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Additional Umarex Legends M712 Air Pistol Photos

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History behind the firearm that inspired the Umarex M712 Air Pistol

The Broomhandle is an invention of the late 19th century. Among the very first semi-automatic pistols, the Broomhandle was patented on December 11, 1895. It used a locked-breech design with a rectangular bolt housed inside the square section of the barrel extension. Among many unprecedented features, the Mauser Broomhandle introduced a device to keep the bolt locked back after the last shot had been fired, thus indicating an empty magazine and automatically preparing the gun for quick reloading.

The development of the C-96 began in 1893 or 1894. Most work had been done by the Federle brothers, who worked for the Mauser company. Final design appeared early in 1895 and had been patented by Paul Mauser. Production began in 1896. The C-96 had been offered for the German Military but failed. However, C-96 has a long and sucessfull story on the civilian market - being offered as a pistol-carbine, it outperformed in effective range most of contemorary pistols and revolvers, being especially popular with travelers and hunters in the areas where big animals are rare or absent at all. C-96 first saw military action during the Boer war in South Africa (1899-1902). During the First World War C-96 had been aquired by the German Army due to the lack of the stantart issue Luger P-08 pistols. It also had been used during the World War Two, by some second line troops of the Reichswehr (German Army). C-96 also had beeen widely exported - in the 1920s Soviet Russia purchased large quantities of the short-barreled (99 mm barrels) C-96s in 7.63mm, givint the name "Bolo-mauser" (from Bolsheviks' Mauser) to all short-barreled C-96s.

Technically, the C-96 is a recoil operated, locked breech, semi-automatic pistol. It uses short recoiling barrel with bolt, located inside the large barrel extension. The bolt and barrel are locked by the vertically tilting locking piece with two lugs, that locked into the recesses on the bottom of the bolt. The gun is hammer fired. Early guns had hammers with large, round shaped hammer headss with coned sides. The safety is located at the left side of the hammer and locks the hammer when engaged. The most recognisable feature of C-96 is a non-removable, fixed box magazine, located ahead of the triggerguard. Early models were made with 20, 10 or 6 round magazines, but soon 20 and 6 round models were dropped, and since 1905 or so only 10 round models werere manufactured. C-96 can be loaded with single rounds or from 10-rounds sripper clips. The only way to unoad the magazine was to work the slide all the way back and forward for each cartridge in the magazine. Two other notable features were the distinguishable shaped handle (which give the name "broomhandle" to all C-96s) and removable wooden shoulder stock/holster. Finally, most of the C-96 were fitted with ajustable rear sights, graduated up to 1000 meters.

This, obviusly, was more of marketing feature, since at 1000 meters distance the average bullets spread was about 4 meters, but, due to high velocity ammunition (the 7.63mm Mauser round produced muzzle velocities of about 440 meters per second, or 1450 feets per second), the effective range was about 150 or 200 meters, especially with shoulder stock atached.

Broomhandle M712 (Model 1932 or Schnellfeuer)

Closely resembling the Mauser Model 1896 "Broomhandle" semi-automatic pistol, the Model 712 "Schnellfeuer" is a selective-fire pistol that features a detachable magazine, detachable shoulder stock, and 50 - 1000 meter rear sight.

The Schnellfeuer-Pistole ("Rapid-fire pistol") was a modification of the popular Mauser 7.63mm Model 1896 "Broomhandle" pistol. Originally developed by the Oberndorf firm, the semi-auto M1896 served with German units throughout the First World War. This design was copied by the Spanish firms Star and Astra, and versions produced by all three companies were sold in large numbers to the Chinese.

In 1930, Mauser dealers in China reported that they were losing sales to their Spanish competitors due to Astra's introduction of a selective-fire version of this pistol. Mauser mounted a vigorous response to this challenge, as designer Joseph Nickl's recoil-operated selective-fire pistol entering production during that same year. With an effective rate of 900 rounds per minute, these pistols were capable of firing an entire magazine in slightly more than one second. These pistols may be distinguished from the original M1896 pistol design by the presence of a detachable 20-round staggered feed box magazine, which could be removed for loading or charged in place with 10-round stripper clips, and by the bar-type selector switch mounted on the left side of the receiver.

Approximately 4,000 Schnellfeuer Modell 712 pistols were produced in 1930-31, most of which were shipped to China to compete against the Astra design. An improved version designed by Karl Westinger was introduced in 1932 to address reliability problems experienced with the original Modell 712. Externally, these guns are nearly identical to their predecessors, and may be identified by their "oval/point" selector switch. Approximately 98,000 were manufactured between 1932 and 1938, most of which were shipped to China.

In 1939, German armed forces began acquiring the Schnellfeuer under the military designation "Reihenfeuer ("Series Fire") Pistole Modell 713." These were widely issued to Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS military police and reconnaissance units, as well as to motorcycle dispatch riders. In addition, the Modell 713 was adopted by the Kriegsmarine for use by naval infantry troops. Although coupling a proven design of compact size with a select-fire capability would seem to be the best of several worlds, the Schnellfeuer proved otherwise.

These pistols could serve as a standard sidearm in semi-automatic mode, but were not markedly superior to the P.08 and P.38 semi-autos already in German military service. With their shoulder stock/holster attached, they also proved both effective and deadly for short range combat. At longer ranges, however, the Schnellfeuer's light weight and high rate of fire in full-auto mode made it uncontrollable except when fired in short bursts. Even then, its effectiveness was questionable. As sufficient MP38 and MP40 submachine guns became available to Nazi troops, the Schnellfeuer was replaced in the inventories of Germany's

In general, the "Broomhandle" is one of the most distinguishable semi-auto pistols in the history, also one of the first practical designs in its class. It was too heavy and too bulky, and slow to reload, but offered great effective range and firepower, along with good reliability. In short - it is what we usually call CLASSIC.