A Steyr-Hahn from World War I and the Vietnam War

[Richard2]

This Steyr-Hahn was assembled from mixed parts so its collector value is low, but I like it because of its history and mechanical design. The slide is from a Romanian contract pistol manufactured in 1913. I don't know if it was delivered early enough in 1913 to have been in Romanian service during the Second Balkan War, but it would surely have been in service when Romania fought in World War I from August 1916 to December 1917, and again briefly at the end of the war in November 1918. Shortly after WWI ended in November, Romania and Hungary went to war over Transylvania, and it is very likely the slide was used in that war too.

The frame is from a pistol manufactured in 1915. The frame is stamped 7HR. 14. According to Austro-Hungarian-Army.co.uk, HR stands for Hussar Regiment. Several years ago I looked up information about the 7th Hussars, and read that they served on the Italian front in WWI and fought in the Isonzo River battles. I have not been able to again find where I read this, and if anybody can either confirm or correct this it would be appreciated.

Apparently the pistols that supplied the parts from which my pistol is assembled were still serving in WWII, and were captured by the Soviet Army. The captured Steyr-Hahn pistols recieved the same treatment as the captured Kar98K rifles. They were completely disassembled, serviceable parts were refinished, and then assembled into new pistols with the serial number of the frame written in electric pencil on other parts.

After years of storage in eastern Europe, the pistols were delivered to the communist Viet Minh forces in Vietnam. This information is from an internet discussion board I read years ago. The pistols remained in Vietnam after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, but the Vietnam military had no use for them. Although the biggest market for military surplus guns was in the USA, American law did not allow imports from Vietnam at that time. The pistols were sold to an Australian arms dealer. These pistols did not sell very well in Australia. After they had been in Australia long enough to be legally imported into the United States, the remaining pistols were sold to American dealers. My pistol was imported by Century Arms International.

It still shoots well enough for military purposes, about 5 inches at 25 yards. The rotating barrel locking system functions reliably. Other designs that function just as well are less expensive to make, so as far as I know there are no pistols made today with this mechanism. Military arms expert Robert Shimek wrote an article about the Steyr-Hahn, in which he said that if you apply the safety and press the trigger, the gun will fire when the safety is released, even though the trigger is not touched again. This does not happen with my pistol. I wonder if the Soviet armorers who rebuilt the pistols corrected this fault.

[AndyB]

The explanation would be probably more easy, the 7.Husaren Regiment was partly in Nagyvarad (Oradea) which was prior 1918 ugrian but post 1918 romanian, so both pistol probably were mixed in Romania, most real as communist period it was send to Vietnam when this part of history of the pistol is correct.
k.u.k. Husarenregiment „Wilhelm II. Deutscher Kaiser und Konig von Preussen“ Nr. 7 – Wikipedia
With the romanian crown stamp remove and reserialing of number i would tippe to post 1948 romanian rework, or done later already by vietnamese armorers?
About the opinion of Mr.Shimek, maybe he has wrong holding spring as normally the hammer locks on the tooth, when is the safety released, maybe by weakened spring or damaged tooth area this could be realised, but by normal pistol not.

[Richard2]

Thank you very much, AndyB, for the explanation and also for the link. I did a search in English, and did not find the German wikipedia site in your post. I agree with you that your explanation is more easy, and probably true.