M30 C96 Mauser grips

[jcochran1111]

I have a decent shooter grade early 1930s commercial 7.63mm C96 Mauser that I have been looking into cleaning up a little (nothing drastic). But the grips really have me confused. They do appear to be wood, but they seem to have been painted at some point, and more puzzling is what appears to be some sort of resin or bakalite type material filling the space on the inside of the panels. Whatever may have been done to them, was done some time ago, but dont see anywhere discussing this type of grip interior as an original variant (super valuable rarity??? ...not likely). My ultimate question is just how badly have these grips been modified, and would it be more worthwhile to strip the paint and reoil the wood, or just find another set of grips alltogether?

 

[Monac]

I don't know much about the intricacies of Broomhandles, so I can't answer the questions you have asked, or tell you much about your grips. What I can tell you is that a quick check on Ebay shows a variety of reproduction grips, at prices ranging from $15 to $71, shipping included. GunBroker has similar things at somewhat higher prices.

I have never seen grips made the way yours are, with a plastic slab for positioning a wooden grip with a flat back. Painted grips are unusual too. I hope other people here can shed light on this.

PS - Thanks for putting up good photos. This will make getting information much easier.

 

[tark]

Wow! I've got a couple of C-96s and both have all wood grips that look nothing like yours ! I can only speculate that yours were a repair job in the field. Like Monac said, there are replacements available.

If you're going to shoot that thing, get new springs! Wolff has them and they are cheap. And wear a wide brimmed hat! One of my broomies, my shooter, throws the emptied straight up......where they reverse course and occasionally go straight down your shirt.... Yes, they are hot !!!

And welcome to the monkey house

 

[Patocazador]

They do appear to be wood, but they seem to have been painted at some point, and more puzzling is what appears to be some sort of resin or bakalite type material filling the space on the inside of the panels.

The grips look like a form of gutta percha.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta-percha

 

[jcochran1111]

Thanks... I have actually replaced the springs and firing pin, and it shoots quite nice - excellent rifling. I did actually find one set of similar looking grips on gun broker, but still a bit of a mystery: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/848985552

Numrich has some replacements but the ones pictured for the M30 guns have 13 grooves instead of 12... quite disturbing....

 

[H&R Glock]

Before I got stupid and sold my broomhandle, I had a book by Belknap and some other fellow qabout the gun's history.
I had a military with serial #1764xx. IT had fine line grooved grips maybe 34 line? . Serial number last two digits were stamped into the grips inside. I believe the book stated 13 line grips were common on some.
Don't lose your grip screw! It's the only screw in the pistol!

 

[tark]

Thanks... I have actually replaced the springs and firing pin, and it shoots quite nice - excellent rifling. I did actually find one set of similar looking grips on gun broker, but still a bit of a mystery: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/848985552

Numrich has some replacements but the ones pictured for the M30 guns have 13 grooves instead of 12... quite disturbing....

The most important spring on the gun is the hammer spring. If it is weak, the the gun will beat itself to death in short order.

Do you shoot Tokarev ammo in your gun? It is perfectly safe to do so. It is a myth that 7.62X25 is loaded hotter than 7.63 Mauser, the opposite was true during WW II. The Germans loaded the Mauser ammo to 1575 FPS. My source for that is Small Arms of the World, by Smith and Smith. The Tokarev round, with the same weight bullet, was loaded to around 1400. Because the two rounds are interchangeable, for all practical purposes, I suspect that modern ammo is loaded to be safe in either gun. I have yet to see a box of tokarev ammo with a warning not to shoot it in a C-96.

I have been shooting 7.62X25 in my shooter C-96 for years. When I mix Mauser and Tokarev ammo together no one yet has been able to tell the difference.

 

[tark]

Don't lose your grip screw! It's the only screw in the pistol!

And it is a weird metric thread size!!!!

 

[Monac]

The description of the grips on GunBroker calls them "Royalwood". This is what a quick Google search turned up about Royalwood pistol grips:

https://gungrip.com/mauser-broomhandle-model-1896-grips.aspx

https://gungrip.com/royalwood-grips-3.aspx

They are made for a variety of pistols, but I would want to see a pair before spending $50+ on a pair. Jcochran1111's and the pair on GunBroker do not look as good as the catalog photos.

 

[jcochran1111]

Oh yeah, I think those are the type of grips I have on it right now, so I will keep hunting for some good legitimate 12 groove wood ones appropriate to the M30. As for the Tokarev ammo, I have not shot any of that through mine. Finding .30 Mauser actually isnt too difficult suprisingly, and I dont shoot it enough to need a steady flow... thats what 9mm is for!

 

[jcochran1111]

In the process of conserving the entire gun as a whole, I went ahead and stripped the paint off the grips to see what was under it... because I was likely to have to replace them anyway. As it turns out, if there is any wood in there, it appears to be completely shelled by bakalite or some similar substance. So new ones are in order sadly... p

 

[Monac]

There is no wood in those grips. They are all "resin", which can be any of a wide variety of plastic materials. I have a friend who buys resin model horses, but that is all I know about the stuff:

https://www.riorondo.com/resinhorse/resin.html

 

[jcochran1111]

Indeed... at least the rest of the conservation job turned out nicely...

Parts stripped and ready for cleaning:


Blued parts degreased and boiled in water to revert fine surface rust back to blue:


Blued parts buffed with 0000 steel wool, re-oiled, and reassembled:

The effect is somewhat subtle, but noticably darker and cleaner, especially to soemone handling it regularly. Now just to find some good accurate wood grips to finish the look properly...

 

[Patocazador]

You don't waste time, do you? Nice look after you finished.

 

[shoobe01]

Not an expert, but I know there are some odd variants, and not everything was documented. This page covers some random musings about known and weird variants on grips and gripframes and the like, for example: http://askmisterscience.com/1896mauserbackup/grips.htm

 

[jcochran1111]

Had the day off work so I just got it done...

There does seem to be significant variety right up until they modified the grip frame for the M30s, after which "Line count reduction reached its apotheosis with the M-30s, which invariably have 12 groove grip panels." The best looking and priced M30 grip panels I have found so far are these from Numrich, but unless my brain stopped working, these even get it wrong, having 13 grooves.

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/598130

 

[jcochran1111]

Does anyone have experience with Sarco gun parts and grips? These look pretty good, and they have a ton of other parts, but the prices seem too good to be true...

https://www.sarcoinc.com/c96-broomhandle-mauser-1930-c-grip/