber, very rare. The chance this one being 9x25mm is almost zero. All postwar bolos that I have seen were 7,63mm. Many were converted to 9x19mm Luger in the US due to old bore was too worn. If previous owner told you it's 9mm Luger, most likely that's the way it is now. To tell for sure, you need to measure its current bore diameter. Simpler way is to post a picture of the muzzle, should be easy to tell.

For safety, it depends on gun's overall condition. I fired quite a few Mausers, from Conehammer to Schnellfeuer, none of those failed so far. But those were relatively good condition pistols. For the particular one you mentioned being safe or not, need to find a local gunsmith to check, or you take the risk. Usually, very worn gun is easy to tell,, action is loose, sight leaf spring is very weak, trigger is sluggish, sear and disconnector don't work properly in inspection etc.

The worst two that I had fired were these two in the 1st photo, no blue left, bore is not great either. But the action was still tight. I fired 20 rounds from each of them, both worked perfectly, of course, no accuracy, keyholes on target paper, but that's expected. The alone one in the 2nd photo, although has blue left, but I dared not fire it -- when I shake it in hand, I can feel the receiver is moving. So, case by case, cannot totally depend on exterior appearance.