C96 Broomhandle Pistol Structural Failure

[jmoore]

During a visit to a friend's gunsmithing facility, he showed me a late model C96 which would no longer drop the hammer as the bolt could not travel far enough forward to allow the trigger to engage the sear. The upper receiver moved freely, and everything seemed to work otherwise, so...???

A moment's inspection revealed that the bolt lock, whilst intact, showed a gap in the front where there would normally be none, AND an ominous bulge at the right rear of the upper receiver just behind the bolt lock, which was preventing full forward travel of the bolt!

Apparently, the owner had fired some of the Czech 7.62x25 ammunition intended for CZ52 pistols. It's fairly well documented that this fodder runs at about 20-25% hotter than standard Tokarev ammo, and I don't know how much warmer than the Mauser loads.

In actual fact, I was surprised that the bolt lock did not fail, allowing the bolt to exit at some injurious velocity, but in this case nothing worse than a stoppage occurred.

At any rate, it was an instructive example of what can happen when ammunition isn't properly matched to the firearm.

Hope this example saves someone some grief.

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