Last purchase of 2023 - Norwegian Police Mauser 1914

[mawkie]

-Always on the look for Norwegian police marked pistols. Seems they're getting harder to find and more expensive. Guess they're not totally shunned as "disfigured" examples and have a growing following. I managed to grab a Norwegian CZ27 many years ago. This time it was a late 20's vintage, fourth variant commercial Mauser 1914. As all too often the auction house treated it as a run-of-the-mill Mauser so I was able to get it for a mawkie Price™. Condition is very good with just some light holster wear. Word is that the Norwegians selected only the best of the captured pieces and scrapped the rest.
-The Property Number range for Norwegian Mauser 1914s runs from 4000 to 4800 with mine near the very end of that range. This was done in the early post WW2 years and they were retired about 30 years later. If it was chambered in .32ACP and used by the German army it showed up in the Norwegian police inventory. They had lots to choose from as approx. 30,000 German soldiers surrendered in Norway.

 

[Threeband]

Looks great. Good thing the Allies didn't invade Norway, or it might have gotten scuffed up.

Meanwhile, you still have 4 full weeks to buy more nice guns and post them here.


(For some crazy reason, I really like little .32 autos. Perhaps because there are so many interesting and quirky models.)

 

[tallen702]

Very nice as usual! I always learn something new when you post.

(For some crazy reason, I really like little .32 autos. Perhaps because there are so many interesting and quirky models.)

The skirting around of various patents made the early 1900s an amazing time when it came to innovation and design. the simplicity of a blowback action vs a locked breech meant that .32ACP shined, especially since it was still a viable round for both the civilian and military markets at the time. The locked breech guns of the same era are just as fascinating, though they were often made in far fewer numbers making them much harder for most of us to get our hands on them. The Austro-Hungarian empire, Germany, and the Belgians really made some interesting (and beautiful) locked breech pistols.

 

[somd_mustangs]

another super gun I'm a little jelly of
I think the Norwegian Politi pistols are a real interesting collecting focus, there's certainly a lot of different models to pursue! So far I've only managed to find 2.

 

[mawkie]

Very nice as usual! I always learn something new when you post.


The skirting around of various patents made the early 1900s an amazing time when it came to innovation and design. the simplicity of a blowback action vs a locked breech meant that .32ACP shined, especially since it was still a viable round for both the civilian and military markets at the time. The locked breech guns of the same era are just as fascinating, though they were often made in far fewer numbers making them much harder for most of us to get our hands on them. The Austro-Hungarian empire, Germany, and the Belgians really made some interesting (and beautiful) locked breech pistols.

It's scary when you cast a wide net into early European .25 and .32 autos. I watched an amazing collection of unusual, niche brand .25 autos go up for sale in the recent Hermann Historica auction in Germany. What shocked me was the lack of interest in them. Most sold cheap or not at all (no bids!). Then again, I'm just learning a bit about that market. I read in an online thread about these Norwegian police marked pistols that they're common in the Norwegian collector market and don't bring much when sold.

 

[mawkie]

another super gun I'm a little jelly of
I think the Norwegian Politi pistols are a real interesting collecting focus, there's certainly a lot of different models to pursue! So far I've only managed to find 2.

Ditto here. And when you see just how many different pistols were used by the Norwegians it's surprising you don't see more here. Then again, not sure how any of them made it to the US. Mine doesn't have any import marks so it must have been a post war bring-back. But the Norwegians didn't retire these until the early 80s (traded in for revolvers in the case of the police. SWAT and special units got P7s and other modern semi-autos).