Borchardt C-93

The Borchardt C-93 is a fascinating firearm. It is said to be the first semi-automatic pistol that was mass produced. Different sources give different numbers for how many were produced, but none that I have seen give a number greater than 3,000. A reader emailed us photos of one he had come across …

click for video ▼

Bradley wrote …

click for video ▼

This weapon was brought back from Germany many years ago after the war. I have always been wanting to handle this weapon since I first started my research into firearms, and to my surprise I did not have to look very far.

This particular model was the 103rd pistol produced out of only a handful. Whilst the 7.65x25mm Borchardt was typically the chambering of this weapon, this pistol was chambered for an unknown .32 caliber cartridge that is no longer produced. The pistol was approximately a foot in length, and 5 1/2 inches from the base of the grip to the top of the frame. Though the magazine has long been lost, the magazine would have held 5-7 cartridges. The weapon weights approximately 3 pounds. The grip angle was almost 90 degrees, and the grip was almost 3/4ths of an inch thick.

The weapon pointed very well despite its grip angle. The weapon sported a very large sight radius and very fine sights. The sights were adjustable only for windage. The rear of the weapon sported a rail for mounting a carbine stock. From my understanding this was a proposed military model that had a holster/stock that when holstered, the pistol could be aimed and fired but not reloaded. This pistol was of very high quality and had very good build quality.

We are looking into having custom cartridges made to fire weapon.

The big bulge at the rear of the gun houses the recoil spring. The Luger was inspired by this design, but moved the recoil spring into pistol grip, removing the unwieldy bulge. This video demonstrates how the C93 works …