Details

This is the Mauser Construction 96 Pistol Model of 1912, more colloquially known as the C96 “Wartime Commercial” model.
Of the line of C96s, it is both the most common, and while not a replication of any of the large contract batches, it is fairly typical of the majority of the contracts posted post-1910. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves- we need to go back to the beginning.
The C96 was developed in 1896 for the Mauser by the Feederle brothers (Fedel and Josef), and originally sold under the banner of the Mauser Military Pistol, with hopes for courting the lucrative military handgun contract market.
That didn’t pan out immediately, but that didn’t stop the pistol selling like hotcakes on the commercial market, nor Mauser producing the C96 non-stop until 1939.

A thing to keep in mind is that only in around 1910 did the C96 enter the period of “Stable Production”. What this means is that before then, the Feederles and Mauser made all sorts of minor and substantial design changes- massages in machining and specification to fine tune the system.

By somewhere between 1905 and 1910 the Design had mostly stabilized around a design that’s recognizable to us today:

Short-recoil action
10 round internal magazine, with bridge for loading from charger clips
Single-action trigger
Chambered mostly in 7.63mmx25 Mauser
Sold with optional provision for Shoulder stock that doubles as holster.
5.5 inch or 3.5 inch barrels
There are exceptions to all of these, but that’s for another time. Suffice to know they exist

So let’s get a few things out of the way on the design- in hindsight there’s a lot that clearly date and put a fixed term to the C96’s longevity.
The Magazine, which while large for the early 1900s, and fast, if loaded from chargers, is a pain to deal with , and kind of in an un-ergonomic place, if considered from the stance of just being a free-handed pistol.
The bore axis is WAY high, which makes when combined with the hot 7.63mm round, a fairly jumpy gun to control.
With the design finally solidified, the Persian Government Ordered 1,000 in 1910, and with sales of individual commercially-sold models remaining high right through, Mauser was riding high throughout the 1910s, Things were about to truly kick-off with the start of WW1 however. While the civilian sales of the C96 dried up fast, the military requisitions more than compensated, with 1916 Mauser seeing large orders from Austria-Hungary and the German state of Prussia.

So, one previously unmentioned story so far is that of the C96’s life in China. Like Weimar Germany, post-WW1 Chinese government had restrictions on who could be armed and with what, and it had a burgeoning Warlord class. The combination of the two lead to thirst for stocked pistols, both by government and Warlords.
Initially this was sated by surplus from WW1, but Mauser did start selling to China. However, if you’ve watched C&Rsenal you know where this is going, in the 1930s in the Eibar region of Spain, copies of the C96s started being pushed out by names like Astra and Bestigui Hermanos and the bulk of their market was selling to China, the Far East and both sides of the Spanish Civil War. Galling further, they were making *Select-fire* C96 knockoffs. Well, Mauser could NOT let that stand, and by 1932 Mauser had put together what we know as the M1932 (or M712) “Schnellfeuer”.

Feeding from detachable 10 or 20-round detachable magazines, and capable of automatic fire to the tune of 1000 RPM, the M712 is kind of a monster. At that sort of speed it’s wholly unusable without the stock, but of course that was the point.
The Schnellfeuer was eventually contracted and adopted formally as the M712 in the Luftwaffe. With the end of the contract, and the beginning of WW2, This basically spelled the end of the C96’s production run- Mauser were too busy with bulking out Kar98s and other more expedient war material, and in 1939 the C96 removed from catalogs.

Pack Contents

18 Pistol Variations with period-correct markings and matching parts and serial numbers
Period authenic finishes – In-service and post-surplus worn conditions
Stock Included
Special Inclusion: DL-44 “Greedo Killer” Blaster parts