[ Mauser 1912/14 in .45 ACP ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and today we have
a super-cool trio of pistols here.
These are Mauser Model 1912s in .45 ACP.
So, this is a version of pistol that's pretty darn rare in its normal calibre of 9mm,
and extremely rare in .45. And we have three different versions.
I was about to say all three different versions,
but it's possible that there's a fourth pattern out there.
But what these show us is this really interesting mechanical evolution
within Mauser of, "How do we do this pistol?"
So, I would suggest that before you watch this video, you go back
and watch the video I did on the 9mm 1912s.
Because ... in there I explain all the background at Mauser of how they were
trying to build a family of pistols all in the same sort of style.
I'm going to bypass that today and get straight to the stuff with the .45s.
Because the main military interest in Europe was in 9mm,
however, Mauser recognised that there was a potentially
lucrative market for .45 calibre pistols.
This wasn't necessarily just the United States,
although the United States would be a significant part of it.
Just as we saw the Luger being manufactured in .45 ACP for some trials in the US,
but also countries in South America potentially interested in .45s.
So, Mauser wanted to take its Model of 1912 and also be able to offer it in .45.
So, what they did however was they had to figure out how to make it work.
... This whole family started in 1909 as a 9mm simple blowback
with like a spring buffer to try and cushion the impact of the slide.
And that didn't really work.
So what they went to was a sequence of different delaying mechanisms in these guns.
They did maybe as many as 10 in each of these three series,
because these are all mechanically different internally,
which we'll take a look at in just a moment.
But we know that they started a different serial number range for each model
because we have a serial number 2, another serial number 2, and a serial number 4.
So, let's take a look at them and see when we pull these apart,
what are the mechanical systems that they use to try and delay the blowback?
I have taken apart all three of these so that we can look
at the three different systems that they used iteratively
to try and get a successful delayed-blowback system.
So, this is the very first one.
And this is a vertically pivoting wedge,
and there's a really strong spring under this wedge.
And when I pull the lever here, the cheater lever,
that is going to drop, like so.
Now if we look up close at the front, you'll see that it has a pair of slightly angled surfaces.
Those surfaces are going to interact with these lugs, these features on the front of the slide.
So, you can pretty much see how it's going to work there.
The slide is going to push on this lever, and because it is an intersection of two inclined planes
it will slowly push that lever down in the front.
And when it's all the way down, then the slide can retract back.
Now we see a secondary feature here in this recoil buffer, which is just basically
a stack of sort of bent sheets of steel.
That is going to ultimately impact
on this surface in the ... frame. And the idea was that that would cushion the impact of the slide.
And the two things together would make a nice functional delayed-blowback pistol.
But it didn't work. And so they went to a new design.
Or possibly, because I don't have any specific records on this, possibly it did work,
but they wanted to try and make it a little bit cheaper, and a little bit simpler to manufacture.
And so our second iteration ... has the same fundamental idea, but kind of works backwards.
So now we have the pivoting lever pinned up in the front.
And when I push this lever it's going to allow this to drop down in the back.
So now our slide
has this set of half-moon cutouts in the slide.
And those are going to sit over these two lugs,
and ... it's going to push downwards on these when the ... gun fires
and with enough force (I can actually do it on this one),
with enough force that's going to push the lever down and allow the slide to cycle backwards.
Note that there is no recoil buffer in this second iteration.
But that didn't work to their satisfaction either, so they came back and they went with a third model.
And this third pattern was basically identical
to what they did in the standard 9mm 1912 and 1912/14 guns,
which is a pair of delaying flaps in the front of the frame.
So if you look at these up close
you will see that they have a pair of angled surfaces at the front.
Just slightly angled, but they are not square in front.
If you've seen the video I did on the Mauser 1912s in 9mm, you'll recognise this immediately.
Those flaps interact with this square lug at the front of the slide.
In fact you can see that the edges of this are just slightly angled backwards there,
and there as well.
And so this square lug is going to push on those two flaps,
and again because we have an intersection of two inclined planes,
they are going to slowly push these flaps out until they are fully out,
and then the slide can travel back.
And there is no buffer in this one either.
Beyond saying that these were manufactured sometime between 1912 and 1914,
I really can't be any more specific.
There is very little printed information about these.
If we look at them by features and if you compare these to the 9mm guns,
you'll see that these two, the first two mechanical variations,
have a few of the early features, like just the slide serrations.
Where this guy (which by the way is in the white as you may have noticed, not ever finished),
this one actually has the grasping lugs on the side of the slide.
However, if we look at ... their markings, these all have the single line Mauser address.
That would suggest that these were all manufactured after
the 9mm design was basically standardised.
However, like here you see the side latch, which is a very early feature,
and of course, the recoil buffer in there.
You'll also notice that the triggers are kind of the equivalent of the early 9mm triggers here,
and a later one back here.
So, this is not atypical of experimental toolroom factory prototype guns,
where a lot of the features are going to kind of change and bounce around.
Not necessarily with what looks to us like a logical order.
And also, like the 9mm guns, none of these .45s are actually proofed.
Which really does make pretty good sense, especially guns that never even got finished.
These were just prototypes and experiments,
and they never actually hit commercial markets or sales.
Alright, well hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
It is super cool to get a chance to look at what I think are actually
the three discrete variations of mechanism that Mauser used in these pistols.
So, I mentioned at the beginning that ... there might be a fourth one.
There might be a version of the .45 that has a tangent sight,
it's not clear to me which of these mechanical systems that one utilised.
Most likely it would be the final iteration with the flapper delay,
but I haven't actually seen that gun myself.
So, if you are interested in these pistols, or in any of Mauser's other handgun work,
the book that I would recommend for you is by Collector Grade, it is "Mauser Pistolen"
by Darrin Weaver, Jon Speed and ... Mr Schmid, whose first name I can't remember.
It's still available, ... the book is out there.
Collector Grade, however, is no longer in business,
and so ... if you want a copy of the book, pick it up now rather than later.
And I think that's all we've got on these.
Thanks for watching.