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The C96 Mauser was one of the earliest commercially successful automatic pistols, doing the right thing by using a short-recoil action with a tilting locking block.
The 7.63x25mm Mauser cartridge (that's 7.63, not 7.62) is fairly similar to the later Russian 7.62x25mm Tokarev cartridge, to the point that you can actually load and fire the 7.63mm Mauser ammunition in a 7.62mm Tokarev pistol (though you're advised to not do the opposite). Performance is pretty good, with a 58gr projectile going at +1200fps, this was a pretty powerful pistol for the time, and the 10rd magazine was pretty generous in an era of 6 to 8 shot revolvers.
It's a very elegant looking pistol.