Leaders in Machine Pistols: the Beistigui Hermanos MM31
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- čas přidán 21. 10. 2017
- Beistigui Hermanos is probably the least known of the Spanish machine pistol manufacturers, despite being the first to actually make such pistols. Beistigui was founded in 1910 in Eibar, and was one of the initial subcontractors chosen to make Ruby pistols for the French military during World War One. The discovered a substantial market for C96 Broomhandle type pistols in China during the 1920s, and introduced their own similar looking pistol in 1926 - the Model H.
This pistol was popular, but Beistigui realized that a fully automatic version would probably be much more desirable - and they were right. They introduced such a machine pistol in 1927 or 1928, and sold 22,000 of them in China by the end of 1929. These early pistol still used the same 10-round fixed magazine as the Mauser C96, however, and were seriously limited in practicality as a result.
In 1930, Beistigui introduced an improved version of the gun as the MM31 - the Modelo Military 1931. Despite being a C96 Mauser lookalike (and deliberately trying to make Chinese customers confuse it with actual Mausers), it was a legitimately very good gun, and included a number of improvements over the Mauser. A 20-round fixed magazine version was quickly introduced, followed by a detachable magazine version, to address the issues inherent to a gun with a 10-round magazine and a 900 round/minute rate of fire. Shortly after Beistigui introduced they detachable magazine gun, Mauser began to sell the Schnellfeuer. In an excellent marketing decision, Beistigui changed their guns to use copies of the Mauser magazine, allowing interchangeability with the most respected and desirable model of the pistol in China. The gun we are looking at today is one of these last pattern MM31 machine pistols, using Mauser magazines.
By the mid 1930s, the market for these guns had pretty much collapsed. In Spain, the abdication of the king in 1931 and growing civil unrest led to much increased government regulation of arms manufacture and the Japanese invasion of China limited the ability of Japanese traders to bring the guns to Chinese markets. Beistigui made one last unsuccessful effort to market a Broomhandle type gun (the MM34) to the Spanish Guardia Civil, and then transitioned to manufacturing bicycles instead of guns.
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Here in Spain nobody calls it "Beistigui", just BH. And if you didn´t grew up with a BH bicycle , you didn´t had a childhood.
Hey, I had THREE BH bicycles, so I can confirm
In the US the big bicycle brands for kids in the 70s were Huffy and Schwinn.
@@richardlahan7068 Were they also former firearms manufacturers? ;-)
@@notfeedynotlazy No. Just bicycles!
You're right! Lol
It's called "Beistegui Hermanos" . As an anecdote both Beistegui Hermanos and Gárate Anítua y Compañía ended up making bicycles after WWII. My first bicycle in the early 70's was a BH
Yo tengo 27 años y herede una de crío de mi madre, la mítica bh azul con la cesta delante, como se nota que la familia es del norte, según ella cuando vino para Madrid no se veían apenas.
Habiendo aprendido a ir en bici con una BH naranja que actualmente tiene más de 40 años heredada de mi madre, me entero ahora de que BH fabricaba pistolas antes de hacer bicicletas ajajajajaja
Ostras yo también tengo una BH azul o roja, ya no me acuerdo pero es muy vieja y aún funciona
I feel like you plowed a lot of you know what i mean ;)
Con cincuenta tacos, yo tuve la mítica plegable BH con la que la mitad de los niños de mi quinta aprendieron (y con la que rompí el límite de velocidad en carretera cuando me cascaron los frenos bajando de Navacerrada), la igualmente mítica Bicicross BH (la todoterreno de las dos barras paralelas y el sillín enorme), y la no tan conocida BH Cross; esa que en vez de barra horizontal tenía un cuadro abierto hecho con tubo de hierro de 10 cm de diámetro (se nota que eran vascos) y que solo conozco otra persona en España aparte de mí mismo que haya conseguido cascar una...
Well, you know what they say: Good artists copy; great artists steal. And the best artists improve upon what they've stolen.
+go away well come to working in a creative industry
Why do you have to be so right!
The Rogue Wolf
makarov????
You, sir, have written a CZcams comment that actually made me think. Well done. Very well done!
*Chinese engineers would like to know your location.*
Interestingly enough Beistigui Hermanos is still in business making bicycles today. They make 200,000+ bicycles a year.
Honestly, it's a pretty crazy company trajectory. It's like learning that Tiffany and Co. manufactured swords during the American Civil War.
@@Telamon8 just wait till you hear about Abercrombie and fich
The irony of a patent infringing manufacturer patenting their changes to the gun
Depends of the law. As Ian pointed out multiple time, at that time Spanish law only allow patent if there was domestic production.
So since the C96 was not patented in Spain it was not patent infringement.
Yeah I think it's funny though, because the law in Spain doesn't 'respect' the patents so to speak it's okay for them to just ignore it and make money on something that isn't their idea. Minus the change to the locking block anyway.
Tired Sloth It's interesting to think that a few exterior changes and it would have been unique, different and recognizable.
It does respect patent law currently. It was only before WWII that Patent law was different. The US didn't respect it and other property laws too in those days.
Mauser magazines, the Glock magazines of the early '30's.
I’ve imagined a pistol, based on the 1911 and using as many 1911 parts as possible, that feeds from Thompson magazines. It would be awkward, with a perfectly straight grip and strange magazine release, but I see no reason it isn’t possible.
Does it take Mauser mags was the meme in China 1931🤠
@@Shaun_Jones Thompson mags are pretty fat, aren't they?
@@KhrisMiddletonFitnessOfficial they are, but I don’t think it would be unmanageable.
@@Shaun_Jones think Ingram mac-10
A little historical background. The 1919-1929 China Arms Embargo was an American led multinational program to check Japanese influence in China's warlord wars. The concern was Japanese backed warlords would take control of China. Officially the cause was for humanitarian anti-war reasons. By 1928 Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalists had come to power and was engaged in a civil war with the Communists. And so the embargo was ended as countries hoped to arm the Nationalists, although the main beneficiaries were the Germans.
At this rate Ian will end up learning how to speak Basque.
Dr Gumby no they
Dr Gumby espeak uzkera
Se escribe "vasco" o "vascuence" q es el idioma de las Vascongadas o pais vasco
Not all quality guns were made in the Basque region. Actually some terrible quality guns were manufactured in present day Soraluce (former Plasencia de las Armas).Madrid was the center for the best quality guns, so much that Lord Wellington tried to steal the industrial secret during the Peninsula war
@@antoniojaen73 euskera
Beistigui Hermanos needed to meet Los Pollos Hermanos - a guns and chickens store would have been FASCINATING.
Finally after years of vague wondering I learned why civil-war-era China loved the machine pistols so much.
Bestigui Hermanos, the Los Pollos Hermanos of gun making.
I remember going as a kid to the Éibar firearm museum, we have a pretty cool history in fire arm manufacturing here in Spain
Hey Ian, can you do a video on early optics? First attempts at night vision, holographic sights, and magnified optics?
M1 carbine.
A great design. Just a slightly improved Mauser. I want it. I do not want it just because it is a good, interesting design with history. I also think it is just a good weapon. I said the same for the Schnellfeuer. For home defense or a vehicle back-up weapon, these have a lot of advantages.
For under $1000 with a Picatinny rail and in choice of eight calibers, sure! For $1500 for 7.63? Mmmeh.
What modern MP/PDW/SMG obsoletes this? The Skorpion I guess Ian would say. Beretta 93R with drum mag?
@@nichevo1 I would love to have more pistols with magazines in from of the trigger. They have a nice look to them. I know they are illegal in California, but so are a lot of things. I really wish they were more common.
This video was pretty nice, a dive into a piece of uncommon history. Thanks for teaching me something new!
Great video! But there is a typo in the title and description: it´s not Bestigui, it´s Beistegui. The company´s whole name is Beistegui Hermanos (Beistegui brothers). They still make bicicles, I grew up with one of them.
Crap. Sorry.
On the subject of typo's, the description talks about "the addiction of the king in 1931", when I assume you mean the abdication
Spelling lost in the translation? maybe?
No prob!
Did it look like a Mauser bicycle?
E.P.V. stands for Ejército Popular Vasco or Valenciano, a small post civil war communist guerrilla group (basque socialist guerrillas often didn't speak basque). They would act as highway robers and be called "maquis".
The correct pronunciation of Beístegui: accent on the first syllable and then the 'u' is silent.
When I was a kid I had a bicycle made by them which was a very popular make, 'BH' (Beístegui hermanos). The bicycle factory was situated on the city where I grew up.
Ian, I love your videos for the history as much as the firearms. You da man!
Thanks gun Jesus for another great
video, I think we'd all appreciate more machine pistol videos if possible. These are really neat designs to talk about.
Personally, I prefer WAUSER machine pistols
Hey, don't forget Enfield Enfield Enfield! Those guys certainly knew their guns.
Personally, I prefer DKM Bismark, is better.
Wowzer !
Don't forget Kaloshnikiv and their KA-74's, my personal favorite.
I like my Wiss & Smethon
Really great video, Ian. It is always such a pleasure to learn about interesting firearms I'd never even head about until I see them on your channel.
Who the hell can dislike a video uploaded 4 minutes ago? You can't possibly have seen it completely!
that person is what you call: a hater
I wondered the same thing.
Ruben de Jong Libtards. Anything automatic is the devil.
Aff off, dude. I'm proudly Liberal and proudly a gun lover. Yes, including full-autos.
My guess would be an anit-gunner person or group who subscribes to gun channels just to give them dislikes.
thanks dad
Mauser c96, chinese type 17, and now this one. I badly want one of these style pistols, but they are all so expensive. I wish a company would produce some modern remakes.
You have also the Astra 900.
Coñeeeee…….estos eran los que fabricaban las bicicletas BH,que buenas eran yo tuve una en los 80.
Excellent, thank you.
One of these or a Mauser has always been my “Grail Gun”. I’ll never get one but it’s cool to see stuff about them.👍
Was in Eibar Spain a few years back...nice little firearms museum there.
Excelente vídeo
My favorite gun from resident evil 4!! Awesome to finally find out the name of it in real life, a truly beautiful piece!!
Hey Nice vidéo, super vidéo !
Assuming you are right handed. It must be quite frustrating to be a collector of firearms as a southpaw.
I was taught to shoot ambidextrous incase you get something in your eye or wounded
on you favored shooting side. I recommend that practice to all types of shooting.
"R" stands for Rafaga (edited) that means automatic or burst in Spanish.
yes, rafaga
@@joanmora4410 yes, thank you. you are right!
Very interesting an nice piece... I'd love to have this example in the collection... Very desirable piece....
I shot an Astra version of this many years ago. Managed three bursts before the mag ran dry! Hold on tight!
Amazing gun
Make a video of the Beistigui MM34, the one with a ribbed barrel, select fire switch and rate reducer. Probably the coolest non-Mauser I have ever seen.
BH bicycles....I had one when I was a little kid.
Improvise.Adapt.Overcome.
Getting better at framing lol good to see
There is a Royal MM34 with a vented?/ribbed?/finned? barrel that I really like. Good episode Ian👍
There is in some of these James D. JULIA videos a machine gun in the background with a weird reverse L shape stock, I'm interested in seeing more of that.
Great video!....a good reference on these, and the Arostegui made Broomhandles is "Las Pistolas Espanolas Tipo Mauser" by Artemio Perez......covers all the Astras as well...
I own a Mauser red nine and it’s got so much barrel whip I can only imagine how much there would be in select fire without the stock.
The schturmtruppen used to hold their Mausers sideways and let them walk across the trench to deal with this exact problem.
@@iansmith4184 ahhh now that makes sense.
as others said, they made (and still make) bikes. I had one, a red children's bike. Still it's hanging somewhere, albeit quite rusty
Hi !! Spanish here,
Tiny little thing: Bestigui is pronounced something like "bestighi"
Great videos btw !! I love your channel
*flies away*
Sadly it is Beistegui
I want that gun so bad. I hate it that the USA doesn't like its people owning guns that are fun.
Nice grip
Add a longer barrel as in the carbine models. 30 or 40 round stick mag and it's a sub gun.
I wonder if anyone ever modified a 1911 into a machine pistol.
They did. Custom gunsmith in Texas named Hyman Lebman or Lehman, depending on the source, made full auto only 1911s for John Dillinger. One of them is shown in the movie Public Enemies with Johnny Depp as Dillinger.
He did a proper job too. Added a front grip and a compensator. There are some pictures on Google.
@@johannesmichaelalhaugthoma4215
I've seen that. I think Ian had video with it. Insane rate of fire
I'd like to see a video on the M82A2. im sure there were prototypes but theres nowhere near enough information on it that i can find, its the shoulder fired Barrett rifle seen in some movies and games. Bullpup, over shoulder fired.
Can you please do a video about the different markings on SMLE MKIII rifles. i , like any others, am having trouble trying to find out where my rifle was made and what the markings mean on it. ive been on many forums across the web and its evident to see that many many other people are having similar issues to me due to conflicting sources and sometimes there are symbols stamped on the rifles that nobody has seemed to post about on the internet. Thanks again and keep up the great work! :)
Could the 1947 indicate the Summer or Autumn Offensives of 1947 in China? Of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) against the National Revolutionary Army? Could be some militiaman’s sidearm from the offensive that he decided he would customize to remember where he and his pistol have been. Just a thought.
I had a BH (Beistigui Hermanos ) bycicle growing up. My first. I lean how to rice in it.
I have just realized that Beistigui hermanos are actually BH the most know bicycle maker in spain... :o
Con eeeee…….estos eran los que fabricaban las bicicletas BH,que buenas eran yo tuve una en los 80.
Lol my old folks watch tons of Chinese pre ww2 themed tvseries and they usually feature the broomhandle mauser alot... explains the popularity.
Is that Italian BM-59 back there?
顏煜昇 I was about to ask that!!
Yes. Select-fire.
Forgotten Weapons sigh. Shame I live in the UK, I'd love one of those! Oh well, have to carry on making do with the old Lee-Enfields!
I live in Taiwan，we(civilian) can't even own the firearm。So sad QQ
Beistegui Hermanos started as a weapons manufacturer and after WWI they moved to bicycles. Currently they are one of the best bicycle manufacturers in the world. Arkea-Samsic is a professional cycling team which uses BH bikes in the world tour and the big races (i.e. tour de France) but they also produce cheap shitty bicycles for the mass consumers.
P.S. The correct name is BeistEgui Hermanos (not Beistigüi), or BH for short. In Spanish, the U in GUI is not pronounced, it should sound like "gee" in english.
Hi Ian, this video made me try and think of all the examples I could where a copy was better than the original gun. Be it craftsmanship, materials, or improvements, who got it better than the original? Is there one example that stands out to you more than another? Maybe this is better in a Q&A.
3 of 10 brothers... wowzers. Daddy wasn't shooting blanks.
I really love 20th Century Spanish firearms. Anyone ever been to that firearms museum in Eibar? How is it?
If the market for these machine pistols ended in 1932, what stopped them from living up again during the Spanish Civil War four years later? Was everybody focusing on real SMG's by then?
The C96 was already more or less obsolete before the Spanish Civil War. But what you typically see in weapons manufacturing is that when a war breaks out, there is a tendency to stick with what you already got and crank out as much of that model as quickly as possible. And as you said, select fire models were still pretty useful in 1936. With all of the tooling of these machine pistols probably still around, I assume it would be easier to crank out loads of these pistols relatively quickly vs setting up a whole new SMG production line.
Unless the large production capacity of the replacement models was already there of course. But even then I can imagine that the demand for guns was so high that anything that gets put on the market would be put to use. As this is a civil war, basically everybody needed a gun in 1936.
It's not an easy answer but it has a lot to do with the 1929 crisis and later political instability in Europe. Also Spain had to choose it's allies before WWII and was stuck with some very inconvenient former allies. After the spanish civil war, since Franco was no politician but an army man, he left the economy and industrial governance to the Falange Española who had some very socialist ideas and didn't like much the private sector, most of the industry was nationalized (made public). Also it was too long of a crisis, considering it started in the early 30's before the spanish Civil War and lasted well into the 50's. Only when Franco sacked the Falange people in the mid 50's did spanish economy and exports recover. Unlike what happened in WWI, Spain did not manufacture or supply raw materials to one side only and it was a difficult balance both in internal and international politics.
This does not change the fact that when the civil war started, both parties needed guns FAST, as did a large part of the civilian population that just wanted to be able to defend themselves. In such a scenario I still don't understand why C96-like machine pistols didn't make a major comeback: They're extremely useful in a civil and urban warfare scenario. Maybe more expensive to make than their successors but at least they should be available. In reality however, the Astra 900 model F variant of this weapon saw only production of 1,126 weapons in 1936, which, economic crisis or not, looks suspiciously low to me, considering there's a war going on.
rolf ski - my guess would be that the militias on both sides wanted riflemen, almost as an aspect of projecting strength. Yes, these MPs would suit the various thugs in the rear areas, but anything including shotguns and truncheons would be enough for them. Check The Battle for Spain, Antony Beevor.
My first bicycle was a BH Bistigui Hermanos
I can not take my eyes off the stg 44 from behind
Just by this video the easiest way to tell them apart from the out side would be the hammer, on the mm31 the hammer is smaller then on the c96, the hammer on the c96 is also rounder then the mm31, another way from what I can tell again from the video is that the c96 has checkering on the sight elevation that's harder to notice then the hammer and there is a few more differences that I can see on the upper like on the back under where the hammer strikes on the c96 the cut goes along the bottom further than the mm31. Those are the ones that I but there is more that won't catch the eye as easily.
I would seriously love to know the history of that gun. Like what was ol' EP up to in 1947 that he or she needed a machine pistol? Man that was a much different time.
Shouldn't it read Beistegui? Well, anyway, I do have a movie prop Schnellfeuer C 96. It doesn't actually shoot, but it was made with the carcass of a BH 31. All the pieces are original, yet the barrel is plastic. (well it's a movie prop anyway). It has a detachable box magazine and each piece has a different serialnumber. It looks perfectly real. Thank you for your vids. I love forgotten weapons!
Rather than fight as David and Goliath, clever.
Please do the Super Azul & MM34 pistol)
Beistigui Hermanos and Orbea companies still live by today. But now they make high end bycicles.
Great video as always. Let me just say, the last 'u' in Beistigui isn't pronounced - it's read like Beistigi. Cheers from Spain!
What calibers did the weapon come in?
Ross Collicutt More than likely 7.63 Mauser. 9mm really didn't catch on in China and the vast majority of their C96's would be in 7.63
Cover more machine pistols, such as the vz. 61 skorpion
Ian already made a video on the Scorpion - you can view it on Patreon if you are a $20+ Patron. Having early access to his videos is very nice. It should be posted within the next month I think.
Or the PM63 rak
Can't say the Skorpion was ever forgotten
Logi Cat I'd love to see that review....
It's coming. Ian recorded a video with shooting for this upcoming firearms auction. It should be here soon.
I bet there were drunken conversations, between the aficionados of Mausers and Bestiguis. Which being drunken, led to the peppering of the local geography and street furniture, using other people's guns! That timeless cocktail, soldiers, boredom, guns and alchofrol! 🙃
I really find the C 96 and all of its copies very appealing, especially if they are automatic, is there anything cooler than that?
are you going to do a video on that bren on the left?
What year did a machine pistol or semi-automatic pistol with a magazine outside the pistol grip be considered an "Assault pistol" ? I ask only because I couldn't find a description of that type of star wars pistol?
Didn't that gun come out in the movie from dusk til dawn part 2 or 3?
- steals product
- sells it to a country under a weapons embargo
Seems like a good company.
Lol Spain had a law that a patent didn’t count if you didn’t produce it in Spain, and the arms embargo didn’t include pistols, gotta respect the mans ingenuity😂
Are we gonna see that Beretta BM59 soon?
I totally get why so many companies copied this great design, what I have never understood is why most of them (99%) also copied the stupid totally unergonomic 'broomhandle" instead of a decent grip.
Because they're trying to pass them off as Mausers. Putting a new grip on them, even a better one, would hurt sales.
Merchant: Aaah the choice of an avid gun collecta, it's a noyce gun stranga.
How many video's do you have on the C96 Mauser?
The Beistigui family: 10 brothers, and the youngest of course...their sister.
Curiously, ive been wondering why machine pistols haven't taken the place of submachine guns, especially in the early years when they seemed to be many time heavier. It seems a small package that light would be preferred, especially when the barrel seems barely longer on many smgs.
Heavier submachine guns were easier to control in full automatic. Light is not a good property with automatic weapons. Two handed grips are preferable.
Regardless of who made it... it'll always look like the "DL-44"
Did Beistegui Hermanos make one with a longer barrel or a drum mag?
No, but they were just about. At the begining of the '30, the spanish Guardia Civil wanted a new service pistol, and they presented the MM34, or Modelo Militar from 1934, which had 20rd removable magazine as standar, a regulator for the firing rate, adjustable to 2-3, 5-6 or 9-10 rounds per second and optional 30, 40 and 50 round magazines. But the Guardia Civil chose the Astra option, simpler but cheaper, so no box magazines for the Bestegui Hermanos :(
The "R" is for Ráfaga, burst un spanish.
I was told R stands for Repetición, as same as escopeta de repetición o repetidora, wich was the common way to say automatic in Spain for many many years, even in the mili the CETME C was teached as Seguro (safe) En batería/en Línea (semiauto) y Repetición (automatic fire)
right !
Is very easy understand, R of the Rapid fire.
Beistegui Hermanos is the correct name. ( they reconverted as bycicle manufacturers till they sold the brand es.wikipedia.org/wiki/BH_(empresa) )
Would go well with my Bucci bag
I realize I'm two years late, but isn't the first digit of the serial number a 5 rather than a 3?
they were Beistegui Hermanos
What's the difference between the Astra 902 and this one? Apart from manufacturer, which is the difference?
The Astra is substantially different from the C96 internally.
The Astra 900 series, internal mechanism is very simple, very easy for make. However the MM31 was similar to C96, more work and more expensive.
with all the imports around this time, does it make china a good source for some of these sorts of guns today? or is it far too much of a nightmare getting to them/ finding the real deal?
I imagine a vast majority of these would either be lost in the cultural revolution or in craptacular shape in some obscure museum or collection
Not a peep about caliber! I figure it was either 9mm or 7.62x25. although, the Chinese seemed to like 45ACP. I'd take any of them!
Hi everybody ,please tell me which ammo use this 9mm & 30 bore
The correct spelling is Beistegui Hermanos (BH). And you pronouce it Beistegi (the u between g and i is not pronauce in spanish).
What is the difference between a machine pistol and a compact sub-machine gun?
Machine pistols are pretty much always based off of existing semi auto pistol designs, while compact sky’s are generally designed form the ground up as such.
It’s a bit of a grey area.
But does it take Mauser magazines? It does? Sold!
This model yes, only the type C96 Astra F, have different magazine.
10 brothers? Gotta love Catholic families
Joshua Radick Hhow many sisters I wonder?
@@donaldpetkus1637 my father is from Galicia he has 8 brothers 4 sisters lol. It isn't like that anymore