Was there a new Chinese Broomhandle in 9mm offered here by a importer? This was a brand new commercial version.

The "Chinese Broomhandle Mauser" pistols were mostly imported from Germany and a few from Astra in Spain. That said there were a few hand made copies made in China. There own version of "Kyber pass" guns. These few were made just about any semi-auto cartridge including 45ACP. But did one of their factories, like Norinco ,make a commercial model of C-96? Never heard of one.

Ivan

I don't recall one, but that's not a proof.

If norinco made it I'm all over it.

There were several factories, about five, I think, making domestic copies of the C 96 for the Chinese Army. I'm pretty sure they were all in 30 Mauser caliber, but I'd have to check Bin Shih's book on the subject. The arsenal at Shenxi made over 5000 enlarged copies of the C 96 in 45 ACP, here's two of them.

Attached Images

L1040515.jpg (48.5 KB, 44 views)

During the period when the Broomhandles were coming out of China I never saw or heard of a newly manufactured one. There were Chinese made examples, I looked at more than a few of them. All were in 30 Mauser except a few in 45ACP and they were old. I heard of a few Red 9 examples coming in but never actually saw one and they would have been Imperial German.

Many of the ones coming in were one step away from being junk. The really rough ones were hard to sell and some of the importers (and wholesale firms too) did try to better their sales by rebuilding and refinishing some of these. If the bore was good they were often left in 30 (still have one of those) but a number were redone in 9mm. I can recall seeing adds for them in the late 80's/early 90's. Most I have looked at were done by making a new barrel and sleeving it into the cut off stub of the old one. I did own one that was simple re-bored and refinished.

Maybe you are thinking of these rebuilt guns. I was collecting military guns then and bought a lot of the chinese imports including new made ones like the Tokarev variants in 9mm to fill out my collection. If I had heard of new made Broomhandles I know I would have wanted one. The closest to that were the rebuilt/refinished ones (though I seem to recall adds for those saying "Like New! In 9mm cal!").

I remember some being imported by Oyster Bay Industries, but not sure if they were nines. But I think they were re-built military guns that were re-lined to 9mm and re-finished for sale in this country.

In the 1980s, when China was eporting to the US all the broomhandles they could lay hands on, they augmented the number a bit with newly manufactured ones This is one of them. Note the stamping on the side of the pistol isn't right: some letters reversed, some misspellings. They took a stock off a pistol they couldn't export and decorated it with carving. I wish they'd left it alone; that short cut just to the left of the leaf spring is for clearance for the selector switch of a Schnellfeuer. Probably the closest I'll ever come to a Schnellfeuer. The pistol is in 7.63 caliber, though, not 9mm. It's not beyond the realm of possibility they made a few 9mms during this time, bu I've never heard of one.

Attached Images

	L1050456.jpg (57.0 KB, 27 views)
	IMG_0867.jpg (102.5 KB, 28 views)
	L1050464.jpg (41.3 KB, 27 views)
	IMG_1205.jpg (125.8 KB, 24 views)

As an add on to my earlier post, some comments on Gunboards on this same question indicated that there were guns assembled on new frames. Fed Ord seems to have been the main one involved and may have used both US and Chinese frames. The impression seems to be that these were a way to use up Schnelfeuer parts. I wonder if Cyrano's example is one of these?

If they made up new frames I guess they could have made up some completely new production guns as well. One other poster stated that Navy Arms brought in some new made ones during that time period Don't know how you would tell if new made or reworked other than a careful part by part examination of markings and finish.

Hi, desi2358, My 'Mauser' was made in China for sale to the US. The misspelling and backwards letters show that.

The Fed Ord guns were something else. There were a lot of Schnellfeuer (full automatic) Mausers in China that BATF wouldn't let into the US. The receiver, in their estimation, is the firearm, so Fed Ord made new receivers. They had no hole for the selector switch although the paneling was the same on the left side as the real Schnellfeuer, and they had provision for the detachable magazine. I thnk Fed Ord also removed the full auto parts from the mechanism, although I haven't seen the inside of one of these things. They were legally imported and Fed Ord gave them the designation of 'Model 711' or something like that. I saw one a few years ago at a San Antonio gun show; for $2500.