Chinese Warlord Pistols: The Huge Shanxi .45 ACP Broomhandle 

1st episode: 9x25mm mauser 2nd episode: .45 ACP mauser 3rd episode: .50 BMG mauser 4th episode: 20mm mauser 5th episode: 105mm mauser 6th episode: 800mm schwerer gustav mauser

They should have called it the "Boomhandle"

I'm waiting for Ian to find higher calibre versions of the Mauser until he stumbles on a Chinese copy chambered in .50 BMG.

In a couple of weeks: Chinese Warlord Pistols: Shanxi 20mm autocannon broomhandle For when you want to conceal-carry a gun with anti-aircraft properties.

Packs quite a punch when you're on a bike.

Usually referred to as 大眼盒子 back then in China, which literall means large bore box cannon.

"The Japanese call it bandit shooting, and used to fear it." This is the variant of C96 pistol used by EVA in MGS3. C96 pistols is already a personal favorite, but the kinds chambered for .45ACP must have been packing quite some punch indeed.

I've handled one of these. I knew a CIA staff who served in Laos. He was friends with one of the royalist officers who gave him access to their armory. They had saved weapons going back to the 19th Century. He had a couple of variants acquired from that source.

Looks like a decent pistol, the Chinese weren't wrong about the c96 being awesome. The hammer lock-open function seems like a good idea.

"Who are the patriots?"

Thank you for this video. My dad always told me my grandfather fought the Japanese during WW2, then during the warlord era of China and into the Chinese civil war, and the Chinese type 17 was his side arm he kept with him at all times.

The Governor, Yan Xi-Shan, deliberately set up the railway system (rails) to be different from the rest of the country so that no large number of troops from other warlord cannot enter the province and takeover. The province is surrounded by mountains and very reclusive in that way, especially back then. With high mountains and canyons, only 3 ways to enter it by foot through the wild, as it's all forest in the south and desert northwest. To give an example, my city has only just had high speed train-line set up last year, before that, to travel from Beijing to it, will take 12-14 hours by standard train. In history, the province has always been able to stay away from war due to geographical advantages. With ample natural resources (coal, iron ore, etc), Yan was able to build his army to defend and stayed away from most of the warlord conflicts during WW1, and a short period of time from Japanese force in WW2.

"It's a Chinese Type 17 pistol. It packs quite a punch. Nice to have on a bike" "You held it sideways, and used the muzzle climb to create a horizontal sweep. That was impressive"

"they couldn't go on the internet and read reviews" - Sorry Ian, but I'm gonna need a citation for this.

No one: Eva: *Points pistol sideways to shoot enemies lined up next to each-other, using the recoil to aim at the next target quickly.*

I love how Ian shows his respect and admiration to that part of Chinese history and these pistols certainly have their beauty in a mysterious way.

I never knew I needed a book of Chinese domestic pistols until Ian decided to write and publish one!

Today's video supported by Fireplace Guy's neighbor, Rustic Wood Wall Guy.

Thoroughly enjoying this warlord pistols series. My Master's dissertation back in 1988 was on Feng Yuxiang and the warlord period. Brings it all back :)

Seeing this gun makes me want to ride a motorcycle through a Russian forest and fire at soldiers Bandit-Style.

i hear the Chinese use these Guns in the inversion of Alaska in the 2070s

"Pistols of the Warlords" LITERALLY a Dream Book breaking into my Reality!!!! Bloody Fascinating Era, People and Weapons.

The Chinese were fond on the C96 because they knew that, with one of those, they will shoot first.

Given that _actual_ Thompsons operate on a mechanical principle (the Blish effect) that turns out to have been completely fictional, one hesitates to imagine what an experience a Chinese Mystery Thompson must have been.

My great grandpa had one. He was soldier from USSR side in China and he picked up such pistol from one of the bodies as trophy. My dad told me that great grandpa told stories how Chinese would fall to the ground and never move again after being hit and he used to say that this is very accurate gun "Bullet goes right where you aim" ED:My dad corrected me.Great grandpa was HELPING CHINESE in war against JAPANESE. +Pistol was lost when he tried to get back home in 1948,on the border

You know it's kinda badass to have a Mauser pistol that shoots .45 ACP.

First saw this gun in a comic book of the 1980's "Jon Sable, Freelance." The main character, who was a bounty hunter & mercenary, had rebuilt one of these with a German Schnellfeuer action, creating a 45-cal machine-pistol!

This is pretty much the gun that got me into weird firearms, and also Warlord-era China. Fascinating stuff! Yan Xisan was quite the character, too.

Fantastic looking pistol and I think the hammer "lock-open" idea is first rate, would certainly have saved some poor sod's fingers lol .45 ACP Mausers eh? Who'd a thunk it?!?

I was really hopeing for the Metal Gear comments... Was not disappointed

A good friend of mine has one of these. I shot it for the first time a couple weeks ago. It was unbelievably accurate. His was probably the most accurate pistol, I've ever shot in my life. and a joy to shoot

The 7.63 Mauser cartridge has a muzzle energy of circa 402 ft.lbf which places it broadly in the middle of the range of common .45 ACP cartridges at that ime, so not really surprising it doesn’t take much to upgrade it to .45. It’s only the modern ammo that gets much over about 450.

9:21 1000 meters with a subsonic cartridge. Now THAT is optimism!

I remember seeing bv these show up in a Gun World magazine advertisement in the 80's.

IF you played Fallout 3 you'll recall that there is something called a Chinese Officers pistol ( I think ) And it looks exactly like a Mauser C-96 even though the setting of the WW3 is almost 200 years after the c-96 was invented thats how popular the "Broom Handle" Mauser C-96 was in China lol and if I recall they even say its based on the type 17 Shanxi pistol based on the C-96

Imagine getting shot by a 45 in China and u think they have either 1911s or some weird 45 acp pistol and it turns out they just have these big fellas

Ever since I read the Mike Grell comic, "Jon Sable, Freelance", back in the 1980s, I've wanted one of these. Well, one of these and a SxS .375H&H Mag.

That one with serial number 13 is the only known surviving Type 17 that was actually made in year 17 (1928 A.D.). Before this video, for years it had been only shown as pictures in an obscure book. Extremely rare find.

Just a thought - It'd be interesting to see some discussion about the different manufacturing methods and equipment that these armories would have used over the years.

A Mauser Broomhandle C96 in 45 acp.Doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

During the Warlords era, only Shanxi clique made a large number of submachine guns. There were some interesting improvements to the Yan Xishan's Thompson compared to American original. Firstly, the barrel was longer. Yan Xishan believed that the defence of Shanxi was all about mountain warfare. In mountain warfare, the enemy and friendly were often far away and men could not march quickly enough to get to them. Therefore, the light machine gun seemed to be more useful than the submachine gun. However, the range of the light machine gun was so long that in many battles it was unnecessary and overpowered and the light machine gun was too heavy for the mountainous terrain where the emphasis was on mobility. Therefore, Yan Xishan made the barrel of the Thompson submachine gun longer in order to increase its range and make it suitable for mountain warfare. Secondly, it could be fitted with a bipod. In the opinion of Yan Xishan, the submachine gun was often the mainstay of firepower in mountain warfare and was more practical than the light machine gun. However, the biggest problem with the submachine gun was that it was less accurate in sustained fire, as it often took dozens of rounds to hit a single shot. So, Yan Xishan fitted some of the submachine guns with bipods, hoping it could greatly improving the accuracy and stability. Thirdly, the drum was not used. This was mainly because Chinese had weaker arms and the use of Thompson's large drums severely affected the stability of the pistol's fire. This is why all of the Shanxi's Thompson were designed with straight magazines.

Shanxi's warlord Yan Xishan had a nickname ：Yan Lao Xi er, which means he behaved like a stingy businessman. He put many efforts in producing good quality weapons and using them as his bargaining chips with other warlords. As a result, he was able to rule Shanxi province form 1912 to 1949.

Finally! Ian Did It. I've been in love with this Hand Cannon since I was a teenager and I want one so much.

"you held it sideways, and used the muzzle jump to create a horizontal sweep. That was impressive"

Hearing Ian saying Shanxi(山西) using only the English pronounciation is yet another entertaining element for this already outstanding video. XD

They fire smoothly, there is some muzzle flip.

I love this gun since MGS3, it's good to finaly learn more about it !

Thank you , Ian .

I've been looking forward to this.

I had heard of this gun before, I was really looking forward to Ian talking about it.

The quality of the video and the background are stunning! Nice improvement!

Love the backdrop Ian. Keep up the good work

There's something really sexy about these guns, love how it's performance in 'Let the bullet fly'.

Warlord Era firearms are really funky yet really cool imo!

Very interesting! I've known nothing about these. Thanks Mr. Ian. 😀 God bless all here.

Very informative! Thank you Ian

Gotta say I like the look of that 'seal script' engraving above the grips. Pretty rad.

Mauser Military... The "Broomhandle"

Such a cool pistol. Love all the machining.

My fav pistol in Fallout 3 🤧

These are just plain AWESOME! The C96 itself is an incredible pistol. The looks of a C96 suggest it isn't going to be comfortable but once you pick one up it actually feels really good in the hand.

Super intuitive.,thanks Ian

Id like a video about “bandit shooting” Also love all these MGS3 references in the comments

It would be cool to see the .45 C-96 in action on the range

"Yes that's a .45 ACP Broomhandle in my pocket and yes I'm indeed happy to see you."

So early my C96 is still chambered in 7.63 instead of 9MM.

This pistol is the top of my list, it's too cool

I've been waiting for this one!

Thank You.

Her mentioning it was a Chinese copy was a clue, Snake.

With the upgraded versions of the AR rifle platform that no longer need a buffer tube it's only a matter of time before we see modern production runs of handguns modeled in even larger calibers such as .50 Beowulf. I think Olympic Arms may have been the first without the tube in the back but Brownells now has their tubeless design and Mark Surbu is currently working on his version of a tubeless. There's a few others out there as well.

IM STIIIILLL INNNN A DREEEEAMMMM

Pronounced like 'Sean-She'(shaun-she). Like Sean Connery in Zardoz.

Han Solo’s C96 was chambered in .45, that’s why it only took one shot on Greedo.

my favorite holdout ankle carry pistol

I'll admit, I was quite intrigued by this one. Then you got to "and has a price point to match" and just like that I saw my dreams of owning one vanish into thin air. It seems I'm not the only one that finds it to be an interesting piece, lol. Thanks for sharing regardless. :)

A fascinating era of Chinese history.

Good work brother

晋造十七年式，Shansi made Type 17. We sometimes call it 大眼盒子 (big eye box) due to its larger calibrate. I’ve seen some in local museum here in China.

I've been watching you since I retired 6 years ago. Don't own any firearms, since the laws in this country are too restrictive. Since lockdown I've been finding stuff I've missed over the years. Always amazing stuff.

They are strangely beautiful weapons.

Those look amazing.

they are truly massive in hand

Great video

I love these Chinese warlord era gun vedios

Hey Ian, they also manufactured Thompsons in Shanxi, in large quantities.

These look real well made too.

That is very cool. Great video thanks

That's a piece love it that loaded with some lehigh defence p,plus soft points would be a frekin cannon that's genuinely the best Chinese pistol I've seen modern Chinese stuffs brilliant norico make fantastic barrels I used a Chinese built rifle and won the 25m open club competition with a remington 700 copy in. 22

I still remember I saw Ian's video on Liveleak several years ago about a "heavy weight" version of C96 from 1900s China, I was so interested in it oh my. I can't afford most things on auction, but hopefully I can afford that book.

I remember this gun in the game Metal Gear Solid, Snake Eater. The girl hero used it and it was rare even then. She would shoot it sideways to ride the recoil sideways to shoot a line of bad guys very fast without worrying about recoil.

Hey Ian, when are you going to use one of these bad boys in a competition? Looks great for me.

Wow considering how much ive seen people like hikock 45 and others struggle to old the bolt back while loading, not to mention the larger caliber. Between that and the hold -open, this is a superior design to dwm's offerings.

Broomhandle, the most recognizable gun in China

I’ve handled a Chinese made Thompson clone. The guy was a Marine in China pre war and had it and knee mortar. When he passed he left them to the USMC museum in Quantico. Maybe Ian could ask to see it.

YOOOOO ITS THE FALLOUT 3 GUN THAT SET SHIT ON FIRE 😂👌 (Zhu-Rong v418)

I remember ads for a number of these years ago when a batch was imported.

Just plain uber cool.

The original C96 can also be loaded with loose rounds without holding the bolt by hand, there is a second bolt position for this. While watching a different videos with reviews of the Mauser C96, I saw this lock-open function several times. For example, in the video of Hickok45, when he loads the pistol with loose rounds, it is clearly seen that he pulls the bolt to the second position and it does not close. Also on Hickok's video "Mauser C96 Woods Walk" from the 3rd minute it is clearly visible that after emptying the magazine, he pulls the open bolt a little further, loads the weapon from the stripper clip, and after removing the clip, the bolt remains in the open position. Again at 5: 13 when he had a malfunction. In his review of this pistol, he says that he did little research and that this particular GERMAN C96 was produced between 1911 and 1915.

It's nice to finally be appreciated