Leonard?
Found an eight year old! Here are some pics of the gun along side my shooter grade Broomie. I have the matching stock.Quick find some 8 year old kid to do it for you.
Got it from a friend who noticed how heavily I drooled on it. He got it from a collector who he declined to name. My friend is getting along in years and wanted it to go to someone who would appreciate it. I took it to Simpson's LTD in Galesburg, where Mr. Simpson himself looked at it. He is known as a Luger authority, but he knows a thing or two about C-96s as well. He said it almost certainly never fired after proof. Rock Island Auction Co said the same thing. On a C-96, the extractor will lose some blue, after only a few shots. In as few as twenty rounds, there will be a very noticeable bright spot. This is typical but not an absolute rule. The extractor on mine has the barest little bit of rub marks. That, along with a barrel full of cosmoline, as well as the magazine and internals, convinced us that the gun had fired one round in its entire life. It was wiped clean on the outside, by someone, and stored in its stock and forgotten, apparently. If I ever wanted to clean up the internals ( I do not ) It would be an arduous undertaking, probably involving a long soak in a solvent tank. The grease is still soft, it isn't discoloring any blueing and it's staying put. I have a shooter grade broomie for fun.
Has the woodwork been sandblasted or somethin' ? Interesting, but talk about raised grain !
No, a member of a milsurp site who's more expert, said it was an elm stock. I did stain it after I stripped the cosmo off of it, but I didn't want to sand it at all.
