New-to-Me Mauser C96 Broomhandle

[Dog Soldier]

Tark, The .38 Super is the top IPSC pistol. It makes major caliber these days. You maybe behind on the Super loads. I have two for punching paper and slamming iron.

 

[tark]

It was tops when I went to work for Les 25 years ago, don't know about today, probably still is. There was a movement to the 9X21, don't know if that one is still around. I know the Super was loaded major back then, but it involved higher pressures than SAAMI standards and supported chambers. If you do the math, you will see that the old Mauser 9X25 came close to making major ( just over 165 P.F.)110 years ago with its original load. Loaded with today's powders, to the same pressures as those IPSC loads, it would be in the .357 Magnum territory also. In a side by side comparison simple physics dictates that the round with the greater powder capacity will out-perform the round with lessor powder capacity, all other factors being equal.

It has always seemed curious to me that of all the 9MM cartridges born over a hundred years ago, the weakest one survived, while the others faded into obscurity.

But the super is a GREAT round, don't get me wrong. I have two myself.....but we are straying far off the OPs topic, so I'm done. Last word falls to you.....