What kind of Broomhandle is this???

Found at my LGS...but I've got some questions. Perhaps folks here can help.

Attached are a few pics.

It's a 9mm but nothing on the grips. 9mm stamped on top of barrel. Only other marking is import stamp on the grip frame: STG ?? Monte. CA Didn't see a serial number, but I didn't really look for one...but it wasn't obvious except for numbers on the bottom of the magazine.

It looks great....reblued?

Bore looks very good as well.

Follower in the magazine looks great...no grime.

Lots of machining marks as can be seen.

The frame above the grips is flat and plain...not like the pics of the Mausers I've seen on the interwebs.

Small ring. Hole in safety.

Comes with wood shoulder stock and a cut on frame for the stock attachment.

So what have I got here? Chinese? Spanish? Who else made 'em. (Feels too solid for Chinese knock off....I'm doing more research but I thought I'd start here.)

They are asking $1200.00 and it's on consignment. I'll be trading a few safe queens in addition to some cash I suspect.

It looks like a M714 that was marketed by Federal Ordnance of El Monte, California. The frames were of new manufacture with a detachable magazine and different milling pattern from original Mausers. I don't know if the frames were made abroad or in the US and assembled using parts from Mausers imported from China. They also made a carbine version.

Some Broomhandle expert will be along shortly with a better answer.

There is a Mauser C96 website. In fact a couple of them. Might check there. I'd be very certain about exactly what it is and what it's worth before making a deal. $1200 strikes me as too high for an unoriginal mystery gun.

IMHO. I would look else where for a good broom handle. There are quite a few around. $1200 is too high for what you looking at.

It looks like a Mauser Model 712 Schnellfeuer that's been converted to semi-auto only.

Whether it is an original Mauser product, or one of the many Chinese clones that were made over there in the 20's and 30's, I don't really know.
The Chinese bought many Mausers from the factory, but made many of them right at home. Those latter vary from absolute perfect copys to crude.

Anyway,,the first thing that caught my eye was the trigger. That large bulky trigger is the style used in the 712. The standard C96 uses a more curved and slender trigger.
This 712 style hides a pinned in place 'kicker bar' in the back side of it to operate with the F/A system.
That bar has been removed in this pistol but you can still see it's pivot pin. A standard C96 trigger will not work in these pistols as a replacement.

The frame milling (milled out panels) is the same as on the 712. Different C96 models had different variations of frame milling, some had none.
This one just happens to match the 712 frame.

The detachable magazine was standard on the 712 and not on the regular C96.
To modify a standrd C96 for a detachable mag is doable but the entire mag box must be removed from the frame and a new larger in size box made and welded into place. The larger dimension needed so a detachable box magazine of appropriate size can then fit inside that,
The button latch system then made and fitted and the welds blended and polished, ect.

What is missing is the F/A-S/A switch that was on the left side of the frame on a 712.
That would have had to been removed and the entire area filled iin (welded) and properly machined inside for parts movement. The outside is a more simple flat polish to match the other surfaces.



What it also may be is a later Chinese import C96 (80's, 90's) when they were remaking them and importing them into the USA. A couple different versions were made and in 45 and 9mm cals.
IIRC they did have detachable magazines.
I thought that the 80's imports had different frame panel milling,,maybe not. There's so many variations of it.
The contour of the trigger guard is not the graceful curves you's expect to see on a Mauser. The backstrap edges along the grips in the import marking closeup show rough edges. Again not Mauser type work.
Perhaps it is a later Chinese made import with a few features like the trigger to pimp it up a bit and make it look like a Schnellfeuer.
That's still done with the 'kits' to make a standard .22 look like a M60 or any number of FA weapons.


An orig m712 would be in 7.63cal I think.
A conversion to 9mm is a simple thing though.

Why no mfg markings. The refin looks importer crude enough to be one of the Chinese imports of the late 80's when the flood of C96's can on board.
MAybe the OP just didn't spot them

I'd really wonder about the history of it being a M712 or a copy of one in it's past before I ever bought it.
There's no converting one to a semiauto and being legal w/o Fed paperwork.
Once a MG,,always a MG.
I'd look it over carefully.

It's priced too high anyway IMO.



Here's a pic of a Chinese copy of a M712. It shows the trigger style and detach mag, ect. Kick bar in the trigger is in place in this one.
The reference to 'Wauser' is that many of the hand made Chinese products have hand cut lettering on them as well and in copying the markings the 'M' in Mauser was sometimes inverted and made as a 'W' so you get Wauser.
I imagine most of us would come up with some strange words if we tried to copy the Chinese language over onto something too.

C96 Broomhandle Mauser Model 712 Schnellfeuer Chinese fake Wauser marked | laststandonzombieisland

added..
I think that import mark is :
BTC
S. El Monte CA

If it is,,it's Briklee Trading Company,,,1443 Potero Avenue
South El Monte, CA 91733

Check that ridge in the barrel. May have been converted from 7.62 with a replacement barrel.

That step on the bbl may very well be a conversion,,a monobloc of sorts. It's a good way of doing those.

The orig C96 Mauser's had that step in their production models though later in mfg'rg. Collectors usually pin them as '1930 Models' with that step as a common feature in the design.
Could be either I'd guess.

The C96's that were converted to 9mm using leftover 9mmLuger P08 Pistol bbls were done by simply cutting the orig bbl off right about there, maybe a bit shorter. Then threading the stub for the Luger bbl and fitting the P08 bbl to the C96 upper.
Widening the extractor slot and a very little work to the feed ramp was necessary. Made for an easy conversion.
It's always easy with the right tools and set up!

Mystery Solved!! It's CHINESE....or at least it had "China" in very small letters on the backstrap, above the cut for the shoulder stock.

Which ends my quest for this particular pistol.

But many thanks to all who tried to help. I should have brought my lighted loup when I first looked at it and maybe I wouldn't have missed the "logo."

But now I'm on the hunt for either an affordable 9mm or an actual Federal Ordnance version. I'm steering clear of the made in China versions.

Again, thanks to all who helped.