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leather/wood
 

Thanks again guys. Does the leather and wood look good or not? As has been said here before, many fakes abound.

All the best!

Van

There is no question the leather & rod sure look to me to be 100% original. As well as the stock. a very nice rig. At a good price.

Ya done good!

Tom A

Excellent rig. You may want to show it to the C/96 guys who reside over here:

http://www.1896mauser.com/forum

Hi there Van,

Gerben is right about posting this on the 1896Mauser Forum as well as the C96 Forum on yahoo. Also, please show some pics of the whole gun itself. Show things like the 500m rear sight, the step-frame, the barrel, etc. All these help authenticate it as a true WWI Prussian Contract 9mm C96. Have you shot it yet?

Russell

thanks guys! I registered over on the '96 mauser site and will post some pics there.

Again, many thanks,

vroyce

Don't get me wrong here Van,

For the best collection of minds and eyes concerning any collectable firearms, especially European handguns, this is the place to get the answers. A second best choice is Jan Still's forum mostly because most of the same experts who moderate and/or post here also do so there. The forums dedicated to the C96 are dominated by people who like to shoot their guns a lot. Here the emphasis is on collecting guns that rarely if ever get shot. The people here have helped me a lot since I signed on with my first Luger a few moths ago. I still like to shoot when I can.

Russell

Very nice rig Van,
You might also want to enter your red nine in Jan Stills forum under a topic (heterogeneity of red nine grips) within the â??central powers pistolsâ?� category. http://luger.gunboards.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4844.
There was a progressive change in grip pattern(from fine to course grooves) during production of the red nine.Your red nine appears to be one of the last ones to have the fine grip pattern with 32 or 33 grooves countable in your left grip picture.
I am assuming that the grips are matched.
John

Van, As John mentioned above, the complete serial number of your Red Nine should be stamped inside BOTH grip panels. Those made prior to about 60,000 range will NOT have factory "Branded" Red Nines on the grips, but many were crudely marked later in the field. TH

Thanks again guys. Here are the grips and some wierd markings on the underside of the barrel base?????

Van

stampings

Van,
Tom (lugerdoc) brings up an interesting topic, that the mauser factory was directed to mark grips of the 9mm contract with a red nine almost a year after production had started. This directive also ordered a red nine to be applied in the field to previously issued 9mm C96 grips and these red nines can be very crude when compared to the factory applied red nine. However many of the early production 9mm C96 have what appear to be factory red nines applied to an early production fine groove grip. Examples of these red nine grips are shown in the following topic:.
http://luger.gunboards.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4844.
John