Today for Gus’ Gear I will return to the German corner to talk about the M1914 Mauser pistol in 7,65 Browning. This model was issued in fairly large numbers to German soldiers. The Mauser firm designed and produced a multitude of rifles for Germany and other nations around the globe and wanted to get a military contract with the C96 pistol. They were beaten out by the P’08 Parabellum pistol. Mauser hired Josef Nickl, who designed a blow back pistol chambered for the same 9x19mm cartridge as the P’08, but the 9mm cartridge did not work well with a blow back design. While working on that concept, they decided to scale down the design to a 6,35mm Browning cartridge. This was marketed as the M1910 pocket pistol. By 1914 the same design was scaled to fire the 7,65mm Browning cartridge, originally for the police market. With the beginning of the Great War, the M1914 Mauser pistol was in high demand by the German military, around 200,000 were produced before the end of the war.
The view of the left side of the pistol shows the saftey lever just behind the trigger, the button below the lever is the safety release. When the saftey is moved down, the pistol is in safe mode until the button is pushed in, to allow the lever to return to the fire mode. The magazine holds eight 7,65mm Browning (.32 ACP) cartridges. The pistol has the typical heel release. This pistol has two hold back mechanisms for the slide. The slide will lock back when the magazine is empty, and will stay back as the magazine is removed. When a magazine is reinserted, the slide will close if the magazine is loaded or empty. The top of the pistol is marked with the double crown U behind the rear sight, and the small eagle stamp in front making this a sidearm that was issued by the German Army. Visible on the back of the pistol is a small protrusion, this is the cocked indicator, showing that this pistol is ready to fire if there is a cartridge in the chamber.
The holster is a higher quality than normal for an issue holster. It has a roller buckle for closure rather than the normal strap that is fixed with a stud. It has a pocket for an extra magazine and a strap to pull the pistol out of the holster. The design and construction is very similar to the standard P’08 holsters. It was manufactured in 1915 (about the same time as the pistol) and is marked with an ink stamp to Infantry Regiment 44
This photo shows the J.R.44 marking of Infantry Regiment 44.
magazine and pull back the slide to make sure the chamber is clear. The slide will stay open and allow the removal of the take down rod by depressing the small button under the muzzle end of the pistol and rotating the take down rod to the side and pulling it forward. At this point the barrel can be lifted up and out. The empty magazine must then be inserted to allow the slide to move forward, then the magazine must be removed to allow the slide to move off the front of the frame allowing the removal of the mainspring and guide rod. The firing pin and spring will be captured by the sear, care must be take when removing it, as it is under pressure. The side plate can be moved up and out of the frame to expose the internal parts. The disconnector, just above the trigger will probably fall out at this point. During normal cleaning, the side plate would not need to be removed, nor would the grips or other internal parts. By removing the grips, the the trigger bar spring can be removed and then the trigger bar, safety catch, safety release and trigger can be removed. Reassembly is a reverse process with the addition of crawling around on the floor to find the parts you have dropped. For the sake of safety, it is best to have your brother-in-law test fire the pistol if you are unsure of having found all the parts
This photo shows a size comparison of the 7,65mm M1914 (on the top) with a 6,35mm M1910 pistol. The bottom pistol is a post war production with minor differences to the earlier pistols.
