I realized I have not posted anything since joining the community a year ago

[crowtalks]

When I was a kid in the sixties, my Dad was constantly trading on things and one of the things he traded was guns. One of my responsibilities as a kid was to clean the guns and for some reason I feel in love with the Broomhandle more than any other pistol I handled. Over the decades I have probably owned more than a dozen, especially in the early nineties when you could find bargain bins of them at gun shows for $99 apiece. Most of the guns I owned were shooters with non matching numbers and the ones I still own are among that lot...a nice tight reblued 30 mauser and a bolo I had rebored to 9mm 30 years ago.

50+ years down the road from the time I 1st laid eyes on one, the C96 is still my favorite handgun of all times...after all, even Hans Solo owned one.
Jim

[mauserfan]

Love that gun. I owned one a few years ago and enjoyed it.   Do you have a photo of yours?
I think I love the Luger more overall, but the look of the C96 more.


And yes, my dad was "horse trader" too.  He was an auctioneer and supplemented the family income with buying and selling antiques of all sorts.

[crowtalks]

Sorry for the delay in replying...my email had this in the junk folder.

The broomhandle has some internal non-matching numbers but it has a good bright bore which is uncommon. It is a good, tight shooter and it also provides an opportunity to educate those who have never held or shot one when I take it to a range or event. Its a prewar commercial that dates to 1913-1915. I swapped out the original grips with these black rubber repos I had simply because I like the looks of them on the gun.

I had the Bolo rebored to 9mm about 30 something years ago and both are reliable shooters. I collected many internal parts for these weapons starting three decades ago to insure I would be able to keep them running for years to come. The Bolo dates to around 1921-1923.
I had a P08 DWM Luger many moons ago and I am starting to get luger fever again, so I am starting to look for a P06 or P08 in decent shootable (or rebuildable) condition.