The M95 Steyr Mannlicher Rifle: A bargain bolt action from WWI
When most people think old bolt-action rifles, their world is crowded with Mausers, Mosins, Springfields, and Enfields. In this clutter one humble rifle sitting quietly on the shelf (and usually priced to move) is almost never taken notice of, the near forgotten M95 Steyr-Mannlicher. And well, there is a reason or two for this.
In the 1880s, the bolt-action rifle was a new-fangled innovative firearm. One of the leaders in design of these guns was a fellow by the name of Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. Mannlicher invented a super-neat strait-pull bolt action that fed from an internal box magazine. In 1885, Mannlicher merged his efforts with the Austrian Arms Factory company at Steyr and formed the Steyr Mannlicher group to produce a new rifle for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Their gun, the Model 1888 was a bolt-action rifle with a 30-inch barrel that fired black-powder 8x50R cartridges.
The Austrian army loved the gun but in 1893, smokeless powder really began to catch on, replacing black-powder seemingly overnight and in consequence the Austrians needed another new gun. That’s when Mannlicher and the gang came out with the M95.
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com.
