SEARCHING FOR THE UNICORN: SCHWARZLOSE M 1898. Part 1. Research

REED THE DESCRIPTION!
This historical rarity always intrigued me by its mechanical charisma and the elegant lines a modern gun would envy.
Again and again I return to the Forgotten weapons watching the Gun Jesus shoot it. Even though the gun malfunctions, Ian drools over it…so do I.
I have not read academical books about it, not yet anyway. But I have thoroughly and systematically fine combed the net for the info.
There are facts and fiction about it. A lot of speculation, contradicting data.
But the consensus is clear: it,s one of the coolest under appreciated early semiautomatic pistols.
Today I will show the pics and references to ~ 30 surviving examples and try to dispel some misinformation.
1) there were more than 500 of them in existence , judging by the surviving serial numbers.
2) there must have been a big shipment to Russia. Legal? Illegal? How many? One of the specimen inscribed in old Russian:
The Trading house. Duke Yury Trubetskoy & Co in Kiev. An old noble family?( if the stamp is real)
Those guns most likely will never reappear to the world.
3) It seems to be BS about the gun not being accepted by military for low capacity mag( 6 rounds).
2 of the earlier guns have the mag capacity of 8 rounds.
4) I believe some references to 7 and 9 ‘mag capacity’ confused total true capacity of 6+1 and 8+1: the modern way to state it.
5) there are a couple of references to shorter barrel- 150 mm, when the standard is 163mm. I think it might be also a confusion of the measurements - perhaps including or excluding the locking part of the barrel extension .
6) there are a few samples with the stock = holster mounts. A common fad of all early semiautomatic pistols/ ‘carbines’- followed by the naive SELECT FIRE ADAPTATIONS.
7) one example seems to have been converted from 7.63 to 9 mm, according to an auction house. Perhaps the gun is not as flimsy and fragile as it sometimes presented( and Herr Schwarzlose doesn’t strike me as superficial)
I am going to stop here.
I invite a discussion, constructive comments, perhaps more additional serial numbers.
Please offer references that confirm or dispute speculations and observations stated here…
Any solid information is welcome.
TO BE CONTINUED, WHEN I HAVE MY OWN UNICORN…
Enjoy.

[@tenlittleindians]

I noticed some were auctioned through the Rock Island auction house which is 90 minutes from me. A cousin has been telling me for years to go down there just to look at the variety that goes through there. I've never run across one of these in the wild. I guess it's just the collectors that have them today. I think being only 6 shots was their limiting sales appeal. The C96 and Luger both held more rounds. There's no advantage over a 6 shot revolver which were plentiful back then and cheaper.

[@STEINBVG]

Again. He made 8 shots early. There were more reasons why it was not adopted I think . It does have issues, but it is a cool collection of ideas and definitely mechanically different, which matters to me . As for for it,s weaknesses , For instance it,s extraction process is probably not reliable . See Ian from Forgotten weapons slow video

[@habibeskandari2959]

❤

[@STEINBVG]

Thanks.

[@user-tk545]

И что???Что ты хотел этим сказать?

[@STEINBVG]

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