Lancaster,

Thanks for your comment.

I do not plan to shoot it. There is too much history of failure of the flat mainspring of the Old Model Parabellum. This one is ~107 years old, which gives the mainspring all that time to crystallize, take a set, and become brittle. With my luck it would snap.

If it were a New Model Parabellum I certainly would shoot it. The coil mainspring was a substantial improvement, as you know.

I think this very pistol deserves a special place in history. It his the highest serial number of the last block of numbers assigned to Parabellum carbine production. That batch of carbines were made a full eight years or more after Old Model production had ceased. So this pistol has the best claim of being, not only the very last Old Model carbine, but the very last Old Model Parabellum of any configuration. I'm glad to have it and feel very fortunate.

Curl