[13][14] The distinctive characteristics of the C96 are the integral box magazine in front of the trigger, the long barrel, the wooden shoulder stock, which gives it the stability of a short-barreled rifle and doubles as a holster or carrying case, and a grip shaped like the handle of a broom.

[16] Mauser manufactured approximately one million C96 pistols,[17] while the number produced in Spain and China is large but unknown due to poor production records.

[19] The C96 also became a staple of Bolshevik commissars from one side and various warlords and gang leaders from another in the Russian Civil War, known simply as "the Mauser".

[13][21] Indian revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil and his partymen used these Mauser pistols in the historic Kakori train robbery in August 1925.

Chinese communist general, Zhu De, carried a Mauser C96 during his Nanchang Uprising and later conflicts; his gun (with his name printed on it) is in the Beijing war museum.

Markings include a six-pointed star on both sides of the chamber and the crest of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (a trophy of crossed Turkish flags, various polearms, and a collection of his royal awards and honours) and the Muslim year "1314" on the square left rear frame panel.

Under the sultan's rule, there was great concern about potential military coups, and most weapons were locked away in armories, including many of the C96 pistols.

They have the Persian government's "Lion and Sun" insignia on the rectangular milled panel on the left side of the receiver and the serial numbers range from 154000 to 154999.

According to Kersten, Moll and Schmid, these were likely purchased by the high command of the armed forces and issued to motorcycle and flak crews of the Luftwaffe.

Mauser C96 pistols in this caliber usually have an indentation milled into the upper surface of the magazine's follower to facilitate feeding of the straight-cased 9×25mm cartridge cases.

The M1917 Mauser trench carbine was introduced during World War I and was intended to be a cheaper replacement for the expensive Lange Pistole 08 in close-quarters combat.

[29] The Treaty of Versailles (signed in 1919) imposed a number of restrictions on pistol barrel lengths and calibres on German arms manufacturers.

[30] Pistols for German government issue or domestic market sales could not have a barrel longer than 4 inches and could not be chambered for 9 mm cartridges.

The Weimar Republic banned the private ownership of military-issue or military-style weapons in an attempt to recover valuable arms from returning soldiers.

It was sold in quantity to armies in the contested Baltic region and was carried by the Poles, Lithuanians, German Freikorps and White Russians.

The Bolshevik government (and later the new Red Army) of the embryonic Soviet Union purchased large numbers of this model in the 1920s and also appropriated them from defeated enemies.

The Spanish gunmaking firms of Beistegui Hermanos and Astra began producing detachable magazine-fed, select-fire versions of the C96 in 1927 and 1928 respectively, intended for export to the Far East.

[14] Mauser began production of the Schnellfeuer (rapid fire), their own select-fire, detachable magazine version of the M30 designed by Karl Westinger.

From 1932 to 1935, the Yugoslavian military tested batches of the Schnellfeuer in both 7.63mm and 9mm Parabellum for the purpose of arming mountain troops and special operations units.

After World War II, importers sold a semi-automatic conversion of the detachable magazine Schnellfeuer that was made for the US surplus market.

The versions imported from China were built on new semi-auto-only frames; the ATF treats them under the law as new guns and not under the curio and relic exemption.

The selector switch (found on the left side, above the trigger guard) was marked N for normal ("average", or semi-automatic) and R for rápido ("rapid", or fully automatic).

[35] In 1970, the Policia Militar do Rio de Janeiro (PMRJ) asked the services of Jener Damau Arroyo, a Spanish-born gunsmith, to make modifications on their PASAMs in order to improve their handling.

[33] The second modification (PASAM MOD-2), involving 89 pistols, featured a similar frame extension, but the forward grip had wooden panels and was of a different shape.

[33] The most common and popular pistol in China since the beginning of the Republic in 1909, was the Mauser C96, called the "Box Cannon" (盒子炮) in Chinese.

It was imported from Germany and Spain (Astra 900 and MM31), but mostly produced locally in various arsenals, the larger being in Hanyang, Shanghai, Gongxian, Shanxi.

[47][48] In the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the Federal Ordnance firearms company in South El Monte, California, made reproductions of the Mauser 1917 trench carbine and C96 pistol, named the M713 and M714 respectively.

Author Ian Fleming outfitted agents of SMERSH in the James Bond series with Mausers on the advice of firearms expert Geoffrey Boothroyd.

[101] The C96 was the inspiration for the Buck Rogers Atomic Pistol in the movie serial and the comic,[102] and a popular toy version was produced in 1934 by the Daisy Manufacturing Company.

[13][104] Han Solo's Star Wars blaster was created from a Mauser C96 pistol with a shortened barrel fitted with a MG81 flash hider and a Hensoldt-Wetzlar scope.