Mycrofted: Read the blurb on the site. Actually the Mauser was used up into the Second Great War, when it was replaced with the Luger. The English commandeered a lot of them and used them in preference to their own pistols. This was the design after which the Buck Rogers raygun was modeled, and since George Lucas is a big fan of both old sci-fi serials and of WWII movies, this was used as the Han Solo blaster. The emitter barrel at the end is from some sort of British faucet. The scope isn't modern, however. It's a WWI rifle scope, as were almost all the scopes in Star Wars. As a result, this is Han Solo's blaster from Star Wars. Stripped of its additions, it would be a broom handle Mauser, however.