Interesting Mauser Broomhandle pistol

[smle-man]

Spied an interesting Mauser broomhandle pistol today at Oak Tree gun club. It is a model 1930 parts gun bored out and chambered for .38 ACP (.38 auto). The longer case on the .38 auto resolves the feeding problems that converted .30 broomhandles have. They want $650 for it which is too much for a worked over parts gun but maybe an offer would be considered. They are nice folks there and helped facilitiate the sale of a Webley MkVI to me that was on consignment sale.

[Shady]

haha I saw that thing today too

[saki302]

9mm Brooms have feeding problems? Not mine..

Ones that do would be an easy fix by adding a spacer within the magazine so the rounds can't shift, but again, mine has had no issues.

I'd love to see pics of the .38 conversion though.

-Dave

[smle-man]

I had two converted to 9mm and neither fed reliabily although since the pistol was factory made in 9mm and worked fine I can assume that there was something different in the factory made guns, different follower maybe? One of mine detonated a round as it being fed into the chamber and it went off when it was still on the follower, I think the extractor hit the primer. The bullet went who knows where and the case peeled open length wise. Gun wasn't damaged but sure surprised me.

[saki302]

Some of the late conversions are scary- my uncle had one he bought for nearly nothing in the '80s, but the headspace is too loose.

Cases should never fire while chambering- if that's the case, it would happen with 7.62 or 9mm- both have the same case heads and would chamber in roughly the same fashion.

If the extracctor sits low enough to hit the primer, maybe you have an isue with the mag 'lips' on the upper- which would not need adjustment to feed 9mm. It could just be wear and tear causing the rounds to sit high, but that's sitting WAY high!

-Dave

[heyjerr]

My 1930 is a 9mm conversion and has no problems at all.

[The Custard Pirate]

How do you know it is chambered for .38 Auto? If it is, I would inspect the bolt stop, and the part of the frame that supports it, very carefully because the previous owner could have run a lot of .38 Super thru it, since .38 Super is a lot easier to come by than .38 ACP. I think .38 Super would be too hot for a broomhandle.

[saki302]

.38 super is definitely too hot for a broom- just like you could, but shouldn't run 7.62 Tokarev Ammo thorugh a .30 broom.

-Dave

[smle-man]

It is stamped .38 ACP on the flat by the chamber. If I had some spare cash I'd pick it up but having just bvought a Webley .455 and a SW Victory (from a Calgunner) and have a left hand adapter for a K31 on order I better leave it where it is.