Broomhandle info needed

[MarkC]

Guys,

It turns out my dad has an old Broomhandle Mauser serial number 248450. It is completely matching as I field stripped it and cleaned her. The gun has been sitting around for many, many, many years, but I took her apart and she works great after a lot of work with crud removal on the box mag plate pin and trigger and mag plate spring.

Well after that, we shot the gun (50 rounds) and it functions perfectly. Does anyone know when this was manufactured based on the serial number?

Also the grips are marked 6BI on one side and IA on the other. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mark

[kidvett]

Hello Mark,

From your description & based on the SN, your pistol seems like a Pre War Commercial. It should have a 5.5 in bbl, 7.63 mm Cal, 6 grooves rifling, 34 lines grips, fire blued small parts & should not have the New Safety ( NS ) stamped on the hammer's rear.

Of all the C96 variations produced, the Commercial 5.5 inch 7.63mm is the most common. A Pre War is always more desirable than a Wartime gun......and they are GREAT pistols !!

Any photos ??

MARK

[pisto]

Marc,
you can also check the Broomhandle database!

http://armscollectors.com/sn/c96lookup.php

http://www.g6csy.net/c96/database.html

I agree with Mark, they are superp and interesting pistols, although many say ugly.

kind regards

[MarkC]

Mark and Roland,

Thanks very much for the information. I really enjoyed shooting this gun!

I don't have any photos of the pistol, the overal blue is 20%. After I put the gun in my ultrasonic cleaner, the brown disappeared and the blue showed up.

Internally the gun looks new with some of the small parts having that fire blue finish.

Mark

[Navy]

Markc,

I *strongly* recommend you get a new, American made bolt stop and install it when you shoot your old 'broom. The old bolt stops have been known to break under firing stress and no one likes that but your reconstructive surgery team.

Likewise, be *very* careful to avoid the Czech SMG ammo that is occasionally sold as 7.63 Mauser...it will beat a broom to death very quickly.

Tom A.

[MarkC]

Tom,

Thanks for the great advice. My Dad was up here to go to a gun show with me and brought the broom as a surprise. (I'd seen it before but he has a bunch of stuff stashed away and don't always remember what he has) I purchased a 50 round box of commercial ammo for ......... yikes! ..... $27.00 !!! at the show ..... He has an old bunch of stripper clips that came with the gun but I suspect that ammo is very, very old and most likely corrosive, although he did not bring them because we never expected to fire the pistol.

Mark

[Steve Richards]

Mark,

I have not been able to find any ammo at shows in my area. Dealers have tried to sell me 7.62 Tokarev. DO NOT USE IT!. I now reload for mine.

A Lee turret loading press, dies, 500 brass, bullets and primers cost the same as 500 rounds that I found on line!

http://www.northwest-denture.com/Mauser1896/index.htm
is a great website for these pistols. Check it out.

Also, go to the links & resources tab to the left and find the e-books by Mr. Henrotin. He has one on the C-96.

[John Sabato]

MarcC and Steve,

I don't own one of these pistols, but would it be economically feasible to buy the dreaded tokarev ammo and pull the bullets and then recharge them with load more appropriate to the broomhandle C96? Just a suggestion.... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />

[MarkC]

I have a Dillon 650 and to buy the dies, shellplates, etc for it costs some $$$, plus the brass and bullets. I noticed a premium for the brass just like .30 Luger brass. So I think I'll stick to a box here and there at gun shows.

Surprisingly in MA many of the dealers with Ammo only tables have boxes of .30 Mauser and Luger ammo for sale.

Since I have 3 guns in .30 Luger including a post war P38, I bought the dies and shell plates.

I am not familiar with 7.62 Tokarev so I think you would need to look in a quality reloading manual for the shell dimension and bullet weights to see if that would work.

Thanks for the web site info.

[unspellable]

I have a CZ52 for unloading the Tokarev cartridges.

I am inclined to say the Tokarev cartridge has the shoulder a bit more forward than the 7.63 Mauser but this minor difference disappears when you run them through Mauser dies.

[Steve Richards]

I bought the brass from Starline so that is not a problem. I have been told that Tokarev ammo shoots well in a Mauser (very unsafe to do so!) so I am sure the brass would be OK.

I stick with a nice mild loading. After all, the gun is at least 70 years old and I am shooting it just for fun. It does have a new bolt stop.

It is interesting how the availability varies from area to area! I have found a good source of .30 Luger ammo in Kaiser, Oregon.

Steve

[Sticker]

Hi

I have recently got into reloading the 7.63Mauser pistol cartridge.

As usual the best reloading tool is a chrony.

Fiocchi factory ammo does about 1250fps out of a 5.5" bbl. That's hardly the 1420fps the books and Fiocchi's catalogue talk about. It is much louder than anything else I have shot. I guess this is to make you feel that you are really playing with something hot.

I had some DWM shells in my collection, grabbed the uglyist one and fired it off. It recorded a speed of 1345fps. That's more like it.

7.0 grns of SR4756 with Sierra's 85grn .308SP loaded to a length of 1.375" gives and average speed of 1344FPS +/- 20fps. The stretch marks on the reloaded cases match the fired DWM case. Point of impact is the same as Fiocchi.

You could lighten the load to be kind to your baby if you want, but 7.0 is not harsh.

Don't forget, you can get new recoil springs from wolff. Highly recommended <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

I have been trying to get a 84.grn cast bullet to shoot in my gun, Trying being the key word, they keyhole so beautifully.

FWIW. I use Lee dies, but I am not overly impressed. If I had to do it all over again, I would get RCBS.

Have fun

Sticker