Wanted to post this Austro-hungarian handgun for a while, managed to aquire 3 of them and i just adore the design and robustness, definitely one of my favorite and one of the best handguns in WW1.
Handguns are heavily used and not in perfect condition, but that just adds to their story.
First one, year of production 1917, regular Steyr with military acceptance marks.
This one has been rechambered by German army for 9mm Parabellum, there is 08 marking on the left side of slide to indicate adoption date of a cartridge and all sorts of waffenamt marks, even on the barrel. Ammo in the clip is deactivated.
It is 1918 producion, but has 1919 military acceptance marks. Now some odd markings apper here, those are czechoslovakian marks that have been stamped over austrian ones(Wn-19 is still visible).
So i think this handgun has seen very short or no usage in Austro-hungarian military, after 1919 used by Czechoslovakia and then in 1938 German army captures it and converts it to 9mm Parabellum.
This prewar one troubles me, it isn't chilean or romanian, can't be bavarian because of the year and it is not civilian. Also military acceptance marks are not there and has some little marks(M in circle on the slide and S in circle beneath the barrel). Only this one has serial number on bottom of handgrip. Could be one of the cancelled ones from romanian contract, but i just dont know. If anybody has some idea about it, feel free to comment.
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