Schwarzlose Model 1898

The Schwarzlose Model 1898 was a full-size, locked-breech, semi-automatic pistol designed by the Prussian firearms designer Andreas Wilhelm Schwarzlose in the closing years of the nineteenth century. It used a rotary bolt to lock the breech and was chambered for cartridges such as the 7.65x25mm Borchardt and the 7.63x25mm Mauser. Most examples fed from a six-round detachable magazine, though a few were built on a larger frame to take eight rounds. The rear sight could be adjusted vertically, and the firing pin protruded at the back of the pistol to show whether it was cocked. The design was advanced for its time but never widely adopted, and fewer than 500 pieces are recorded as made. Small lots were sold to the Boers during the Boer War, and another lot bound for members of the Russian Social-Democratic Party was seized at the Russian border and issued to the Imperial Russian Frontier Guards. It is a separate subject from the later Schwarzlose machine gun.