Got a chance to spend some time with this beauty lately.
Pre-WWI commercial C96 models generally have a serial number that falls into the 30,000 to 274,000 range, and the VL&D marked pistol that recently came through the GDC Warehouse is No. 81976– putting it as roughly a 1905 production handgun. As such, it hails from the peak of Mauser’s golden era, with excellent fitting, fire-blued small parts, a “strawed” trigger, and deeply varnished wooden grips.
Further, it is kind of rare, being one of just 1,900 guns shipped directly from Oberndorf-on-the-Neckar to the firm of Von Lengerke & Detmold in New York City.
What? You don’t know VL&D?
More after the jump.