what's the ballistic story on the .30 Mauser? Bullet weights, velocity, general accuracy of these guns? Thanks
If a Mauser has a good bore the accuracy is astounding because it is basical a fixed barrel weapon. The barrel does not tilt as in many automatics. The barrel which is part of the receiver does move but it moves straight back.
The velocity will vary according to what brand of ammo you use but some really not ammo will approach 1,600 fps. In my opinion too hot for a steady diet of such loads considering manyof these guns are now approaching 100 years old.
The .30 mauser because of its high velocity really cracks and is a blast to shoot , excuse the pun. Hits as far as 100 yards on man size targets are no big deal especially with the shoulder stock attached.
Many Mausers impact rather high at 25 and 50 yards but I have found that this is so because many were sighted in at the factory using the shoulder stock attached. When I put my shoulder stock on the groups impact much closer to the point of aim at 25 and 50 and 100 yards. It also depends what velocity of ammo you are using when firing the weapon. This also affects trajectory and over the long production run of .30 Mauser ammo and all the different ammo makers that made the .30 Mauser ammo you will probably get different points of impact with differnet brands of ammo.
Although the .30 Mauser is often bad mouthed as a less lethal cartridge than the bigger calibers many famous people that used it like Winston Churchill had only good things to say about it. The weapon was reliable when in good conditon with a good magazine spring and good recoil spring and was used by many countries including China and Russia which bought large numbers of them and in China's case they also made some of their own. If the weapon was as aenemic as some conservatives would have you believe then all these countries would not have bought them in such huge numbers or used them for so long a period of time. About a million German made guns were produced and China also made large numbers at home besides buying the original German made guns.
There were some Spanish made copies made one was close to the Mauser internally and the other was quite different inside. One was made by Astra and other was a Spanish copy tht I believe they called the Azull. Some were aslo made in full auto. They came in different barrel lengths and a long barreled carbine was also made. Even in the old days when they were much more common at gun shows it would have been difficult find and collect all the variations. All the copies and the original German guns have escalated wildly in value over the years as weapons that are in very good condition are becoming very scarce. One finds many rebuilt guns on the used market ranging from excellent to very poor mechanically.
For further reading see "System Mauser" by Schroeder and Breathed and "Textbook of Autoloading Pistols" by Wilson.
Wilson's book is a fascinating read because he actually owned and tested some of the very first autoloading pistols made at the turn of the century. His article on the "Mars Pistol" and all of its magnum calibers prove that Great Grandpa had magnums too even though most of us were never aware that such a weapon with a complete array of various size magnum calibers which were chambered in it even existed. It also had a turning bolt somewhat like the Desert Eagle but predated it by many, many years. So what seems like something new to us is often nothing more than a rehash of something tried years ago but now is largely unkown and forgotton.
Don't plan on buying a Mars pistol , that last one I looked at cost $50,000 dollars and it was like new. Broomhandles are not that expensive yet but give them a few more years they will undoubtably catch up. Buy one now while you still can afford one.
The weapon was not a very well balanced pistol but its unusual looks and mechanical operation make it as desirable a collectors item as the German Luger is today. Like the Luger the workmanship is out of this world and one wonders how the old time gunsmiths could have made such precision made handguns and made them in such large numbers and at such an affordable price beause without that they would not have sold in such huge numbers to so many countries especially poor countries like China.
These weapons will never be made again if they would be probably not with the precision made workmanship and quality materiels that they were once made from. Thats why people who appreciate and understand what quality is in a pistol go absolutely wild over such weapons. Each year they become more and more scarce and more and more expensive. When you consider how high a quality they are the prices they ask are not as bad as one would think. People pay $2,500 for a custom built 1911 and many of them have cast parts put into them and they do not balk at paying such prices but they seem to hesitate when spending this amount or far less (like I did, $1,200 for a mint one) on a nice Broomhandle.
If you like an exotic looking pistol that is rare and cracks like a rifle when you shoot it you will love the Mauser Broomhandle.
I might ad most of the ones I have handled and fired also had trigger pulls the rivaled most production line handguns being made today and they beat the average Luger trigger pull by a good mile.
