Pawn shop find: Mauser C96 Red-9 Broomhandle
 

Got this two weeks ago at a pawn shop that I drive by every day on the way to work. It is a few blocks from my office. I had checked them out in the past but they didn't sell guns. Two weeks ago I noticed they had a sign out saying that they were now selling guns. I bought this on the day after my birthday as a present to myself.

James..Sweet find! Looks very nice..I like the red 9's!

A friend of mine just wrote me yesterday saying to keep an eye out for a red nine ;)

Right as rain.
Congratulations. It's a lovely birthday present.

great find. congrats

Wonderful 9.

The sales of 9x19 is now known. Totally 140,649 "Red 9"s sold from 1916 to 1921. Both the s/n volume and Imperial Acceptance volume match today's collectors sample observation almost perfectly.

Year #sold #accumulative
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1916 24463 (24463)
1917 30000 (54463)
1918 64952 (119415)
1919 0
1920 14301 (133716)
1921 6933 (140649)

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[Edit] Studied the article published by Mauro and Vlim on June 2012 Gun and Sword Collector, and looked up "Mauser Archive" data again.... There were a few "Pistole7,63 Cal. 9" in 1927 Inventory List, but only 9 instances. That's a very small number. I would think those nine pistols were for Mauser internal experimental only, or special order, or, they might be 9x25 so they had 50-1000 sight. God knows. Too rare to tell. Inventory of 1921 showed only two 9mm (these must be Red 9, only two instances left unsold when they wrote down that table. Unfortunately, I did not see month/day on that table), and 409 C96 with hard rubber grips.... those 409 pistols must be so call "French Gendarme" variation which were fit in rubber grip in large volume. The other 34 pistols with wood grips were probably leftover of "Wartime NS 7,63".