Steyr Hahn M1912



The Steyr Model 1911 / Model 1912 pistol can be best described as an evolution of the Roth m1907 pistol. It was designed in around 1910, and entered production in 1911, with first deliveries made to Chile, as Steyr Model 1911. Next year it was adopted by armed forces of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and also by Romanian military. Significant numbers of these pistols were produced at the famous Steyr arms factory until the end of WW1, originally in 9x23 Steyr caliber. When the Hitler's Germany occupied Austria in 1939, many of these pistols were converted to fire 9x19 Luger (9mm P.Patr.08) ammunition, and issued to a variety of German 2nd line military troops and police. Such pistols were usually marked on the slide with "08" or "P-08", to distinguish them from original guns chambered for 9x23 Steyr ammunition.

During the First World war, Steyr factory also produced a select-fire version of the M.12 pistol, with enlarged magazine that held 16 rounds, detachable shoulder stock-holster, and a fire mode selector on the left side of the frame, which allowed to fire the pistol in single shots or in full automatic mode. This machine pistol was known as M.12 / P.16. The nickname "Steyr Hahn" comes from the fact that this pistol has an external hammer (Hahn in German language), as opposed to striker-fired Roth m1907 pistol.

The Steyr Model 1911 / Model 1912 pistol is recoil operated weapon. It uses short barrel recoil principle, with rotary barrel locking. Barrel of the gun has two sets of lugs. Two lugs on its top are used to lock into the cuts made on the underside of the slide. The bottom lugs are used to rotate the barrel upon recoil (when following diagonal cut in the frame) and to limit the length of the recoil. The firing mechanism utilizes an exposed hammer and a single action trigger. Manual safety lever is located on the left side of the frame, above and to the rear of the left grip panel. It is also used to manually lock the slide in its open position. Steyr Model 1911 / Model 1912 pistols use integral, non-detachable single stack magazines in the grip, which are loaded from stripper clips through the loading / ejection window on the top of the slide. Magazine capacity is 8 rounds. To provide comfortable loading and unloading, gun is equipped with automatic slide stop which locks the slide in the rear (open) position once the last cartridge from magazine is fired. Gun also equipped with manual cartridge release, which allows to unload all cartridges from magazine at once through the ejection port (slide must be locked back before unloading).