LAST EDITED ON Aug-24-26 AT 01:33 PM (EDT)
 
Ran across this little bit of strangeness on one of the collector sites I haunt and, since it didn't cost much and I had a soupçon of liquidity for the first time in ages, I picked it up.

This curious handgun is marked as a Mauser, model name M2, but what the heck is that? And why is it import marked by SIG Arms? When it had that name, that company only existed to import the products of SIG Sauer in Germany.

Well, there's vanishingly little information that I could find online about this gun, but from the bits and pieces I did run across, it looks like this is a SIG-made gun. Sometime around the turn of the century, SIG bought the rights to use the Mauser name and logo on handguns. It appears that this one here is the only one they did with it, or at least I haven't found any other at this point.

Mechanically, this gun is a striker-fired semiauto with a pseudo-double-action-only firing mechanism, à la the Glock "Safe Action" system. It's chambered in .45 ACP, with single-stack magazines that seem to hold seven rounds despite their chunky appearance. Interestingly, the locking system it uses is of the rotating-barrel type, which relatively few handguns use. The only others I can think of offhand are the Steyr-Hahn and the Beretta PX4 Storm, though I'm sure there are at least a few others.

With a steel slide and an aluminum alloy frame, this gun is heavier than it looks compared to a modern polymer-framed handgun, but not as heavy as it could be if it was all steel. It's chunky and blocky and feels nice and substantial in the hand. All that slide weight makes it pretty docile even for a .45, which is not the most rambunctious cartridge despite its large caliber.

It came with this cool plastic case, which is neat, since it's from the era when a lot of new guns came in cardboard shoe boxes.

It looks like the foam was cut to fit either this gun or another with slightly different dimensions and a spur hammer. Not sure what the other one was; maybe one of the FÉG Browning clones that were also sold under the Mauser name? Although those were from before the SIG deal, so... I dunno. I also don't know what's supposed to be in that rectangular slot. Probably a clearing rod and maybe some other tools, bits, and pieces. I think the oval one held a Legally Required Trigger Lock.

I didn't get the manual either, but I ordered a replacement from Numrich, so that should be along any time.

So that's pretty cool! A nice modern oddity to start rebuilding the collection with. It's nice to be back in (cautious) acquisition mode after so many years of saying farewell.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Interesting! I'm not sure if it's just my poor skill at estimating, but it looks like it's relatively small.

Hopefully, you can find some time and space to get a feel for it in action.

Searching for an image of "sig m2 in case" suggests your guess about the trigger lock is correct, and that nobody knows what was supposed to be in that rectangular slot.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

>Interesting! I'm not sure if it's just my poor skill at estimating,
>but it looks like it's relatively small.

It's a .45, so it's a relatively chunky gun, but also fairly short. I got lazy and just used the photos from the shop where I bought it. If I get a chance later tonight I'll take a couple of shots on the modeling mat I used to use so that there's a scale reference.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>If I get a chance later tonight I'll take a couple of shots on the
>modeling mat I used to use so that there's a scale reference.

I didn't get the chance last night, but I managed to get to it tonight.

For an additional sense of scale, it's pictured with another Mauser-branded oddity, the Model 80SA, which is a rebadged Hungarian Browning Hi-Power clone--a full-sized service pistol, albeit in a slightly smaller caliber, that a lot of people are more familiar with. (I'd have pictured it with a 1911, which is even more famous and the same caliber as the M2, but alas, I no longer have one.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-24-26 AT 06:03 PM (EDT)
 
D'oh! I forgot to mention the oddest thing about it.

You know how some guns have the safety lever on the slide (like the Walther P38 and most Beretta 92s), some have it on the frame (M1911A1, Browning HP, lots of others), and quite a few modern ones don't have a manual safety as such (Glocks, many many Glock-alikes)?

Well, on the Mauser M2, it's... here.

I mean, it's ambidextrous, I'll give them that. :)

(Note also the peculiar paint scheme on the rear sight. Instead of putting the white marks on the blades, as is common, so that you're lining up a horizontal line of white dots when you look down the sights, they put it below the notch, so the sight picture line is vertical.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>(Note also the peculiar paint scheme on the rear sight. Instead of
>putting the white marks on the blades, as is common, so that you're
>lining up a horizontal line of white dots when you look down the
>sights, they put it below the notch, so the sight picture line is
>vertical.)

... I don't think I like that. I don't think I like that at all. I don't know why; some sort of immediate aversion, a "ewww, yuck!" from my hindbrain.

I simply must find an example of this sort of sight arrangement (which I didn't even know existed!) and try it now. :D

--sofaspud
--I admit this is the same urge that leads to me crying and saying "yep, that was spicy, you warned me"

I'm very much a casual when it comes to firearms, but your description of it (and what little I do know) makes me think it was a "hey let's try this and see if people like it" design.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

Some real familiar looking bits on the first picture there, though I couldn't tell you from which GotW they *look* familiar.

My eye was also drawn to that American flag on the case. One wonders if that's factory stock (and if so, what it's meant to indicate), or if it's just passed through the hands of someone who likes sticking flags all over the place at some point.

-IA.

(received information not interpretable)

LAST EDITED ON Aug-27-26 AT 01:14 AM (EDT)
 
>My eye was also drawn to that American flag on the case. One wonders
>if that's factory stock (and if so, what it's meant to indicate), or
>if it's just passed through the hands of someone who likes sticking
>flags all over the place at some point.

The frame of the M2 is marked "frame made in Germany", which suggests that the rest of it may have been made by (or for) SIGARMS in the US. I haven't been able to find enough hard information on it to know one way or the other. Regardless, it appears the Mauser-branded version of the gun was assembled, and only sold, in the US, so either way, it's entirely possible that it's factory.

The manual shipped today, and may tell us more when it arrives, although probably not.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I don't know why, but this gun gave me serious "G1 Megatron alt mode" vibes, like if he wasn't a Walther P-38 he'd be this...

I tried out a Hi-Point today, just for giggles. I didn't like it. It didn't feel cheap or low-quality in spite of its rock-bottom price point, though; in fact, it was heavier than it looked like it ought to be, and felt very solidly put together, with nice grip geometry and generally good ergo. It definitely didn't feel like it would blow up and kill me.

However! It's as heavy as that because it's a straight blowback 9mm Para, which is not a set of words that should ever appear in that order. I put 12 rounds through it and my hand had had enough, especially the pad of my trigger finger. I've never handled anything with such monstrous trigger slap before. No thank you! Not even for $175 plus tax.

The .45 ACP carbine version might not suck, though. Maybe Scott will get one in sometime that I can test out.

That said, I want to see a John Wick-style actioner where the ultra-human gunslinger character exclusively uses Hi-Points rather than being the usual expensive gun snob, just for giggles.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I have some recollection of a CP 2020 character using a Kang Tao Type 97 - a polymer one-shot priced at a mere 35eurobucks.

Since the weapon upgrades worked on a multiplier of base cost, I then paid to upgrade the reliability from Unreliable to Very Reliable, and add a recoil compensator for another shot per round.

It was a very rules lawyerly way of getting a very decent 9mm sidearm for significantly less than the cost the solidly middle of the range guns like the Federated Arms X-9mm.

>I have some recollection of a CP 2020 character using a Kang Tao Type
>97 - a polymer one-shot priced at a mere 35eurobucks.
>
>Since the weapon upgrades worked on a multiplier of base cost, I then
>paid to upgrade the reliability from Unreliable to Very Reliable, and
>add a recoil compensator for another shot per round.
>
>It was a very rules lawyerly way of getting a very decent 9mm sidearm
>for significantly less than the cost the solidly middle of the range
>guns like the Federated Arms X-9mm.

I had a player do something like that. And then chucked a smartgun link on it.

Using the alternate cybernetics effects rules I was testing at the time, this ended up causing a very hilarious effect that I will discuss somewhere else.

--
Jen Dantes - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lady of Sith Tech Support.
"This may not be a good idea, but it's the only one I have."