M.95 STEYR MANNLICHER RIFLE 8X50

M.95 Steyr Mannlicher Rifle Cal. 8x50R - FFL or C&R only, no antiques available.

The M.95 rifles are in fair to good condition. May have some small wood cracks, missing rear sight components, etc. but are functional. All are original and use the 8x50R ammunition. May be a small metal part such as a missing stacking rod, sling swivel or screw.

These guns come straight out of Ethiopia and are in fair to good condition. We do have Budapest and Steyr arsenals available. A specific manufacturer can be chosen by the customer. If there is no preference, the option does not have to be selected and a rifle will be picked for the standard price.

The stocks might have some minor dents or small cracks. These guns are true authentic pieces of history and should not be missing in any WW1 and Austro-Hungarian firearms collection. We do not check the bores, unless a hand select fee is paid. Bores range from poor to good. Please remember that these guns are 130 years old and back then there were no "non Corrosive" primers available.

History:

The Mannlicher M1895 (German: Infanterie Repetier-Gewehr M.95, Hungarian: Gyalogsági Ismétlő Puska M95; "Infantry Repeating-Rifle M95") is a straight pull bolt-action rifle, designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher that used a refined version of his revolutionary straight-pull action bolt, much like the Mannlicher M1890 carbine. It was nicknamed the Ruck-Zuck-Gewehr by Austrian troops (ruck-zuck spoken as "roock-tsoock", in common language meaning "fast as a flash", at the same time echoing the repeating sound) and "Ta-Pum" by Italian troops who even wrote a song about it during World War I.

Originally they were chambered for the round-nosed 8×50mmR cartridge, but almost all were rechambered to accept the more powerful spitzer 8×56mmR cartridge in the 1930s. These rifles however were not converted and use the original 8x50 ammunition.

Method of Operation

The M1895 is unusual in employing a straight-pull bolt action, as opposed to the more common rotating bolt-handle of other rifles. It combines a two lug rotating bolt head, similar in construction to that found on a Mauser rifle with a pair of helical grooves cut in the bolt body to turn the back and forth movement of the bolt handle and body into the rotational movement of the bolt head. The extractor performs both the usual function, and also has a tail attached which interfaces with slots on the cam surfaces of the bolt head to prevent the bolt head from rotating as a result of the striker's spring pressure once it has been unlocked.[5]

The angle of the cam surfaces in the bolt and bolt body is different from the angle at which the locking recesses are cut in the receiver of the rifle, the result is that the first 20 mm of travel of the bolt body results in the rotation of the bolt head but only about 3 mm of rearward movement, this gives mechanical advantage to the system and accomplishes primary extraction.

The result of this is that the user can pull the bolt back and forth in two movements rather than the up-back-forward-down of conventional turn bolt rifles. It is consequently renowned for combining relatively high rate of fire (around 20–25 rounds per minute) with reliability and sturdiness, although this requires decent care and maintenance. During Austro-Hungarian trials in 1892, rifles survived torture testing of firing 50,000 rounds without any form of lubrication.[6]

The rifle is loaded by means of a five-round en-bloc clip, which when loaded with cartridges, is pressed into the magazine of the rifle, where it is retained and acts at the feed lips of the magazine. When the last of the five rounds has been chambered, there is no longer anything retaining the clip in the magazine and it falls out a port in the bottom due to gravity. [1] There is a button in the front of the trigger guard which allows the user to eject a partially or fully loaded clip from the magazine when the bolt is open to unload the weapon. The clip will be ejected from the weapon quite energetically as the full force of the follower spring will be pressing against it.

The rifle is not designed to be loaded by any other means but the en-bloc clip. Attempts to single feed the rifle in absence of proper clips may cause damage to the extractor as it is not designed with enough travel to overcome the large rims of the 8x50mmR and 8x56mmR cartridges used in the M1895 unless they are fed under the extractor from the clip.

History

It was initially adopted and employed by the Austro-Hungarian Army throughout World War I, and retained post-war by both the Austrian and Hungarian armies. The main foreign user was Bulgaria, which, starting in 1903, acquired large numbers and continued using them throughout both Balkan and World Wars. After Austria-Hungary's defeat in World War I, many were given to other Balkan states as war reparations. A number of these rifles also saw use in World War II, particularly by second line, reservist, and partisan units in Romania, Yugoslavia, Italy, and to lesser degree, Germany. Post war many were sold as cheap surplus, with some finding their way to the hands of African guerrillas in the 1970s[citation needed] and many more being exported to the United States as sporting and collectible firearms. The M1895 bolt also served as an almost exact template for the ill-fated Canadian M1905 Ross rifle, though the later M1910 used a complicated interrupted-thread instead of two solid lugs.