I need to know the details. What is this?

The owner claims it has been in their family since the twenties, and that his father told him it is Austrian. It has a turning bolt and the calible is about 8 mm. No markings exept the serial number and unreadable nitro? proof marks, maybe U with a crown.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Boha

Swedish gentlemen on another forum beat the world to it. I got my answer, it's a German Schwarzlose 1898 7,63 mm. Seems like less than 1000 were made.

Boha

Hello;
I'm quoting from Hanguns of the World by Edward E Ezell. Actally Schwarzlose was a German and the guns were made in Berlin. He describes it as a 7.63x25 Schwartzlose M 1898 Standart. It was a commercial flop and few were made. He calls it a very desirable collectors piece, so it ought to be worth a few bucks. The pictured specimen in the book has a serial number of 183. According to the book, Russian revolutionaries bought 1000 of them for their 1908 revolt, most of which fell into the hands of the Czarist authorities, who issued them to their own forces and of course they dissapeared into history. Perhaps that is how this one got to Finland. Ezell makes no mention of a shoulder stock.
Grizz

Thanks! This is probably the way it got to this country. But is the year of the revolutionaries purchase correct?

The number on this pistol was 3xx as I recollect..

On the morning of the 28 of January 1918 my forefathers started to disarmed the russian troops and our war of independence / civil war against the russians and domestic red guards started. The weapons liberated are still treasured items among descendants of these militiamen, Suojeluskunnat...

boha

According to 'Textbook of Automatic Pistols' sales in Germany were poor so the remaining stock was sold to Russian revolutionaries in preparation for the 1905 uprising which took place during the Russo-Japanese War.Many were confiscated and re-issued to the Imperial Police,It is common to find them with Russian inscriptions.

That sounds about right; about the same time Finnish activists, financed partly by japanese agents, imported Vetterli rifles and Webley Mark IV revolvers to this country, for the purpose of being a general nuisance to the Russians. These weapons are still called Graftons, after the steamer that brought them here; SS John Grafton.

These were turbulent times.

Boha

Helo;
Actually it was 1905. As a History grad I should have caught that error in transcribing. I gather from Ezell, the Germans were happy to unload them on the Russians, probably at firesale prices, since they were just gathering dust. Actually the Ezell commentary is quite elaborate and you might want to check it out yourself.
Grizz
Grizz

I am not a pistol collector, but remember to read such stories about this Schwarzlose Modell 1893 that the gun is. The shoulder stock is definitly rare. A 7.63mm Mauser or a 7,62mm tokarew round will fit the chamber of this gun. The pistol was made for the 7.63mm Borchardt cartridge, the mother of the 7,63mm mauser with a lower velocity.