[dfariswheel]

The Mauser HSc was one of the "Big Three" German pocket automatics of the 1930 that revolutionized the small automatic pistol.
These were the Mauser HSc, the Sauer 38H, and the Walther PP and PPK.

The Mauser has been described as an Art Decco pistol because of the very modern and streamlined design.
Before the war several different designs for the safety system were experimented with, including one where the hammer was dropped as the safety was applied.
However the design that was settled on was the very effective production version where the hammer stays cocked but the firing pin is locked and lifted up so the hammer cannot contact it.
It was very popular with senior German officers, but didn't seem to get the engraved treatment many of the Walther PP and PPK models got for presentation to Nazi officials.
Almost unknown is that the Mauser HSc was sold to the Swiss during the war. These are very rare.

After the war the Sauer 38H was never produced again, but the Walther certainly was and the Mauser saw production in the 60's and up to 2006 under several makers.
The post-war model was slightly modified by using a separate back strap.
There were some rumors that Mauser didn't actually make the post-war model, that it was contracted out like the Walther pistols were.
Whether this is true or not is unknown for sure, but the design was leased or sold to the Italian Gamba company who first produced it in the original form, then during the high capacity magazine craze of the 70's they essentially ruined the design by altering it to a 10 round magazine that ruined it's intended purpose as a "pocket gun" sized defense pistol.
Mauser apparently was first to alter the HSc to the high capacity 10 round version in 1968.

The French assembled HSc pistols during the time they had possession of the Mauser plant following WWII for their own military and police use.
Some of these were imported into the US later, often in poor condition having seen use in French Indo China (Vietnam) and Algeria.
The French again imported newly manufactured HSc pistols to the US in limited numbers sometime after the war. The importer was Armes De Chasse of Chadds Ford, PA.

European American Armory (EAA) imported an HSc and sold them through RSR Distributors. I don't know who actually manufactured them, but it's probable that the Italian Tanfoglio company bought them from Gamba.

The HSc design was unique with an odd slide stop system that locked the slide back whenever the magazine was empty or removed.
To close the gun it is necessary to insert a loaded OR empty magazine.
This takes some getting used to because with the slide open inserting a loaded magazine closes the slide and loads the chamber.
If the safety is not ON the gun can be fired immediately.

One master pistolsmith described the post-war HSc as a "2,000 round pistol", claiming that after about 2,000 rounds the HSc frame will crack in front of the frame rails.
I have owned one war-time HSc with a cracked frame in just that area and have heard of post-war guns with cracks.

Personally, the HSc grip is not as comfortable to me as the Walther PP series. This is personal preference since many others do like it.

All in all the Mauser HSc was a ground breaking design that was everything a small auto should be.

 

[dfariswheel]

The earlier Mauser pocket pistols were finely made pistols, but by the early 30's they were designs that were very much showing their age.
The Walther PP series and the Sauer 38H were outselling them and Mauser needed a new design to compete. Thus the excellent Mauser HSc, with it's futuristic Art Decco look.
This put Mauser back in the game.

The hammer dropping safety as used by the 30's German pistols were an arguably better safety system then that used by most automatic pistols.
With most, a cocked action depended on some sort of safety, usually a manually operated type that required a specific action by the user to make it safe.
The designers of these new German pistols thought that even a striker fired auto with an automatic grip safety simply wasn't as safe as a design that locked the firing pin and safely lowered the hammer.
No amount of mishandling could cause one of the new designs to fire since it was not cocked.
The designs were so good, almost all double action auto pistols since use versions of the hammer dropping or de-cocking designs pioneered by the 30's Germans.

It was very high quality, but inexpensive small autos that killed off a number of excellent American designs like the Remington Model 51.
Finely made, but inexpensive in American dollars, A number of German designed pistols were imported in the 20's and 30's and were almost impossible to compete against.
One of the more popular of these was the Ortgies.
These were as finely finished inside as most pistols were outside.
The only down check was the extremely difficult reassembly UNLESS you had the owner's documentation and knew the "secret" of how to get it back together.
Due to the large imports in the 20's the Ortgies is rather common in the US.

It was striker fired autos like the Ortgies, Browning-Colt, Remington, and a large number of German and European small autos that were made largely obsolete by the German 30's "Big Three" designs.
After WWII almost all of the pre-war striker fired autos disappeared.