Shansei Mausers new/ old ?
 

This is a general question regarding the Shansei .45 Broomhandles /C96 / Type 17 - whatever you want to call them,
pistols. Every so often I look around for info on these, specifically if anyone has ever fully established ( not just assumed ) that the
small herd of them that came on the market some years back were in fact new production from China or originals. I myself always assumed they were new made but never really cared either way, I was just happy to have one. I read an interesting passage from this site: http://www.pmulcahy.com/pistols/german_pistols_l-m.htm - I had not heard before that new metallurgy was detected in these pistols. The site I quoted from didn't seem to quote any sources for their statement. So I'm really left with the same questions.

Any insights? Also, whatever happened to IAR, Inc who brought a bunch of these Chinese pistols to market??

Jerry

Given the volume of those .45ACP on the market, it does not look like a gun with only 8000 samples made in 1920s. And given the general shape of many IARs, it's safe to say they were newly assembled.

The question is : were they assembled from old parts?

Hard to tell. But there are some side hints. Chinese official told Brenner (a U.S. wholesale importer) that most of those guns were used to contribute raw material to Chairman Mao's backyard steel smelters during the Great Leap Forward Movement. Assume that's not a lie, then a natural question is: if complete guns were not kept, why did they keep parts.

As I recall, all of the .45 Shansis have a date on the right side in Chinese characters and the newer ones are dated in the 1980s. TH