New guy saying hi... and asking for some Mauser help...

Well, hi. Newbie from Sweden here. Nice to be here, and thanks for the warm welcome! Was very positively surprised when I got a friendly e-mail from the administration. Not used to that from other internet forums... good to be here, folks!

I've been a friend of the model gun for some time. My first contact with the phenomenon was several years ago (early 80's), when a 10-12 year old me browsed a catalog from one of Sweden's big hobby mail order firms... brand names like MGC and Hudson... much later came Internet, and suddenly I realized what goodies I had missed.

When it comes to handling and owning model guns, I'm as green as they come. I do own one gun, as becomes obvious further down in this post ... mostly interested in WWII weaponry, and hoping to start a collection very soon. Will be on a lookout for a nice Luger to begin with...

Now, my questions... I have a Mauser C96 by MGC, and don't really know much about it. Been a movie prop replica collector for some time, and scored the pistol from a fellow Star Wars fan. I take it you know what Star Wars collectors do to certain MGC guns, and on behalf of them, I profoundly apologize here and now. Anyway... as soon as I received the Mauser, it became obvious that I never will make threaded scope mount holes in the receiver, nor glue plastic model kit parts on it. Pistol is way too precious.



If someone could help me with provenance and dating, I'd be a happy camper. It's lacking all the accurate markings of Mauser-Werke. Instead, upper and lower receiver says "6775" and lower also has marking "C98" (?). Mag plate says JAPAN. I have both the standard grips and a set of red-9's, and two weird little cartridges to go... are these cartridges available today, and is a stripper clip used? If so, availability of those?



As far as I can tell, the Mauser is in good condition. Gun feels tight and doesn't rattle. The ejector might be worn down - doesn't pull out the cartridge every time. Finish has worn off, especially on the left side (holster chafe?) and around the stock attachment groove. How does one go about refurbishing a gun like this? Would be nice to "reblue" it.

Also, a wooden stock/holster would be nice... would a real one fit the MGC?

What say you, model gun experts? I'd appreciate your views and tips...

Cheers,

Tom

Hi Tom. Welcome to the forums. Now... you won't believe this but that is one of my old guns!! I stamped the numbers on it using the first four numbers of my service number '6775'. If you look closely you will see that the numbers are not original to the gun. It's here in this pic with the stock and leather hoster. How the hell it ended up in Sweden I can't think..unless you got it from 2Sharp, a chap serving in the Swedish army with whom I had a few deals? An original Chinese stock fitted the gun but I had to file the lug on the stock to fit the slot on the gun. If you look closely you'll see where I filed it. Once again.. Wilkommen.

Terrific collection L, great story too, and welcome to the forums Suomi.
JJ

Thanks.. here's the other wall.

What a great story, and how the gun is now with Tom.

And Wow Lampwick!
That is a great collection. The best wallpaper I have ever seen!

Thanks guys, and thank you lampwick for providing a great story and provenance! I was actually wondering why the receiver markings were different from the mag plate one... I bought the gun from a guy named John in GB... don't know if you know him or if he's a member here. He goes by the nick wtac on other boards. IIRC, he had a busted Hudson Broomhandle for sale at that time.

Any suggestions on how I'd go about restoring the finish? Any kind of "bluing" compound that would adhere to the alloy?

Also, are these cartridges still available today and what caps would be the correct ones?

There is no bluing compound that I've ever found that will do the job on zinc alloy. What I used was 'Zebrite' black stove polish which, when well buffed, came up nicely. Make sure that you get all the excess polish off and be careful when handling the gun afterwards as it's a bugger to get off of your hands. I bought that C96 from 'Soldiers Three' in the early 70's as I recall. BTW the only John I knew was a John Wiffen who was a Luger nut. Maybe that's him as I dealt with him a lot back in the 80's?

Lampwick,
Is the Mat-49 a replica or a deac?

It's a deact. I sold it many years ago for £400 and thought that I'd made a killing! IF you can find one now you're looking at £1250 at least. BTW here's a close up of the gun that Tom has. Notice the crappy red numbers painted in with my wife's nail varnish!!

Thanks for the info, guys. Strange... I used the search function for threads on bluing and came up with nothing? Well, found them now. Zinc is indeed a pain to get right... been wrestling with some Denixes before...

Lampwick - cheers for the pic! That's my baby, that is... don't have a stock though, and I believe the "9" grips I got with the gun are a different pair... lanyard ring has also disappeared somewhere on the way:



The red is a bit too red though, compared to the real ones I've seen. Got a pair of wood grips too, but they have the wrong number of lines... I want to keep my gun a 1916 Prussian Contract. Just need to find someone to engrave the receiver markings...

Also, lampwick - what kind of caps did you use with this? Paper or plastic?

@Cerwyn: please, feel free to use my pics! Unfortunately, they're Tinypic, and will eventually disappear. I'd be happy to e-mail you some pics for rehosting, if you want.

Nice Mauser, great story - the world is small, huh? :-)

Search function does not seem to work for me either, it always comes up empty.

"Also, lampwick - what kind of caps did you use with this? Paper or plastic?"
Actually I never fired a shot out of any of my guns with the exception of the MAC-11 which came with a full clip of loaded shells. One 3 second burp and that's all she wrote! I couldn't be arsed to fiddle about with the shells and so that was my shooting experience with model guns. Now, as to shooting real guns at people.... that's another story kiddies!
BTW Tom.."He goes by the nick wtac on other boards" What other boards are there? Are they to do with Militaria per se or modelguns?

Suomi, please do e-mail any photos you have of your MGC Mauser, I'll gladly add them to the Gallery.

I'm not sure why the Search function isn't working for some of you, Keying in "Bluing" and selecting either "topics" or "posts" brings up plenty of reading material for me. The Search function has worked well every time I've tried it.
Is it a common problem for the members generally

Cerwyn - I'll send you some pics.
lampwick - my John is a different one - the other boards I mentioned are dedicated to Star Wars blasters. In the 1980 and 1983 installments of the Star Wars trilogy, model guns were used instead of live prop guns - easier to shoot the movie in different countries, not having to deal with firearm permit & license red tape - so the heroes' sidearms were redressed MGC Mausers, while the stormtrooper blasters were based on the nowadays way too rare MGC SterlingSMG . Nowadays, hardcore fans collect these particular guns and butcher/convert them into movie prop replicas. The modifications made are mostly irreversible - drilled holes in the receivers, cut-off barrels and so. Personally, I've settled with converting Denix Mausers into blasters - thrashing an original 1970's/1980's model gun seemed like the wrong thing to do...

Cerwyn wrote:

I'm not sure why the Search function isn't working for some of you, Keying in "Bluing" and selecting either "topics" or "posts" brings up plenty of reading material for me. The Search function has worked well every time I've tried it.
Is it a common problem for the members generally

I posted a poll - let's continue Search topic here:
https://mp40modelguns.forumotion.net/modelgun-general-discussion-f1/does-forum-search-function-work-for-you-t2058.htm