Shooting a Mauser 1914 in range
 

I went to range today shooting a Mauser 1914, a relatively early #3188. Fired 110 rounds. The trigger pull is excellent on this gun and it's accurate. Everything worked fine except two empty cartridge cases failed to eject.

Originally, I thought the jamming might come from Federal's 71gr ammo. Could it be too weak to push the slide backward enough? By dragging the slide wide open, to my surprise -- this gun does not have a formal ejector and the ejection function is performed by the firing pin, like a Browning pocket pistol. Unfortunately, the firing pin on this gun protruding too little (around 1m/m), it's long enough to perform its firing pin function, but as an ejector.... doubtful.

Is this a "feature" on early 1914? I don't know. Any thought?

Alvin,
I think you will find that the slot below the firing pin is there for the ejector/holdopen on the frame

Rich -- Thanks! You're right!! I just checked again. It does have a conventional ejector, as an integrated part of that Mauser specific slide hook. I missed it earlier.

Now, I have to rethink why it jammed. Fifty 71gr Federal "American Eagle" fired, two failed ejection. Fifty Czech made 73gr worked fine. Ten Remington worked fine as well. Probably need to shoot more to find why.

I've never owned or fired one of those. A guy that used to work at an old long gone gun shop used to have a 1934 in 7.65/.32 acp and a 1910 in 6.35/.25 acp. He used to boast how accurate the 1910 was and one day I was at the shop he had the 1910 out in his saddle bags of his motorcycle and he took it down to the range on the shop grounds and showed me how accurate it was. At the distance he fired at, the pistol was scary accurate. I never seen a .25 that size then or since perform so well. He would say that those Mauser pistols were sleepers in the accuracy dept.

Alvin, it may not be the reason why it jammed.. but I agree that the firing pin looks a bit too short.

Attachment 23358
Edit;
I see now that it's a bit unclear from the picture.. It's just the top one that is 1910, the other two are 1914/34.

Since it has a conventional ejector, now I guess the jamming was ammo related. The ejector/slide catch on this particular instance is numbered to the gun, and looks very healthy.

There will be a gun show at the end of the month, I will try to find some .32ACP ammo and if available, a replacement firing pin.

Just coming back from range. Trouble cause identified!

The jamming was caused by the broken magazine. There was a "bubble" on the mouth of the magazine, which causes feeding and ejecting issues. After careful checking, I found there was a crack on the magazine wall. With this crack, the magazine mouth by itself was not strong enough to hold its shape and was damaged by the rim of the cartridge.

After identified this issue, I tried a good 1934 magazine in this M1914, fired 150 rounds (including 50 Serbian made JHP) -- everything worked without any trouble.

Early 1914's magazine with this type of bottom must be hard to find :(

Alvin, It appears that your identified the problem. The early "split-tail" original mags will be difficult to find and expensive in nice condition. I do have new repros available @$35 each + S&H, which would serve well for shooting, and save your original mag for it's collector value. TH PS: I also have most other M1914 & 34 parts available, including new repro FPs.

Tom, thanks!

Currently, I am trying to sell this gun. I will contact you if this gun does not go.

The finish of this gun looks like cold blue because the trigger guard minor worn area shows copper color.

Somewhere I read that's supposed to be cold blue (a PDF on mauserguns.com). But I don't know Mauser 1914. Any information?

All 1910s and 1914s I have seen have been rust blued. If I recall correctly, the caustic bluing wasn't commonly used until the 1930s so some 1934s could possibly have a caustic blue.

I have a few older .32s (the Mauser 1914 is one of them) that seem to misfeed more often than normal, and somebody said that this could be because modern .32 bullets have a slightly different shape than older bullets. Does anybody have more info on this?

Yes. I have a 1934 and it's salt blued (a.k.a caustic blue). But that's still a hot blue process, not cold blue.

Cold blue does look like rust blue though. Someone is interested in this gun. Although I only ask modest price, I don't want to give him wrong info. However, I am lost on 1914 myself.

I have never heard of any guns with a factory applied cold blue, I'd rather think that the "cold blue" they are referring to is actually rust blue.

It's also hard for me to believe Mauser could apply cold blue on guns.

Was this PDF written by a member here, or in Jan's forum? I'd like to forward my question. Thanks!