Kiwi Medals

Here is my “Red 9” Mauser C96. Mauser manufactured this pistol from 1896 until 1937. In 1916 the Imperial German Army placed an order for 150,000 of these to be chambered in 9mm Parabellum rather than the original 7.63mm. The reason for this was that the Luger production was heavily delayed and this was seen as a stop-gap. The 9 was marked into the handle by local armourers and filled with red paint, hence its name. This was done so that users did not accidentally load it with the original 7.63 ammunition.

This particular example has the shortened 140mm barrel indicating that it was reworked for police use post-war. It doesn’t have the 1920 date however. The leather holster is the as-issued variety. The adjustable sights were removed at the time of the barrel shortening and a fixed sight applied in its place.

This entry was posted on July 30, 2015 at 7:20 PM and is filed under Firearms with tags C96, Germany (Imperial), Heer, Pistols, WW1, WW2. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.