Mauser C96 - In The Movies 

Heh, I didn't expect to see my BF1 C96 Carbine video show up in this @ 4:48 - an excellently entertaining and informative video on the pistol and its history. Thanks!

The C96 is commonplace in Kungfu movies since it (as well as various domestic copies) were used by gangsters and warlords in the 1920's. Sometimes with interesting manufacturing marks such as "Wauser" and so on.

I love the Mauser C96! I own a rare bolo variant that was my grandfather’s! It was re-chambered to 9 millimeter during WW2.

Always loved that the two famous german early semi automatic pistols, the Luger and Mauser C96, ended up as the base for the blasters used by Leia and Han solo, who were fated to become lovers. Guess they have similar tastes in distant galaxy weaponry.

When I take my C96 out to the range I get two types of comments. Old people (like me)" Wow that's a Broomhandle Mauser." Young people. That's a Star War's gun."

Churchill did not carry a Mauser in WWII. His Police Bodyguard was issued a Colt 1911 at the beginning of the War but preferred the .38 Webley he had always carried. He complained about this to Churchill who produced his own Webley and handed ii to the PC and said "give it here" about the Colt. He carried it throughout the War and many years after. Winston was fond of automatics. Very correctly in the clip from Young Winston (superb film BTW) he is shown wearing the issue .455 Webley on his belt but produces the C96 from his own kit.

Fun fact: Peter O’Toole, while most famous in his titular role in Lawrence of Arabia, would go on to star in a few media, such as President Hindenburg in Hitler: Rise of Evil (2003) and, more recently, as the voice of Anton Ego in Ratatouille (2007).

I have a 1936 Chinese contract broomhandle that I used in bowling pin shoots inspite it's only an 86 grain bulletit still keeps up there with the knocking power of 45

Some of the Chinese warlord c96 clones are known to be very rare and highly collectable such as ones chambered in 45 acp which are extremely rare if they are in the U.S. going for tens of thousands of dollars sometimes

As a kid in 1966 I had a cap firing C96 in a kit with a Walther P38 with a removable silencer from the TV series "The Man From UNCLE" with Robert Vaughn and David McCullum.

I have some fun facts about the C96. When the C96 was made, no one understands the semi-automatic concept and as Hugo Borschart did his pistol, it was very intriguing but still, it was clunky at the rear due to the toggling mechanism at the rear, upsetting the balance quite alot. Paul Mauser at that time wanted to show off his incredible stripper clip mechanism soon made the "Boombox" Mauser C96. When he trialed it to the German military, they were somewhat skeptical and thus they didn't really adopt it and out of fear of bankruptcy, Paul Mauser decided to push it to civilian markets as the hype was building. So when Paul released it to the civilian markets, it was one of the 1st smokeless cartridge pistol that's also semi-auto that gained popularity with the masses and the British soon found themselves signing contracts thru Westley Richards & Co to resell it in the UK and at that point of time, British officers in the army were required to use their own pay to purchase a pistol on their own and soon, bulks of British officers soon got hands on it and loved it but no one pushed the gun to huge fame that soon enticed major armies to adopt it more so than ever was down to none other than Winston Churchill. Churchill at that time wasn't a pretty big shot in politics but his reputation precedes him and he bought one while being a military journalist and was sent to the Boer War. While there, he used his Mauser C96 to great effect and upon his escape from the Boer POW camp and made his way home from the war, he kept praising the pistol for it's high rates of fire and multiple round counts instead of the standard 6 shot from a normal revolver and the Mauser had enough firepower to keep him fighting till dozens of enemies lay dead and if it wasn't without his Mauser, he wouldn't be back in Britain. That sent quite a huuuge shockwaves across the world and soon quite a few major military adopted it like the Austria in small quantities, the Germans bought quite a lot of them for policing and naval or rear guard units and Turkey also bought quite alot to rearm their officer corp. Why those Kung Fu movies had soo many Mauser C96s was because that's the most popular sidearm of all time during the entire history of 1900s China. When the Qing was coup'ed out of power by the Kuomintang/Tongmenhui during the Xinhai Rebellion back in 1911, the weapon that almost all of the rebels used where Chinese broadswords, stolen arsenal Mauser rifles and most importantly, tons and tons of C96s. Even at the end of the war, the pistol was soo loved that many bootlegged arsenals started to rise up and manufacture unlicensed copies of it in various form and calibers be it in it's original caliber, the 7.63x25mm or the bigger, .45 ACP rounds. The Mauser was also the most saw weapon to be used during the entire internal conflict China had witnessed before the Japanese invasion which was the Warlord Era where every factions were armed with tons and tons of Mauser thus it's not surprising that they saw use by Chinese gangsters too throughout the 1920s-40s. It was soo popular that even during the Second Sino-Japanese War, most guerilla fighters and even general government troops would see tons of their units being armed with nothing but Mauser C96s in various forms be it the Astra models, locally made or actual German copies and use these troops as shock troops to dislodge Japanese positions who are firing back at them with rifles and machine guns.

The gun only features one screw. The rest is clock work. The gun also can’t be topped off like a bolt action rifle and is extremely comfortable to shoot if you don’t like the web of your hand however with the stock attached it turns into quite the handy little package

I recently received a Mauser C96 that was used by my Great Great Uncle he used it in the Easter Rising and then again in the Irish war of Independence and Civil War

There was a scene in The Unknown Soldiers where an old Finnish officer was carrying a Mauser C96 while rallying his men to move before getting shot. Interestingly enough, if a Finnish officer was carrying a Mauser, he was most likely a civil war veteran officer who fought for the White side.

There was once a story during the warlord eras in China where a group of escaping soldiers were getting chased by enemy warlord soldiers. One of them turned to confront the enemy, pulled out his C96 and shot two birds at the same time as he fired horizontally instead of vertically. This scared the enemy and retreated.

Many Mauser C96s appear in Japanese comic and animation "Attack on Titan".

I think Winston Churchill used it as his side arm during the Bour war

This was a very futuristic design for that age, it's logical that has became such an icon in in historical (& others) movies, also if you aren't a weapons' expert you probabilly will recognize it

Thirty years ago I acquired, through Century Arms, a well-used 4-inch barreled "Bolo" model, so called because large numbers were sold to Bolsheviks in Russia in the early 30's. It is a marvel of precision machining and a hoot to shoot. The weight-forward design minimizes barrel rise during firing. Churchill may have used his Mauser in WWI, when he spent some time as a front-line officer.

This is a gun I've always wanted to own, but given their prices, unless I hit a lottery it's going to have remain a want.

The C96 is my all time favorite firearm in history and I love to see it get the recognition it deserves

Thats not Mad Max , that's Mad Max 3 : Beyond the Thunderdome .

Interesting fact: The 7.63 mauser cartridge is identical in size to the 7.65 borchardt cartridge in the c-93, the first commercially sucessful automatic, which was refined into the luger pistol. The difference was the mauser had a 30% higher pressure to it and would damage the toggle of a borchardt. Ammo manufactures started making a lighter pressure load and american gunstores would sell it, with the box labeled "for use in borchardt and mauser pistols." The downside to this is if you were a mauser shooter you were sacrificing velocity and power if you used this loading.

I remember that this handgun is also in Attack on Titan by the Suvery Corps and the Marleyan Army

Churchill's mother actually purchased a pair for him

The C96 was a pet project of mausers brothers. The 7.65x25 was a powerful and straight shooting cartridge with a high velocity. These cartridges can accurately shoot out to 200m or even 300m with hot loads or using the carbine varient. Its one of the few cartridges that if loaded hot can pass soft pistol body armour without needing a steel core. Later iterations and Spanish knockoffs had large detachable magazines and some had a fully auto selector that usually had a crazy rate of fire. In the west it was known as the broom handle but in China it was known as the box cannon. If you had Western clothing a box cannon and a pocket watch you where a wealthy man in the warlord era. Some arsenal's in China made copy's nearly as good as mauser made, one warlord who imported a load of Thompson SMGs had C96s made in .45 acp and it was very large. For a long time before domestic 8mm mauser rifle production took off it was a main infantry weapon due to inbargos. The first weapon to use the mauser 7.65x39 was the borchart pistol that then became miniutuised into the luger, the first lugers had been chambered in 7.65 luger a smaller round but people wanted a bigger round so he pretty much made the world's most popular handgun cartridge the 9mm luger as a stopgap. The Russians used the 7.65x25 apart from they used steel cases and hotter loads and called it the 7.62x25 for tokerver and PPSH SMG a tokarev pistol using surplus ammo will reliably puncture soft body armour. It also made the PPSH have much more range. Never use 7.62x25 in a c96 For all you star wars fans in the US please don't modify working mauser pistols into prop guns, it's very wasteful and its kind of dangerous to have a prop gun that can fire live ammo. Everytime I have ever seen a real C96 made into a blaster it makes me cringe as its destroying history. Also in the later parts of the wild west C96 and bolt action mausers where used by people who could afford them. Having the most powerful pistol round in semi auto with 10 rounds or 2 gives an advantage over revolvers. Plus the fact you can add the stock and use it as a carbine. If you find a good C96 I would always recommend the 7.65x25 as you can't rebarrel 9mm. You don't need a NFA short barreled rifle paperwork as they are exempt so you can use the wooden holster / stock with no NFA paperwork.

Steampunk weaponry at its finest

After watching the luger video this was the first thing I was thinking about! My uncle had a toy mauser from the 70s, proper metal, and I loved playing with it as a kid

Fun Facts: The C96 uses only two screws, which keep the handle panels on. The shorter barrel variants were imported into Russia in such a mass that its use by the bolsheviks spawned the nickname "Bolo Mauser" for the short barrel models. Yan Xishan (the Warloard of Shenxi) was equpping his trooped with locally produce Thompson Submachine Gun, he commissioned a variant of the C.96 chambered in .45ACP designated the Type 17. The Type 17 was featured in the video game Fallout 3, however chambered in 10mm. Unfun facts: Not a fun pistol to disassemble. Due to the National Firearms Act of 1934, the use of the stock on the pistol makes it a "Short Barrel Rifle" by law, and therefore have to be registered with the ATF as such or a Relic.

In MGS 3 snake eater, it was EVA's favourite pistol.

I know for some bizarre reason In 1917 an Austro-Hungarian aircraft gunner used a weird mashed up anti-aircraft gun made out from Mausers C-96, it had 10 barrels up and over each other. Each pistol held a clip of ten bullets and the device attached to them fired them in unison, giving the gunner the ability to rapidly fire 100 rounds in volleys of 10

Glad you mentioned Young Winston the C96 is mentioned in his autobiography.

The C96 that became Han Solo's blaster was used as the primary weapon in the film _The Naked Runner (1967)_ and the scope assembly came off another C96 in the film _Sitting Target (1972)._

1:41 the Sherlock Holms Films had a few firearms that wouldn't be around until after the turn of the 20th century such as submachine guns which the first one wouldn't be invented until 1920 which was the Thompson Submachine Gun. I believe the gun Watson uses while escaping the arms factory in Germany was a submachine gun. 3:37 Jackie had his eyes pointing in two different directions just then.

The C96 also appears in the movie "the great silence" (with klaus kinski) MUST WATCH

Getting it out of its Holster was a nightmare,

video idea: b52 in the movies :)

Since you ask, I could add “Sitting Target” (1972), a great British crime thriller, where the Mauser C96 is wielded by Oliver Reed. It is also seen in “Shout at the Devil” (1976) and “King Solomon’s Mines” (1985), just two adventure movies that come to mind.

Not a movie but Eva using it in Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater is my favorite

Having shot an authentic red 9, I can tell you it's surprisingly ergonomic.

C96 is also been seen the final season of AoT.

You managed to include Clint Eastwood, Archer, Resident Evil 4, Star Wars and Lawrence of Arabia. You are a genius !!! Well done !!

The army commander in butvh Cassady carried a c96 Winston Churchill had one in the 1890s He said he used one it was a gift from his mother

Another great video Johnny!! And your eye for detail is top notch!! I have a pair of C96 Broomhandles. (OK, they're .177 CO2 powered KWC, but they look quite good in the display case.) Cheers from Ontario.

Dayum, you covered a lot of info, nicely done! Last thing I saw one in was when I recently rewatched "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot."

Surprised not to see clips of Attack on Titan given season 4 features the mauser greatly including many rifles like g1988 or the carcano

Not sure if you have done this before. But could you do M1903 in film. It has several variants so it won't be hard to find some good movies in. But I am just wanting an excuse to buy one and send you footage of it in action.

It was widely used as far as the Philippines during its war against Spain and the US

I think the C96 is the best Automatic pistol of all time Movies games TV shows anime Showed as icon gun side with the M1911

As soon as I saw the thumbnail I said to myself "I hope he goes all Han Solo on this one".

I know the Russians used it post-war especially during the Russian Revolution. Did the Russians make any copies of the gun?

Great choices, is their any way to bring in the Ghostbusters, in lieu of Ivan Reitman's passing, as well as any war films from The Ukraine, to show support of their plight? Take care, and all the best.

There's also a warlord copy chambered for 0.45 APC.

I'm on that Borchardt C93 with foldable stock.

W.D.M. "Karamojo" Bell used one in Africa.

finally my favorite pistol of all time, so much so that made 3 cardboard versions. also thanks Johnny was waiting for this for a long time.

I still have that C96 toy I had since I was in kindegarten but now it's broken obviously, also this gun is in mafia II =)

Han Solo's blaster from Star Wars was modeled after this gun

So, fun fact about the chinese clones of the c96. They were often chambered in .45, which made them a lot stronger and a lot less controllable than their German counterpart. It worked in its favour, however. The Chinese warlords of the era developed a technique called "bandit shooting" where they would hold the gun sideways gangsta-style and spray, letting the recoil carry the gun horizontally instead of vertically. This technique is seen in MGS 3 when Eva shoots her C96 from her bike.

Please do the Fn Fal It'll be a great idea and I'd love to see it!!! Love your videos ❤

Some weapons with insane range adjustment never cease to amaze me I understand for the rifle rounds given they can travel over 1000m and still be effective at killing someone but I cannot imagine a pistol fired at over 1000+ meter away I recall Browning Hi-Power has it and also M1928 Thompson with it, now I'm not in a country where Firearm is free to buy and own but certainly questionable that you would ever fire a pistol caliber over 1000+ meter is beyond me.

I love the Mauser C96 One of my favorite firearms

I love my C96. I'm pretty sure mine is a commercial 1930s model. Works pretty well for its age. I love how it all fits together like clockwork, I find it both fun to shoot and to clean. I am that weirdo who actually enjoys cleaning guns so... I really want to get my hands on one of those Chinese Type 17s in .45 ACP, but cash is a little tight right now.

Gear work JJ. Nice gun. Full auto versions were utterly uncontrollable. Like……totally off the map!

I remember in Medal Of Honor Airborne where there is a Safe if you shoot it there is a M712 that you can use and obtain in the Mission Operation: Varsity

Just a small correction, for your own sake more than anything I suppose. The rebellion in Dublin, 1916, was the "Easter Rising" not "Eastern Rising", so named because it took place of the course of 6 days during Easter Week of that year :) Alaways loved the C96, great breakdown of its appearances in film :D

I’d love to get one…but I probably couldn’t afford it. Ammo would be hard to come by as well. PPU of Serbia makes 7.63x25mm Mauser, but availability is spotty.

How about the original movie. Assault on Precinct 13 Where the thug gangmember takes out the little girl with a silenced C96 Mauser!! Hardcore!!!

Jin Roh is a good movie glad to see it shown here

I´m surprised you didn´t use a clip from Corbucci´s "The Great Silence" ( Il Grande Silenzio), where it´s featured very prominently.

If I want a C96, I want to get the Red 9 version

A local gun shop had a Red 9 in a few months ago and I still kick myself for not getting it.

The Mauser C96 is used by Booker Dewitt from Bioshock Infinite, when he visits the floating city of Columbia.

My father had one in the 1940s but his brother sold it when he was in the USAAF. He told me that it's easy to take it apart for servicing but you need five hands to put it back together. Is that true? I've always liked them and would own one if it were possible. But, here in Canada it's just not going to happen.

No mention of the (toggle lock firing system) using recoil operation Johnny. My Engineers soul cry's Johnny! C96, lugers & Walther All use this mechanical feeding system. The rounds are cycled by the finger pulling the trigger connected to mechanisms. You can eject & load the next round by pulling the trigger as normal even if a dud is in the chamber as it is not gas operated like the M1911 & most other pistols till 21st century pistols. Because round cycling was completely mechanical in nature round where feed far faster then any gas operated fire arm. The Walther P38 for instance fed a round in 1/50 of second. that outclasses most any fire arm to date. The reason such pistols went out of production was not being outdated but the association & manufacturing cost. A Luger po8 was about 3 times more expensive to produce then a M1911 for instance. Their is a reason British troop scavenged German pistols & not M1911 et cetera. Toggle lock fire arms where the sports car equivalent of a pistol at the time if that gives a perspective. Not directly relevant but interesting: A lot of people don't know but a lot of a Walther P38 is made of plastic besides the internal mechanics making it as light or lighter then most pistils of the time with far greater performance. It was ahead of it time in countless aspects Their where also a few dozen gewehr's made using the such toggle lock firing system. Todays these toggle lock rifle from ww2 are worth literal millions to collectors.

I had one rebarrelled yo 10in by an outfit in Odessa Tx. 83gr soft points clocked 1550 fps with no variation.

Based on one website I found I thought you should know. After the end of World War 1 and the then ongoing Warlord Era China, Western nations are officially prohibited the sales of weapons and military hardware leftover from the war but they ignore those rules and manage to sell them to Chinese factions. Some are legally sold due to technicalities and loopholes. And not it’s just weapons but vehicles and even airplanes.

This my favorite pistol just because of the style

0:54 when you said maybe you should tell why Let me tell Because of versatile treaty after world war European countries were band to sell rifles to Asian countries but handguns wasn’t ban and because of attachable stocks of Mauser C96 it was good replacement for arming Chinese factions in warlords era

This gun is so cool

Your narration is getting so much better as you put these out. Keep it up, Johnny!

Really cool gun with so many movies that feature this iconic gun

Me: “I wonder if he’ll use Joe Kidd footage.” The video: 0:01

Winston Churchill carried one at Omdurman in 1898...

Winston Churchill used Han Solo's gun. Amazin'.

The Bolo name of the c96 came from the Russian Bolsheviks. They had ordered a large number of them in the 7,63x25 caliber. That caliber is the father of the 7,62x25 (7,62 Tok). The two cartridges are very similar. However in this case, they are not interchangeable. The Chinese were not lost to the advantages of the thunder maker. The effective range varies a little and can be 300+ meters with the stock on the weapon. I have both an M1920 in 7,63x25 and a Norwegian contract in 9mm. Ammunition is still available for the 7,63 (30 Mauser) through S&B. Reloading is straight forward. Although all parts are hand fitted it not really finicky about what it eats. Stripper clips can be had for a couple of bucks each. All in all, 100+ years in and they are great weapons still.

The surprise is when you upgrade this gun, it will become a Boomhilda

A classic piece of weaponry used by Booker & the Columbia police force in BioShock Infinite too.

Insanely prolific weapon

Ive noticed no one mentioned Attack on Titan using it for their Anti-Personnel Maneuver Gear

I have been waiting for this video topic.

The best gun in history!

it shoots very well on the cinema range then it's in its element. its a excellent combat pistol not a formal target range pistol.

I remember in the 1st red dead redemption game they made the Mauser pistol fully automatic instead of semi automatic

"Grease gun muzzle"? More like an MG81's flash hider.

This is the most widely used handgun from the warlord period of 1920s to the Civil War in 1950s. It appeared in numerous black and white films and is a crowd favorite. Lucky to obtain one particular made in 1914 model chambered in original 7.63X25mm Mauser rds. (similar to Tokarev)

This pistol is one of my favorite guns from the and I love it so much,thank you for making this video

Good video!! Also believe that this weapon was featured in a John Wayne movie called, "Big Jake". This weapon is also in the Play Station 3 game, "Red Dead Redemption", which quickly became my weapon of choice just because of its firepower.

A TV show I'd highly recommend is Babylon Berlin which is set post WW1 and features a lot of interesting weapons

Forgot to mention that it's Z712 variant was basically an UZI prototype. Also, wasn't one of the reasons for it to fall out of fashion being that it was very expensive? Way more than other standard pistols at the time?