Yet another 1930

[alvin]

One seller sent me a message saying that he had a "Flatside Commercial" for sale. The gun is a consignment item and the owner got it from his father who passed away 25 years ago. Now he need money so ....

By looking at it, well, it's not a Flatside, but a much more common Model 1930. "Where is your Flatside?" I asked. "This is the one. If you want it, it will be discounted."

The gun's in beautiful shape and mint bore. So I adopted this one.

[alvin]

At 1930s, bare gun without stock like this selling $75. Today's price is actually close to that. Considering inflation, today's price is almost same -- paid $1300 very scarce and very precious US dollars for it. Of course, it's 97% now, not NIB anymore.

[sheepherder]

Very nice! You must spend a lot of time looking for these excellent examples.

Do you think the grips are original? Around here, it is rare to see the lanyard ring still on the Mausers...most are missing, and replaced by keyring (split ring).

I like the M30's. That one has very nice looking mill cutter marks...some machinist put a bit of pride into milling that pistol...

[DavidJayUden]

Alvin:
Give me (us) a quick course on the different variations of brooms. Flatside is without the lightening mill work?
Thanks;
dju

[alvin]

Flatside started from 1899 Italian Navy Contract, without milling panels on the frame of the gun, but the receiver (barrel extension) still has milled slots on the rail. Without factory record, it's hard to guess why Mauser cancelled those panels, I would assume it's a Italian requirement to reduce the cost a few Marks. After Italian Navy contract, Mauser also made some commercials flatsides. The production returned to milled panels in 1901, not many flatsides were made. Nice flatside is relatively rare in today's market.

Interesting enough, many Italian Navy Contract guns had appeared in China in 1920s. Probably sold to Chinese warlords as surplus. Chinese loved the style of this "Golden Trigger Large Ring Mirror Top Box", reflecting it's strawed trigger, Large Ring Hammer, and Flat frame structure. Probably from Oriental taste, large ring hammer is prettier than small ring hammer. That would explain why Unceta y the CIA started with Small Ring and quickly switched to Large Ring in their Astra 900 series.

Regarding the grip panels, I would think they are original. Around 7~8 nice 1930s have passed though my hands, this one is same as others, unnumbered but with same wood material, same detail, and fits the grip frame perfect. Missing lanyard ring is uncommon on nice broomhandles, except vL&D. Some nice vL&D came without lanyard rings. Please also note the strawing left by heat treatment in the chamber.

[John Sabato]

Very Nice, thanks for sharing the photos!

[DavidJayUden]

Thanks Alvin.

[alvin]

A little bit side talk..... Regarding USD value, the book "China Marine: An Infantryman's Life after WWII" offered a vivid example. In 1945-1946, riding a rickshaw in Beiping cost USD 3 cents. Sixty years later, I visited the same city (now called Beijing), the charge converted to USD was 60 cents. Same service, same city, pure labor work reflects inflation better, because new technology does not help anything here.

[azlaw]

Man, that's nice. I'm going to run my older commercial in the Cowboy Action matches, but it will be a pain chasing after the expensive 7.63mm Mauser brass. Maybe a later model 9mm (in worse shape of course) would be a good addition to the fleet.

H

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by azlaw

...I'm going to run my older commercial [Broomhandle Mauser] in the Cowboy Action matches...

My mind just can not picture a 10-gallon hat [think Hoss Cartwright], plaid shirt + neckerchief, jeans w/leather chaps, Tony Lamas w/spurs...and an M1896 Mauser in a gunslinger rig...

You simply *must* post a pic of yourself in your Cowboy Action garb...perhaps get your spouse to shoot a pic of you going into action, pistol drawn...

[abukafura]

Very nice broomhandle. Thanks for sharing.

[c3006]

Clint Eastwood used one in a cowboy movie once.

[alvin]

When people looking at Broom, it's natural to remember Winston Churchill, Star War, etc. Have you read this book?

Link - Harrison Salisbury's "Long March: The Untold Story (1985)".

[azlaw]

Two words - "Joe Kidd"

Clint Eastwood plays Clint, Robert Duval plays the bad guy, and the ever-flexible John Saxon plays the wanna-be Mexican revolutionary leader - hilarious.

I think Clint gets about 100 rounds out of his 10 shot magazine.

Plus it was in "Staring Pancho Villa as Himself", as well as in the real Mexican Revolution, where German weaponry figured prominently, culminating in the famous "Zimmerman Telegram".

I have the belt and holster rig done, butchered up a Chinese replica of a Chinese military holster. I'll have to consider the hat issue, so many choices.

H

[alanint]

I would go with a Pancho Villa punitive expedition campaign hat-uniform

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by azlaw

I have the belt and holster rig done, butchered up a Chinese replica of a Chinese military holster.

Too bad. Some of those are excellently done.

You might want to consider having a holster made especially for your exhibition. I had a custom high-ride holster made for my Star by one of the newcomers at -

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showforum=29

Reasonable prices, excellent workmanship, quick delivery, and exactly what I wanted - not some big companies idea of what I should have...

To get back to the Mauser...A gunfighter rig made to fit the Mauser would be an eyeball-expander...

maybe even a 2-gun rig, separate L & R crossed rigs, with M96's blazing away...Mwahahahaha...

[azlaw]

Originally Posted by alanint

I would go with a Pancho Villa punitive expedition campaign hat-uniform

I actually have one of those, since you mention it...

H

[alvin]

Next time to Beijing, I will carry some holsters back selling to cover my ticket cost. Dirty cheap stuffs. Those leather fits OK in general. The replica wood holster is poorly made low quality stuff, everything that can go wrong goes wrong, even blind guys can tell they are fake. But those have specific market -- I sold some in the past, easily went $80-$100 per piece. Nowadays, probably harder to be profitable, too many people selling those items on the market.

====

[Edit] Also thought about making a bunch of bolt stop and selling them for range guns. I saw people listing those $80 on ebay. $80 was probably too high to sell. But $20-$30 should have a small market. Cost was $1. But my friend did not like the idea -- if it fails and bolt flies out hitting shooter's face .... a big liability issue. Holster is safe. At most it does not fit well and the gun swims inside.

[azlaw]

Here are some photos of the Mauser rig for Cowboy Action Shooting:







and just so you guys will believe me on the Mexican Revolution thing, here is a Mexican Revolutionary babe with a Luger...



and I had better get the Mauser to run properly, otherwise, with the 1918 out with a broken ejector, I am left with the Pimpgewehr (this was Herman Goering's personal pistol, naturally):

[alvin]

Four big users of Mauser Selbstlader were China, Latin America, Russia, and Germany (in tens, or even hundreds of thousands scale). There are also smaller players, like Britain, Italy, Turkey, Siam, Middle East, South Africa, etc. The study of Mauser usage in Latin America is very blank so far.