The gang over at C&Rsenal released an episode of Primer about the Steyr-Hahn yesterday, and in it provided a bit of information that opens up a tantalizing possibility about the example covered in this entry. You will recall that I was a little puzzled by the rough patch on the left side of the slide, which is in the position and general shape of the national crest found on the Model 1911s exported to the Chilean Army. Based on the serial number and proof mark elsewhere on the pistol, it can't be that (unless the slide is not original, and even then it's very unlikely), so I had to conclude that it was just a strange coincidence.

In the course of the Primer ep, Othais mentioned a thing I already knew—that the Romanian Army had placed a large order for the 1912 version—but then added a couple of things I didn't. One was that not all of them were delivered; of an initial order of 50,000, only about 35,000 had been delivered before World War I began and the Austro-Hungarian government forbade further exporting of arms. The other was that the 15,000 or so M1912s for the Romanian order had been made, just not delivered, and were thus duly seized, given Vienna proof/acceptance marks, and issued to Austrian military units.

I still don't have any concrete evidence (and am not sure where I could get it at this point), but the facts above offer the interesting possibility that my pistol, serial number 93 hundred and change D (and so, if I read Steyr's serialization convention right, the 43,000-or-so'th one made), was one of the Romanian guns, and that pitted spot that looks like the remains of a national crest is where they scrubbed off the Romanian one (and left the surface more susceptible to corrosion than the area around it).

The mysteries are often the best part of collecting C&R firearms...

---G.
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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.