Type 17 Mauser

 Shansi Type 17 The Type 17 is a .45ACP derivative of the famous Mauser C96,a.k.a "The Broomhandle".It is EVA's signature firearm,used by her during Operation Snake Eater.It is also an obtainable weapon in MGS4,requiring the player to obtain the rank of Foxhound or through use of password.

History The Type 17 originally came from an idea of a warlord down at Shansi Province,China in 1929.The idea came up when reports arise that this particular warlord's supply train came under attack from rival warlords to bandits,and that his troops would need more sufficient firepower to repel futher attacks.In response,the warlord procured the already famous Thompson 1928 .45-caliber sub-machineguns to arm his train guards.But supply problems arose because the Chinese are mostly armed with Mauser C96s,chambered in 7,63mm Mauser.Regarding the Mauser as an extremely effective fighting weapon at the time,the warlord didn't wish to replace the Mauser with something else.So instead,he overpaid some of his best armorers to rechamber their Mausers to .45ACP,just like their Thompsons.Thus the Type 17 is created.

It turns out that the Type 17 was a much more effective fighting weapon,an improvement over their previous 7,63 Mausers.It even saw use throughout World War II in China by Chinese guerilla troops fighting Japanese troops at the time.They even created a trademark of the Chinese guerillas,the so-called "Bandit Shooting". They had developed the technique by firing their guns horizontally and using the force of the recoil to move their guns sideways,giving it a horizontal strafing motion,just like Sigint described it.It is also to prevent spent cartridges from flying to the shooter's head and distracting him,as well as to control the .45ACP's nasty recoil.The technique was feared by the Japanese,and it played small but significant portion of psychological warfare.After the war ended,the gun presumably continued to see use in the Chinese Civil War with both sides,although the Nationalist side is the more likely user in the Civil War.After the war ended in Communist victory,these guns were kept in storage for the same reason as the Russian kept their Thompson in storage;lack of proper ammunition,as well as it's rather large size and heavier weight.During The Great Leap movement,these pistols were melted to boost steel production.Surviving pieces are extremely rare,even so with the original Shansi clip,now considered non-existent,although Mauser rifle clips will work and only 5 rounds/clip.At least one can be found in Chinese Military Museum,others were sold to Europe and America,where these giant Mausers fetch a nice price.These Mauser copy qualities are regarded as rather high quality,quite accurate for a .45-caliber handgun,and as well as being comfortable as the Mauser C96,which this pistol is based from.

In-Game This gun is seen used by EVA during her first meeting with Snake at Rassvet,single-handedly slaughtered a Soviet GRU squad armed with AK-47s with the Bandit Shooting technique.She is seen drawing it the next morning with intentions to shoot Ocelot,but stopped by Naked Snake before she can use it.It is seen again during GRU's pursuit of Snake and EVA at Groznyj Grad,but this time it is knocked off from EVA's hands by Ocelot,and with the destruction of Groznyj Grad,this gun is most likely destroyed.In MGS4,it is implied that EVA managed to obtain a replacement,and is obtainable by the player by means of obtaining Foxhound Rank or by password after the player completeed the game once.It's specs are identical with other .45ACP handguns save for the Custom M1911,with addition of having fully-automatic capability.It cannot be reloaded mid-clip,so fire off remaining rounds or use the Tactical Reload feature of double-tapping the Weapon Window Button.It also wastes ammo,since it's RoF will empty the whole magazine in 1 second+,and due to the fact that .45ACP ammo is fairly hard to come by.