Mauser Model 1910
Self-loading pistol "Mauser" 1910 Dimensions: total length 138 mm, barrel length 79 mm. Total weight: 0,431 kg. Caliber: 6,35 mm. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
“I took out the Mauser, raised the safety with my thumb and pulled the trigger.
The four pairs of hands that held me loosened instantly. I jumped onto the windowsill. From there, I managed to make out the white, as if wadded faces of the students, the yellow slab of the stone floor, broken by a shot, and turned into a biblical salt column stuck in the door of Father Gennady. Without thinking, I jumped from the height of the second floor to the beds of bright red dahlias.
"School" A. Gaidar
The four pairs of hands that held me loosened instantly. I jumped onto the windowsill. From there, I managed to make out the white, as if wadded faces of the students, the yellow slab of the stone floor, broken by a shot, and turned into a biblical salt column stuck in the door of Father Gennady. Without thinking, I jumped from the height of the second floor to the beds of bright red dahlias.
"School" A. Gaidar
stories about weapons. Anyone who hears the word "Mauser" usually immediately imagines something massive, long-barreled, with a magazine box in front of the trigger guard, in the hands of either a red commissar or a basmach like Abdullah from the White Sun of the Desert. The more experienced recall Paul Mauser's bolt-action rifle, the Mauser K98. However, even the M98 was by no means his only design, it just turned out to be his most successful creation. As for the pistol, it became famous in part because it was Winston Churchill's favorite weapon (although legend has it that he changed his mind when he discovered the Colt M1911). The “broom handle” (as this gun is often called in the West) was also widely used in China, where a lot of Chinese copies of it were made, both during the 1917 revolution of the year, and then during the civil war - that's right. Well, after it, the “bolo” Mausers (“bolo” is an abbreviation for “Bolshevik”) were specially ordered in Germany for the OGPU. But there was another Mauser pistol, which was not Winston Churchill's favorite, which was not associated with great political upheaval, but which was a quiet figure, and which, nevertheless, sold about half a million copies. He was mentioned by A. Gaidar in his story "School", and today we will tell you about him.
It was originally conceived in 1906-1909, but became known when its production models of 1910 and 1914 appeared.
In the new semi-automatic pistol, Paul Mauser saw a design that could be both enlarged and reduced to the cartridge used. That is, to have a pronounced market orientation. It was most likely created by an engineer named Josef Nickl, whom Mauser hired in 1904. Nickl designed pistols in 9mm Para, .45 ACP, 7,65 Automatic (.32ACP), and 6,35 (.25ACP) pistols. At the same time, pistols for strong .45ACP and 9 mm cartridges used a slow-action system, and for smaller cartridges, a blowback design.
The .45 ACP and 9 mm Pair Mauser full-size military pistol design used a rather unusual delayed blowback system in which a pair of levers in a frame in front of the trigger guard engaged with the sloping surfaces of the bolt. When the pistol was fired, the bolt and barrel moved away together, while the friction between these inclined surfaces and the bolt delayed the unlocking of the bolt until the pressure in the breech fell to a safe level. When the levers were lowered, the bolt and barrel unlocked. An early Mauser design had an unusual shock-absorbing recoil spring at the rear of the frame that dampened the blow of the bolt.
Pistols of 9 mm and .45ACP caliber with such a shutter as military samples, as they say, “did not appear”: the German military adopted the P08 Luger, and the American military adopted John M. Browning’s Colt M1911. Even the hard-nosed Britons, who considered automatic pistols "damn unsportsmanlike", created their own Webley Mk I pistols, designed by William Whiting and adopted by the Royal Horse Artillery in 1913 and the Royal fleet in 1914. That is, the initial idea of creating one basic pistol design suitable for all customers could not be implemented. However, from the very beginning, Mauser also worked on smaller caliber pocket pistols for civilians and police.
This is how the Pattern 1910 pistol was born, with M1910 being the nomenclature applied to the smallest pistol in the series chambered in 6,35mm (.25ACP) and the model name M1914 being used for the 7,65mm pistol. (.32ACP).
Comparison of the M1910 caliber 7,65 mm with the pistol "Walter" PPK. Photo revivaler.com
In fact, the Mauser pistol chambered for the 6,35 mm Browning cartridge (.25ACP) was introduced in Europe in 1906, and in the USA two years later. It had a blowback design, which is what distinguished it from the 9mm Para and .45ACP versions. The gun turned out to be simple, very reliable and easy to maintain. It had a minimum number of parts and was easy to disassemble in the field.
"Model 1910" in disassembled form. Photo littlegun.be
As you can see in the photo, the fixed barrel was made easily removable: it was held in place by a long pin, which at the same time was the guide rod of the return spring.
"Mauser" 6,35 mm with a "door" for cleaning the mechanism. Photo revivaler.com
The first variant of the Model 1910 featured a "side door" located just above the trigger and allowing it to be removed for cleaning and lubricating the mechanism. The second option was the "New Model", which was commonly referred to as the "Model 1910/14" because it first appeared in 1914. The fact is that the “door” created some problems. For example, it allowed the trigger to be removed, but due to the pressure of the spring, this was difficult to do. On the new model, it was removed and some other changes were made to the mechanism, including the slide delay. The new striker mechanism made it easy to determine whether the pistol was cocked or not.
The mechanism of the Model 1910 6,35mm and Model 1914 7,65mm pistols was the same, which, of course, was very convenient for both the manufacturer and consumers.
To work with a pistol, it was necessary to first open the shutter, but ... this could not be done if a magazine was not inserted into the pistol. If an empty magazine was inserted, it could be pulled back and locked in place. If an empty magazine was removed, the bolt remained locked in the open position. But if after that an empty magazine was inserted again, the shutter closed.
If the store was loaded with cartridges, then at the moment when he entered the pistol all the way, the bolt broke off the delay and went forward, sending the cartridge. This was a very handy feature, providing the fastest reloading, since no bolt had to be used to fire the pistol, and as soon as a loaded magazine was in the pistol, the bolt would automatically close and fire could be fired. So the design was very well thought out.
At the ready-to-fire pistol, the striker protruded from the rear of the bolt. Photo by ForgottenWeapons.com
The safety was a small lever behind the trigger. Once the safety lever is pressed down, it locks into place and cannot simply be pulled back up: instead, a lock button just below is pressed, which causes the safety to rise under spring pressure and disengage so that a shot can be fired.
There were several variants of the 6,35mm "New Model" pistols, including commercial models produced after World War I, the "Transitional Model" of 1934, and the "Model of 1934", which features a more rounded and ergonomic grip.
The pistol we now call the Model 1914 Mauser was a 7,65mm (.32ACP) version, and development began after the Model 1910 entered production. The design of the pistol was almost identical to that of the 6,35 mm "Model 1910", but adapted to the larger and more powerful .32ACP cartridge.
Above - pistol model 1910 "New Model", note the absence of a side latch. Below is a version of the M1934 "New Model" from 1910 with a more ergonomic rounded grip. Photo revivaler.com
Scheme of the 7,65 mm (.32ACP) pistol Mauser "Model 1914". Photo revivaler.com
The 7,65 mm Mauser pistol was intended for the police, because it was the 7,65 mm cartridge that by this time had become the preferred caliber for many police departments in Europe. The first version of the 7,65mm pistol featured a "humpbacked" bolt design, in which the thickness of the metal around the ejection hole in front of it was less than behind it. The logic of thinning the metal around this hole makes sense in terms of allowing spent cartridges to be ejected more easily, while the thicker metal at the rear of the breech gives extra mass to absorb the recoil force of the 7,65mm cartridge.
Standard "humped" pistol "Model 1914" of the first version. Photo revivaler.com
A rare long-barreled copy of the Model 1914. Photo revivaler.com
With the introduction of the Model 1914 "humpback" pistol, Mauser decided that additional machining was not really needed to achieve this form of action, so a new model was introduced, with a flat top surface of the action.
Two examples of Mauser pistols in 7,65 mm (.32ACP) model 1914. Both models are export models, but pay attention to the differences in markings: there are many variants of these pistols. Photo revivaler.com
There were many variants of the 7,65 mm Mauser pistols, including those purchased by the German Reichsmarine, Kriegsmarine, Weimar Republic Navy, Weimar Police, and the Norwegian Police.
The last major design change to the Model 1914 was the Model 1934, which, like the 6,35mm version, received a more rounded pistol grip.
Mauser M1910/1934 at the top and Mauser M1934 HSC at the bottom. Photo revivaler.com
This sample replaced the earlier "small Mausers".
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