Here's a neat little pistol I picked up a few months back. A local collector asked me to help run his table at a show, he's trimming the fat to help fund a trip to Scotland. When I met him on Friday morning this is the first gun that I noticed on the table. He has recently taken a shine to competition shooting, and has been coveting my Swede Mausers for a few years, so he was naturally interested in some horse trading. I ended up giving him the Swede m96, $100, a few boxes of Prvi x55, and two minor league prospects to be named at a later date, for the Mauser pistol & holster and 200 rounds of 32, without really knowing if I was getting a great deal or hosed. I've never really followed the HSC market. All I knew was it's Mauser, German military marked, WWII, and in remarkably nice condition, so therefore I must own it.
From what I can gather, most Mausers HSCs are police/commercial marked but a handful will be found with the waa135 or 655 military acceptance on the trigger guard. Even a smaller handful (pinkieful?) can be found with kriegsmarine acceptance marks. This gun has the early high polish & blued finish, something they abandoned as the war progressed. It's a neat design, being a double action pistol. The safety works as a decocker and when the safety is disengaged you can just let it rip. I love it! The holster he tossed in is not period correct, it's from the '60s, but it does appear designed specifically for the HSC.
After studying the market on these things for the past few months I've begun to think I got a killer deal. My buddy is ecstatic about tuning in the Swede and working up some loads for it, and he knows I get my rocks off on German stuff, so everybody involved is content. The only downside to it all is, since we've made the deal, now I have to put up with him talking trash. On every range trip it's "Ohh look what a real shooter with talent can do with this rifle" as he shoves a target at me with a few dime-sized groups punched through it. "And I'm blind in one eye with glaucoma in the other!"
I'm happy for the old bastard. Pics: