From the November 1999 issue, pages 301 - 304.

by Al Castle

For most of the military rifle collector community, the turn bolt rifle is the most common rifle in our collection. We sometimes relegate the back of the closet to the straight pull rifles if you have any at all. No one seems to be greatly interested and an example of each major model seems to suffice most general collectors. I am sure that there are some Austrian M1895 collectors out there but I have never met one.

We sometimes forget that the straight pull was a major production rifle. The first major straight pull rifle was developed in Austria by von Mannlicher in the 1880s. To the best of my knowledge, the 1884 Mannlicher rifle in 11mm was the first production rifle of this design. The 1889 was the first smokeless powder straight pull with the 8 x 50R cartridge. This was followed by the M1890 carbine and finally the series of M1895 carbines and rifles.

But Austria is not alone in the production of a straight pull rifle. The Swiss developed a straight pull in the 1880s that continued in production into the late 1950s in several models, even when most other production of straight pulls ceased in about 1918. Even the United States developed a straight pull Lee-Winchester M1895 in 6mm for the Navy. Canada has the distinction of the Ross 1905 and M1910 in all its many variations.

From the data obtained from RIFLES OF THE WORLD, the following is a listing of production figures for the major smokeless powder rifle.

As you can see, the Austrian designed M1895 leads the pack by a wide margin. Austria was allied with Germany in World War I and production of this rifle ceased in 1918. Besides ending up in the inventory of Austria and Hungary after WWI, many of the captured or surrendered weapons ended up being in the inventory of Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia, Russia and several of those other Eastern European states that I can not recall the names of.

An original M1895 rifle or carbine in 8x50R is getting harder and harder to find anymore. Most of the weapons were converted to 8 x 56R in the 1930s at Steyr arsenal in Austria. Most of the M1895s imported in the last ten or twelve years are those that were converted. Some of the rifles were left in their long form, but most of the so called carbines that were imported are really just cut down rifles.

I recently, with the help of Joe Steen, looked at forty greasy and very dirty M1895s that a local dealer had purchased from Century Arms. There may be a member of the MRJ that has more knowledge than myself on the markings of this model, but I do not remember the subject being written about in the MRJ in the last eight years.

Most of the carbines were what I consider typical Steyr M95s in 8 x 56R, but there were some interesting markings on the top of the receivers and on the left side rail that may be of interest to the readers. Two did not have the S on top of the barrel and one was an original carbine with the shorter rear sight and a milled, not sleeved, front sight. Only one of the Steyr M95 marked pieces had any information on the left rail, it was stamped Steyr 1903. Three had the Bulgarian crest on the top of the receiver with two stamped Steyr 1903 on the left rail and one stamped Budapest 1914. Three had the curved Budapest with M95 under it on the top of the receiver and one had an H about the same size as the S stamped on the top of the barrel between the S and the front of the receiver. The strangest one was a blank receiver top with the left rail stamped Budapest 1909. This was the only one with a five digit number and the letter did not follow the number as seemed to be the pattern of all the others; the letter was centered above the serial number. One other Steyr marked piece had what looked like a 3 or a poorly stamped 8 on the top center of the receiver where the index mark is.

Most of the trigger guards had a K stamped on the front just behind the screw hole, there were three stamped with a B in a circle and three stamped with the letter R. Most of the bolts were also marked with a K but there were two marked with the circle B, one with a circle E and two with the R. Two of the bolts had a small hole, about an 1/8 " on the top front of the bolt body. Most of the sight leaves were blued, but some were bright on top. The markings started on the bottom right and progressed upward alternating from right to left and ending on the left side at 22. There was about a half inch void between the 22 and the top of the sight. Two of the sights had the numbers on the left only side going to 24 with a 26 on the top center. This leads me to believe that the old top numbers may have been removed on the 22 marked sights.

The wood was really greasy and dirty and there was no way I was going to spend the day cleaning them for someone else. There were probably a lot of markings in the stock as well as the metal that I missed but the following markings were observed. Most of these were about a quarter of an inch, 3 in a circle, B in a circle, K in a triangle and that number 3 again that looks like a poorly stamped 8. There were three stocks that had no number stamped on them. The majority of the stocks had at least one number lined out on the left rear of the stock, four had two numbers lined out and one had three numbers lined out ( counting the number on the right, this old piece of wood was the home of four receivers). All of the stock numbers that matched the receiver were stamped on the right rear of the stock.

Considering that these pieces are assumed to be rebuilt, it is impossible for me to determine for sure which markings are original and which were added during rebuild, especially in the wood. I would like to offer the following conclusions from my limited observations.

1. The majority of the M1895s were manufactured in Austria at the Steyr arsenal. Maybe 25 to 35% were manufactured in Hungary at the Budapest arsenal.

2. Both Steyr and Budapest produced rifles for Bulgaria.

3. The serial number is up to four digits followed by a letter and is stamped on the left rear ofthe barrel, the same number appears on the left front of the receiver but does not always have the letter and when it does not have the letter is of a different style in most cases.

4. The original bolts may have been numbered on the top of the knob ( two observed), but these were removed and the new numbers were applied with an electric pencil on the top rear of the bolt body. No stamped numbers were found on the top rear of the bolt.

5. In all cases where the stock matched the receiver, the number was stamped on the right rear of the stock.

There are two other Mannlicher M1895s that I have seen that may be of interest to the readers.

Yugoslavia converted some of the rifles to a short rifle in the 1930s in 7.92mm. This is not a simple change. A new stepped barrel ( about 23") in 7.92mm with a tangent rear sight and Mauser front sight was installed, the feed mechanism was modified to eliminate the Mannlicher type clip and a slot was milled into the top rear of the receiver so that a regular type stripper clip could be used. The hole in the bottom of the trigger guard was capped. The bolt head was modified and a full length handguard was added.

Czechoslovakia may have the honor of the rarest M1895 straight pull. I learned of this model from a very serious Czech collector and the only one I have ever seen is from the pictures of the one in his collection. The rifle was made in the early 1920s and the top of the receiver stamped with the same markings that are found on the Czech 98/22 rifle. The only place I could find even a mention of this 95 in my library was in Czechoslovak Small Arms and Machine Guns by Col Dr. Miroslav Sada. In all honesty, before Joe and I looked at this lot I did not give the 95s much thought, I have a nice example of both the rifle and carbine in my collection and the Yugo 95M and did not think I needed any more. This was certainly an education and I will now have to take a second look at some of those 95s that I just walked past without even taking a look at over the last ten years

I went back through my library for support material when I started to prepare this article and some of the receiver markings that I found were mentioned, most just had a picture of the rifle and repeated the data contained in Small Arms of the World. There were few pictures of the different carbines and no detail pictures of any of the markings. Hopefully there is some serious Steyr collector out there that can add more information to this article.

Please write your comments or additional information to the MRJ or write me direct at:

305 E. 5th Street

Austin, TX 78701

Email - Maxeyglass@aol.com

References

Small Arms of the World, Walter H. B. Smith, 7th Ed 1968.

Rifles of the World, John Walter, 2nd Ed 1998.

Czechoslovak Small Arms and Machine Guns, Col. Dr Miroslav Sada , Eng trans.

Straight Pull Rifles, Larry Sterett, Amer Rifleman, Feb 1957.

From the December 1999 issue, page 322.

BY MARION MERICLE

In the excellent article: "Steyr M 1895 Straight Pull Rifles" by Al Castle, in the 10-99 "M.R.J.", on pages 301-304 is mentioned: "The only place I could find even a mention of the (Czech.) 95 in my library was in Czechoslovak Small Arms and Machine Guns by Col. Dr. Miroslav Sada.

This short rifle has always been mentioned in Olson's book and in my third edition, 13th printing, on page 200. "The firm (Brno) produced 5,000 Mannlicher short rifles in 1921."

If you think about who produced military straight pull rifles, they were produced by two German speaking neighbors - Switzerland and Austria - with the others produced by two English speaking neighbors - Canada and the United States. Thanks.