a C96 Broomhandle SMOOTHbore?

[VictorLouis]

Yes, clearly NOT shot-out, nor worn...but darned if it has/had any rifling.
I am friendly with a LGS/Pawn manager that gave a loan on it. Is this an odd-duck, or rather commonplace ?

 

[VictorLouis]

And some of the stampings

 

[Cleandean]

My broom. Is # 382325 … made in 1916 . All numbers matching.
It has a dark bore but rifling is there. On right side front - upper is a little crown like stamp . This is supposed to be for designation , affirming for military use . Never had a sight of one with a no rifling / smooth bore.
This one here would be a candidate for a sleeved barrel of a new rifled bore. Otherwise, it is a decorative wall hanger … movie prop.or paperweight.

 

[murphydog]

If it has a 9 mm bore, my guess is someone converted it from 7.63 mm and forgot the last step in the rework process.

 

[s&wchad]

The import mark is Poly USA INC, Atlanta GA, which existed from mid-1992 to mid-'94. They were presumedly a shell company of P.T.K. INT’L (Poly Technologies), which was also in Atlanta and had the same company address.

It looks to me like it was rifled at one time and developed severe pitting and erosion. I'd say it was crudely refurbed by the Chinese and dumped on the US market for some much needed cash.

 

[stansdds]

The import mark is Poly USA INC, Atlanta GA, which exited from mid-1992 to mid-'94. They were presumedly a shell company of P.T.K. INT’L (Poly Technologies), which was also in Atlanta and had the same company address.

It looks to me like it was rifled at one time and developed severe pitting and erosion. I'd say it was crudely refurbed by the Chinese and dumped on the US market for some much needed cash.

I agree, the barrel appears to have been rifled, at least at one time, but is very worn and pitted, which has pretty well destroyed the rifling.

 

[2152hq]

A slight hint/shaddow of rifling,,would probably throw good shot patterns.
1/25oz #12's in a 30Mauser maybe?.

Those Chinese fellas didn't take very good care of those boom-sticks.
The price was certainly good when the flood of them came ashore in the 90's though.
Still have one left from that bunch that's been re-lined back to 30Mauser.

 

[Golddollar]

A slight hint/shaddow of rifling,,would probably throw good shot patterns.
1/25oz #12's in a 30Mauser maybe?.

Those Chinese fellas didn't take very good care of those boom-sticks.
The price was certainly good when the flood of them came ashore in the 90's though.
Still have one left from that bunch that's been re-lined back to 30Mauser.

I bought one of those too. I picked up a spare barrel that was shot out and had it rebored to 9mm Luger.

 

[StrawHat]

I bought one of those too. I picked up a spare barrel that was shot out and had it rebored to 9mm Luger.

Who did the boring and rifling?

Kevin

 

[VictorLouis]

Ok, so concensus seems that it is either worn out severely, or perhaps was rebored. I'll try to find a 9mm snap cap and see if it will chamber. Thanks!

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

My C-96 is a Chinese import from the 90's. It only has rifling in an 1/8" stripe down the barrel at about the 3:00 position. With Russian and Norinco ball ammo it was good for people sized groups or smaller out to 300 yards. Came with a shoulder stock. (The Legality changes almost yearly!) I always draw a crowd when I whip out my Broom Handle.

I formed brass from 223, and loaded 84 grain cast bullet with a mild charge from Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook 3rd edition.

Forming 30 Mauser and forming 300 Blackout is the exact same process. One is 25 mm and the other is 33 mm. I ream the inside of the neck to .308 to get the neck wall thickness to .010 to .015", but most guns don't care.

Ivan

 

[.30Calibre]

Yes, clearly NOT shot-out, nor worn...but darned if it has/had any rifling.
I am friendly with a LGS/Pawn manager that gave a loan on it. Is this an odd-duck, or rather commonplace ?

The condition of this Broom is a fairly typical example of a Mauser C96 that was sold to China, saw service, and was later (during the late 80's and early 90's) re-imported into the United States as surplus; I believe a Clinton era ban on Chinese weapons ended these imports.

I have one that has lost most of it's rifling, similar to the example pictured. Firing normal .30Mauser ammo (with a .308dia bullet) would cause the projectiles to keyhole (as it will in yours). In my particular bore, firing handloaded lead hard cast boolits sized to .311dia got me back on paper, punching round holes. You could try that, assuming you handload and want to get shooting again with the least investment in time and money; this would keep it "original" since from here, it seems to be a mostly "numbers matching" gun.

In your case with this Bolo, it won't mean all that much that it's numbers matching, since the original finish is gone, the bore has no rifling and there is likely deep pitting under the wooden grip panels. But if one were to work on it to get it to fire, at least the action would unlock smoother when loading, and it would come apart and back together again smoother when field stripping, if the parts were "numbers matching" as it had left the factory.

Alternatively you could have a gunsmith re-line the bore with a .30 cal sleeve or have it re-cut and bored over to 9mm Luger. I looked into this just last week; both of these jobs used to be pretty common work, it's even got honorable mention in George C Nonte's "Pistolsmithing" book, but there are so few real gunsmiths out there that are willing to take on work like this anymore.

Redman's Rifling and Reboring out of Omak, WA used to be a go-to smith for relining. As of this writing in Mar/2025 currently, his website says he's not taking in new work.

Just last week I called PISCO Gunsmithing in OR (of AGI Institute fame) to see if they would thread my 9mm P08 Luger barrel onto my C96 upper and they wouldn't take the job, though they'd be willing to perform a re-line job (not an option since the project upper I have is already chopped).

Finally there's Lugerman in PA, who seems to offer either a reline or re-barrel as options on their website though I have not yet used Lugerman myself personally.

I have rebuilt several Broomhandles and enjoy shooting them. Prior to 2020, your patina gun would have fetched $500 to $700 max on Gunbroker as a poor condition blaster or as a project gun. Today you can't even touch a Broom in this worn janky condition for less than $1k.

 

[.455_Hunter]

My brother's 30s production C96 has the same condition barrel.

 

[desi2358]

When these were being imported I bought several of them, condition varied but most were rather rough. Bores were often very worn or pitted or both. Had a couple converted to 9mm because the barrels were as worn as the OP's. Over the years all of them have been moved on except one worn little Bolo model. It has a good bore but is no collector prize, out of all the numbered parts in a typical C-96 this one only has two that match LOL. Still shoot it now and then, one of my grandsons finds it fascinating so it will likely be his one day.

 

[AudieMurphy]

I had one and once it bit the web of my hand got rid of it....If I remember correctly it had a liner in the barrel and the handle was corroded/pitted.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

There used to be an outfit called "The Broom Closet" that rebored or relined barrels and sold parts. I don't have any info, just a memory of their existence.

Ivan