Yet another C96??

[alvin]

Originally Posted by Diver6106

With such a low number and in such excellent condition for age, it MUST have sat in the armory, not even holstered, for a very long time!!!

Yeah,,, amazing. There are some collectors collect nothing except this particular variation of C96. From my observation on the market, 10-shot conehammer was roughly sub-divided into a few sub-variations, in rarity and desirable rank:

In 10-shot "Zehnlader" context:

1) System Mauser. This is the king in this variation.

2) Turkish. Turkey was not a rich country, gun falling into their hands ,,, its fate was not better than falling into Chinese warlords' hands. This is the queen in this variation.

3) Conehammer with thin receiver. Most of them were 3-digit s/n. A few of them had higher s/n but still under 2000. This is the prince in this variation.

4) Conehammer with 300 sight, conehammer with 303 Mauser cartridge sight, fix sight, etc.

5) Relatively early conehammer with 1-10 sight (this particular sample falls into this category).

6) Relatively late conehammer with 50-500 sight (more common).

1, 2, and 3 are rare in the US. British did not have them then, so US did not have many of them now (most conehammers in US came from British). 4, 5, and 6 shows up relatively more frequently from time to time, many of them were well preserved. English-speaking people preserved guns well.