Box gun, also known as shell gun in China, its official name is Mauser Military Pistol. The Mauser factory obtained the patent on December 11, 1895, and officially produced it the following year. Because its holster is a wooden box, it is also called a box gun in China; if it is equipped with a 20-round magazine, it is called a big-bellied box. Its gun body is wide, so it is also called the big mirror. With a fully automatic function, also known as a speed machine, the Mauser pistol is a pistol manufactured by the Mauser Arsenal in Germany. It is one of the earliest automatic pistols in the world. Developed by the German Federer brothers and named after Mauser. The gun is 288 mm long, has a caliber of 7.63 mm, and weighs 1.24 kg. It is fed by a 20-round magazine. The bullet has a muzzle velocity of 425 meters per second. The shooting mode is single shot and continuous shot. The shooting speed is 900 rounds per minute. The effective range is 50-150 meters. This pistol has the advantages of high power, reliable action and easy use, and is widely spread in many countries around the world. China has been imitating it for a long time and it was widely used in the Anti-Japanese War. The 20-shot "shell gun" and "box gun" refer to this kind of pistol. Called the rapid-fire type (Schnellfeuer), it was mass-produced in May 1931. Another name that few people know is the Zilaide pistol. Many people think that only the rapid-fire type is called Zilaide. This is incorrect; in fact, Zilaide has always been the more formal generic name for this type of pistol in China. In the archives of the War Department of the Beiyang Government, there is a document stating that in September 1912, the War Department signed a contract with Carlowitz & Co. to purchase: "Two hundred 7-mile 63 automatic Mauser pistols" , with wooden box handle, each rod contains 500 bullets, the price is 58 taels of pure silver, and the price is 11,600 taels of pure silver. It will be delivered at Tianjin pier. . Tariffs are excluded." This is clear evidence that the term "Zilaide Pistol" has been used in the first year of the Republic of China. It may be one of the earliest examples seen in official documents, and the rapid-fire type would not appear until nearly twenty years later. In the United States, because of the shape of the handle, it is generally called a broomhandle, and it is also called a box cannon from Chinese translation. Many people call the rapid-fire model Type 712, and say it is a model made by the Mauser factory. In fact, it is the catalog number of the German GECO (Gustave Genschow) company and has nothing to do with Mauser. Many people also call the box gun C96 (Construktion 96 – Type 96). This is a name commonly used in Europe. It originally referred to the short-barreled box gun. Like the Bolo, it is what some people call the police type. The so-called Bolo comes from the Russian Bolsheviks (another name for the Soviet Communist Party and its members), because the 3.9-inch box gun was widely used by them at that time.
The invention of the box cannon
According to legend, the box cannon was created by the three Fidel brothers (Fidel, Friedrich, and Josef Feederle) in the Mauser factory who used their free time at work to talk about design. came out. Why is it controversial? However, the last person to apply for a patent for the gun was Mauser, the owner of the Mauser Arsenal, so some people took this as evidence of Mauser's active participation. However, German patent law allows companies to act as representative applicants and patent owners, unlike the United States, which must be signed by the inventor and then transfer the patent rights. However, the person who applied for a patent for the box gun in the United States was also Mauser himself. Therefore, the shell gun is also called a Mauser pistol. The second reason is that after the end of World War II, the U.S. military commander stationed at the Mauser Factory ordered the records of the Mauser Factory to be burned. Since then, all Mauser rifles and Mauser pistols in the world have no birth certificates, and everyone can only guess. The burned records also included research and development logs and other documents, so who invented the box cannon is still controversial. The box gun, also known as the Fiedler pistol in the Mauser factory, is another proof that the three brothers have a great relationship with it.
The German shell gun has undergone almost no internal changes during its forty-year history of mass production, so it can be said that the original design is almost perfect and there is nothing to improve. There are basically no tools needed to dismantle a shell gun. As long as there is a bullet from the shell gun, the gun can be disassembled. The box gun is a cute and ugly standard, almost romantic.
There are four sources of box cannons in China:
1. Machine-assisted production by various arsenals in China: This type of box cannon has better material and processing quality, although it is still There are some problems such as manual assembly and parts not being interchangeable, but overall, it is almost comparable to imported products. The known production plants are at least: Hanyang Arsenal, Gongxian Arsenal, Dagu Shipyard, Shanxi Military Craft Training Factory, Chongqing Weapons Repair Institute, Hengyang Ordnance Bureau, etc.
All information on the Chinese-made Mauser 7.63 shell gun (published by the Ordnance Industry Administration in September 1947)
Total length: 288mm Total weight: 1.16kg Barrel length (including chamber) : 132mm
Caliber: 7.63mm Rear sight range: 1000m Rifle: 6, right-hand twist
Rifle twist: 200mm Aiming baseline length: 230mm Ammo loading style: Magazine clip
2. Production by repair shops, factories, and teams: This type of box gun is produced by the army repair teams. In addition to repairing guns, it also manufactures some ordnance. Such as Song Zheyuan's Northwest Armory Institute, Xiangxi Tuling Armory Institute, Eighth Route Army Lianggou Fourth Institute, etc. There is a huge gap in materials and quality in this category. Some repair shops have better equipment and better supply of materials, so their products are better. The Chinese Communist Party's armory facilities behind enemy lines are mostly made of railway steel because the source of steel is cut off.
3. Private mobile gun repairing and gun-making vendors: This is a special industry, just like a doctor. There are many mentions of Hebei, Henan and Sichuan in historical materials. From one person to several people, they build guns for local powerful families and small groups of military bandits. According to the customer's wishes, they live in one place for ten and a half days and build them by hand. Its quality varies from person to person, but it is generally stamped with all the marks of the original factory and is lifelike. Of course, there are also some imprints that are incomprehensible. It may be that they don’t look like the original guns, but they were just taught by the master and passed on. Many of these guns are of little use but they are fine if you fire a few rounds, but problems will arise if you fire too many rounds. Many of the surfaces are very rough, and you can tell they are handmade at first glance. Many such gun dealers were absorbed by the Chinese Communist Party during the Anti-Japanese War and became Chinese military personnel.
4. Imported products: The main sources are Germany and Spain, imported through foreign companies in Shanghai, Tianjin and other places. There is a document dated September 10, 1924, in which the Ministry of War signed a contract with the Tianjin German Merchant Shichang Company to purchase: "Germany's new caliber 763-mil rifle, barrel 96-mil rifle, sight gauge 1,000 meter rifle Mauser pistol - one thousand seven hundred guns, together with the empty wooden handle and five hundred bullets per gun, one A (note: fake) bullet, one spring, one bow spring, one rose plate, the net price of each gun is seven yen The price of the box gun in this case is only 3.77 inches, which is quite special. On March 12, 1934, Li Yaohuang, deputy manager of the CITIC Bureau, reported to Chiang Kai-shek: (9) Pistols: "I received a telegram from the Chairman of the Standing Committee of Chongqing to order 5,000 twenty-shot pistols. After investigation, I obtained the old German-made Mauser 1 There are two types of Spanish imitations (Note: Astra, Super Azul, and Royal). The price of the Spanish Enstar brand (Note: Astra) is lower than that of the German gun, which is one yuan and seven cents. Although the structure of the German gun is relatively high. It is strong, but the barrel is slightly shorter, so the range is 200 meters shorter. If you order a German gun with a longer barrel like the Spanish style, the range will be the same. Also, the Chairman has called the Czech pistol, and the Czech pistol was found. Each factory does not have such shells for sale, so they will be consolidated and displayed.
"In 1936, the Ministry of Finance of the National Government included in the list of expenditures "the purchase of 20,000 20-ring pistols with 20 million rounds of bullets" for a total of 2.8 million French currency.
Another example is Chiang Kai-shek. Telegram to Tan Boyu, Chinese Commercial Counselor in Germany: "Wuchang, March 1, 1938: Berlin. Mr. Tan Boyu of the Chinese Embassy: Secret. Please negotiate immediately to order 300 German eight-year-old mortars, each with 3,000 rounds of shells. It would be better if they are in stock. Purchase another 20,000 20-ring BU shell pistols, each with 2,000 rounds of ammunition. If they are not in stock, you can also purchase other pistols. The sooner the better, please tell me the price as soon as possible. Zhongzheng. "Many German box guns imported through commercial channels have the Chinese words "Made in Germany" printed on the left side of the magazine. Some people think that the 20-shot box gun, a combined gun exported by China, has a caliber of 9 mm. The gun is 10 rounds, which is incorrect. In fact, there are 6 rounds, 10 rounds, and 20 rounds. The former two use fixed magazines, and the latter are mostly plug-in 20-round fixed magazines. Rare. From the above documents, it seems that from before the Anti-Japanese War to the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, the ones purchased by China were all issued to the Central Army. Therefore, the Central Army mainly issued 10-ring Mauser pistols. It's not completely correct. In the forty years of Mauser's history of producing box guns, there have been few internal changes. Therefore, it can be said that the original design is almost perfect, and there is usually nothing to improve. In fact, the Mauser factory has never used these models. Most of them were given names by collectors later because the original records were lost. Currently, collectors not only use the serial number to determine the production year, but also based on the box gun. The items are distinguished by the characteristics of the components: 1. The shape of the hammer and the size of the round hole on the hammer. The earliest hammer had a cone-shaped protrusion, which was later changed to a large round hole, and finally to a small round hole. The rapid-fire type also Different from other small round holes, there are six types. 2. The texture on the surface of the gun body first had car dents, and later models with smooth surfaces were produced, and finally returned to the car pattern surface. Twelve different surfaces. 3. Grips. There are two types of Red 9, and there are at least fifteen different grips. 4. After 1930, including the rapid-fire type. Install a universal safety piece. When the trigger is pulled, the hammer can fall safely without touching the firing pin. 5. The firing pin was fixed with a locking piece in the early days. The tenon is finally changed to a double tenon, and there are three different types. 6. The shell extraction hook is available in two sizes. In addition, there are different barrels, rear sights, engravings, etc. You can roughly decide on one. When Mauser pistols were produced, there is sometimes a conflict, because the Mauser factory sometimes produces a batch of pistols from old parts, so this method of identification can only give an approximate indication of the year of manufacture.
The working principle of the box gun
The box gun adopts the short recoil principle. See the picture. The locking lug is placed under the sliding sleeve and the locking mechanism is inserted in the front. Frame), the upper part is embedded in two grooves under the bolt. When firing, the recoil force causes the barrel, slide (Barrel Extension) and bolt to move backward. At this time, the barrel is still locked. . Since the front of the locking tenon is hooked on the main spring, there is a small amount of free travel. Due to the groove above the locking unit, when the locking tenon is forced to move backward, it can only tilt downward clockwise, thus coming out of the bolt groove. See picture. At this time, the barrel and sliding sleeve (omitted in the figure) will stop retreating because the locking tenon is still set underneath it. Because the locking tenon is disengaged, the bolt can move freely and continue to depress the hammer and eject the case. Finally, due to the exhaustion of power, the recoil spring pushes the bolt back, reloads, and returns to the ready-to-fire state.
During this entire process, the locking tenon moves in a clockwise and counterclockwise arc with the front end as the center of the circle. Later P-38, Beretta 92, etc. are similar to this and are called Falling Block Locking Breech. The working principle of the rapid-fire type. Before mentioning the automatic operating principle of the rapid-fire type, let's first compare the differences between the components of the rapid-fire type and ordinary box guns. See picture. 1. The rapid-fire type has several engraved corners on the back and bottom of the hammer. 2. On the rear side of the locking unit, the rapid-fire type has an extra groove for the movement of the catching hook. 3. The groove on the left side behind the barrel and slide is obviously longer. 4. Fixed magazine compared to plug-in type. The rapid-fire type that can fire fully automatically has a selector button on the left side of the gun. When the button is in the semi-automatic state, all operations are the same as with ordinary box guns. When it's time to turn it to full automatic, the situation is quite different. First, the machine spring (Sear) is resisted by the button, so as long as the trigger is held, the machine spring will not slide away, but will always remain under pressure. In other words, the ability to capture the strike is lost. At the same time, the Catching Hook Bar (shown as a red line) is pushed to the rear by the selection button and pushed into the working position. The illustration only shows the interaction between the striking iron and the catching hook during operation. 1. The catching hook has been pushed into the automatic position, and the hammer is in the firing position. When the bolt is pulled for the first time, the firing iron is still controlled by the machine spring. 2. When the trigger is pulled to fire, the bolt retreats, and when the hammer is pressed down, the catch hook holds the hammer, and the bolt is returning due to the action of the recoil spring. 3. After the bolt returns to its position, push the slide back, push the capture hook, release the hammer, and fire again. This design is to ensure that the gun chamber is locked before firing. This cycle starts over and over again, as long as the trigger is pulled, it will continue to fire until the magazine runs out of bullets. This is a Mauser rapid-fire operating mechanism. The first thousand units after mass production were sold to China. The serial numbers are 100001a to 101000a. Prior to this, Spain had already produced an automatic box gun. However, some automatic pistols produced in Spain do not have the above-mentioned capture hook design. They only fire the hammer when the bolt is reset. Therefore, there is a possibility of firing without the barrel being completely closed.