The Steyr M95 - CGN compiled knowledge.

[Eddie1965]

How do we get this thread turned into a sticky? Do we PM a mod?

[DennisCA]

Originally Posted by Heatseeker

Well, I got the rifle out for a couple of pics. Looking at my idiot mark still sickens me.

On to the pics:

The whole enchilada. It just hit me that the bolt on my rifle is polished. Incorrect?




Barrel markings


Idiot mark


Overall, this little rifle is in pretty decent shape. from reading above, I'm guessing this is a 95/30? All numbers are stamped, no electro penciling and no import mark anywhere. Just about every part has the serial number or the last two digits of the serial stamped in.

I'll let the experts tell me more .

Very nice gun - you'll enjoy it (Until you shoot it)
BTW - for that "Idiot mark" try this:

They are used for furniture but they'll work on wooden gun stocks as well.
It comes in pack of five, various shades.
I nicked my M95 a short time after I got it also, I used one of the markers (Let it set awhile to dry) and it look (almost) as good as new.
I forgot where I got it though, probably some hardware store.

[QuarterBoreGunner]

stickied and title edited to attract eyeballs.

[Zedrek]

I got the Hungarian M95/34 U-Fix-Em from Century and finally figured out what it was missing. The safety is missing off of the bolt assembly. How necessary is it and does anyone have a lead on where to find one? Thanks for all the great info guys and to QuarterBoreGunner for making it a sticky.

[Gutz]

Originally Posted by Zedrek

I got the Hungarian M95/34 U-Fix-Em from Century and finally figured out what it was missing. The safety is missing off of the bolt assembly. How necessary is it and does anyone have a lead on where to find one? Thanks for all the great info guys and to QuarterBoreGunner for making it a sticky.

This place used to have them. Just keep checking.

https://www.buymilsurp.com/rifle-par...3548_2083.html

[CEDaytonaRydr]

Originally Posted by QuarterBoreGunner

stickied and title edited to attract eyeballs.

Thank you, my brotha. Sorry if I went about it the wrong way...

I'll buy you a cold one, if ever we shall meet.

[JLC3]

i got alot of info from this, i have had mine for two years and cant find any ammo, any one in the sonoma county know where to get some?

[Gutz]

Originally Posted by JLC3

i got alot of info from this, i have had mine for two years and cant find any ammo, any one in the sonoma county know where to get some?

Order online. Not the cheapest, but OK. Do you reload?

[CEDaytonaRydr]

Originally Posted by JLC3

i got alot of info from this, i have had mine for two years and cant find any ammo, any one in the sonoma county know where to get some?

If you plan on going out of state anytime soon, Cabela's in Phoenix had it on the shelf. It was Hornady ammo, and $30 a box but at least they had it...

For the record, there is no reason to buy the Hornady ammo over the Prvi Partisan because the brass Hornady uses is PPU anyway.

[JLC3]

no i dont reload. been slowly learning from a friends dad. wish i was going to phoenix, i would pick up alot more ammo

[Zedrek]

Originally Posted by JLC3

no i dont reload. been slowly learning from a friends dad. wish i was going to phoenix, i would pick up alot more ammo

You picked the wrong rifle to not reload with. Hehe.

[quadmx301]

I think I have an issue of surplus firearms from last year that had an article on the m.95 and m.95/30... I'll see if I can dig it up.

[bruceflinch]

Lots of good info, especially about the recoil. I can't wait, not to buy one!

[CEDaytonaRydr]

Originally Posted by bruceflinch

Lots of good info, especially about the recoil. I can't wait, not to buy one!

Straight pull bolt, enbloc clip fed; Not a bad rifle for $99. Learn to deal with the recoil!

[Nevada Hudson]

Actually, I have no problem with the recoil when I have the buttplate tight against my shoulder. Only use factory new ammo for it.There is more detailed information on here on these guns than any site I have found on the internet. There is a book available on these guns through Amazon, but I doubt that it has better information than found here. Now to get my gun out of the safe and have it on my lap and check out the markings and details that are posted here to find out what they really mean. Should pull the shades or the neighbors will think I'm weird!

[vincewarde]

Originally Posted by chknlyps2

I saw some .338's for sale and was wondering if you could squeeze them down that much. I have a .329 sizing die I use to put gas checks on cast boolits...... Thanks for the tip MB!

If you slug your barrel, you will likely find that its' bore is greater than .329 - mine slugged at .332 so I had Lee make me a push through sizing die .333 in diameter. I plan on sizing both boolits and bullets with it....

I'm actually wondering if an M95 would be a decent hunting and bear defense gun. Nice and light to carry - but still packs a punch. It will be interesting to see what kind of accuracy is possible with correctly sized projectiles......

[NOTABIKER]

got me one last night, Steyr 95 stamped. seems to be a Bulgarian referb. SER # stamped on right side of stock only. electro pencil ser # on bolt. she is in mint condition. the stock looks like new. it came with 80packaged rounds 1938-39.

[Gutz]

Pics? Is it a carbine or a cut down long barrel?

Are the sights short or long?

[NOTABIKER]

Originally Posted by Gutz

Pics? Is it a carbine or a cut down long barrel?

Are the sights short or long?

carbine, short sights. this is not a cut down long rifle. very blond wood like a nice yugo SKS. stamped ser# left side of barrel and receiver right next to each other.
pics are on the C&R under lets see your straight pull rifles. very happy. took it apart this morning. nice thin coat of cosmo on every thing. not like a mosin cosmo job.

[Gutz]

Originally Posted by NOTABIKER

carbine, short sights. this is not a cut down long rifle. very blond wood like a nice yugo SKS. stamped ser# left side of barrel and receiver right next to each other.
pics are on the C&R under lets see your straight pull rifles. very happy. took it apart this morning. nice thin coat of cosmo on every thing. not like a mosin cosmo job.

Nice. I'll check it out.

[billmaykafer]

Originally Posted by OHOD

If you buy the rifle.
If you live in my area.
Then I will give you some ammo and a clip for free.
I will not ship.

My M95 loves me, so I want to pass on the love to other CGers.

i wish you lived close to san diego. i own 2 Steyr M95 carbines. want to sell sme clips or fired brass i can reload?

[billmaykafer]

http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/...teyrm95002.jpg

if it says deleted don't believe it. go over to library,then menu drops down,click recent uploads and the photos will appear. click to enlarge. if you have info about these 2 different Steyr M95 let me know. Bill

[billmaykafer]

what type of wood used to make stocks? my light colored one seems to be birch while the grain and color of dark one appears to be walnut. both are steyr M95 carbine.

[Discogodfather]

Originally Posted by Marcus von W.

The straight pull bolt action is a better design than the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin except for it's evil and hateful bolt head. I

How is it better than the Swiss design? Just because the bolt head is forward locking? I would prefer the M1911 and K-11 design, the M1889 I am not sure about.

One of the rarest and a life goal to try and find and own (WW1 sniper):

[GOEX FFF]

Originally Posted by Discogodfather

How is it better than the Swiss design? Just because the bolt head is forward locking? I would prefer the M1911 and K-11 design, the M1889 I am not sure about.

One of the rarest and a life goal to try and find and own (WW1 sniper):

^^^

That's the Holy Grail of M.95's right there!

[Gutz]

http://www.hungariae.com/Mann95.htm

Lot's of good info here....

[billmaykafer]

i received my third M95 on 24th december. it is hungarian budapest. this goes along side my 2 Steyr M95 carbines. #2621A.
i have 3 boxes of 1938 nazi and 20 cartridges hornady. i will save hornady for reloading. the nazi comes on stripper clips so i now have 16 enblock clips. the butt stock has an oval repair where bottom sling was removed and a sling bracket is now on side of butt stock. dated 1908 . cai labeled it as M9534 while my 2 Steyr are labeled M95 all in that ugly dot matrix style.

[Nevada Hudson]

Took the buttplate off of one of mine, and it was hollowed out. Looked like something was stored there, but alas it was empty! Would have been real cool if something from the soldier was stored there!

[billmaykafer]

only 1 of my 3 M95's has hollowed out cavity.

[NOTABIKER]

PPU at ammo brothers 22 bucks a box of 20. that is what new 30-6 costs me. i love my Steyr but i do not plan to shoot it a lot. as long as i can get ammo for 22 bucks that works for me.

[Nevada Hudson]

So which part of my M95 rifle still has the original parts that could have been used in The Great War?

[GOEX FFF]

Originally Posted by Nevada Hudson

So which part of my M95 rifle still has the original parts that could have been used in The Great War?

95% of them all. One can also find early style Pre-WWI parts in the mix, especially on Bulgarian referbs from all the stockpile received from Austria and Hungary Post-WWI.

M.95 straight-pull Mannlicher receivers and part manufacturing rapidly declined and/or ended after the fall of the Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie in 1918, though even after the break up of the empire, a few number of M.95's (still chambered in the M93 O-Patrone cartridge - 8x50mmR) carrying 1919 & 1920 dates with X, Y and Z blocks stamped after the serial number were still being assembled from left over parts produced during the war. Rifles you find dated in the 1919-1920 timeframe will have the common chamber ring stamp "W-n-19" or "W-n-20", but will notably be lacking the Coat of Arms (Austrian eagle or Budapest single/double shield stamp) prefixing the date.
Note, that dates on the chamber ring don't ALWAYS mean the exact date of manufacture, since during the war, it was a date of acceptance into service on a specific rifle.
One could very well have a rifle that was actually made in 1915, but was finally accepted in 1916 or a later year.


ETA: Added a bit ^^

[GOEX FFF]

Originally Posted by Nevada Hudson

Actually, I have no problem with the recoil when I have the buttplate tight against my shoulder. Only use factory new ammo for it.There is more detailed information on here on these guns than any site I have found on the internet. There is a book available on these guns through Amazon, but I doubt that it has better information than found here. Now to get my gun out of the safe and have it on my lap and check out the markings and details that are posted here to find out what they really mean. Should pull the shades or the neighbors will think I'm weird!

This is also a great book in my M.95 collection (sorry for the crappy pics) of a rare original M.95 1897 manual, revised by the kaiserlich und königliche (k.u.k) Technischen Militatkomitee or simply "Imperial and Royal Technical Military Committee" in 1915, which I obtained from a collector in Europe.
I just wish I could fluently read German... lol









It even has a sexy centerfold.

[Nevada Hudson]

Wow, thanks for sharing!

[Nevada Hudson]

Originally Posted by GOEX FFF

95% of all of them. One can also find early style pre-WWI parts in the mix, especially on all the Post-war Bulgarian referbs.

There were no M.95 straight pull Mannlichers or parts made past 1920. Only rifles made with the letter suffixes X, Y and Z after the serial were made or assembled in the 1919-1920 timeframe since even after the fall of the Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie in 1918, many M.95's (still chambered in the M93 O-Patrone cartridge - 8x50mmR) carrying 1919 & 1920 dates were still being assembled from left over parts produced during the war. Rifles you find dated in the 1919-1920 timeframe will also have a chamber ring stamp similar to "W-n-19", notably lacking the Austrian Coat of Arms (eagle) or Budapest Double Shield stamp prefixing the date. Note, that dates on the chamber ring don't ALWAYS mean the exact date of manufacture, but also during the war, was a date of acceptance on a specific rifle into service.

Even after it was re-barreled to 8x56r ?

[GOEX FFF]

Originally Posted by Nevada Hudson

Wow, thanks for sharing!

Sure thing!

Originally Posted by Nevada Hudson

Even after it was re-barreled to 8x56r ?

Austrian and Hungarian (1930 and 31' respectively) 8x56mmR conversions concentrated on lengthening the chamber for the longer 8x56mmR case, using all of the original existing 8x50 barrels.
(You can use an 8x56mmR case, trim it to 50mm and it will fit right in an 8x50mmR chamber).
The bore diameter through the cartridge conversion stayed the same. A typical bore on the M.95 were oversized (generally from .329-330) needed for the extra obturation (expansion) of the flat-based RN 8x50mmR .323" (M93 O-Patrone) 244grn projectile into the rifling. In addition, smokeless or "semi-smokeless" powders during the period burned dirtier than what it does today, fouling was a bigger issue back then. With powder fouling, the larger bore diameter also allowed the rapidly expanding flat-base projectile to pass through more easily after fouling build up.

The 8x56mmR Spitzgeschoss (pointed bullet) (M30 S-Patrone) 208grn projectiles were of the boat-tail design made to .329", so only a chamber modification for the case was needed and smokeless powders by the 1930's had already vastly improved from the early stages of the 1880's predecessor of dirtier smokeless powders and was no longer a real issue.

Here's an Austrian 8x50mmR flat-based cupra-nickel RN projectile. The skirt behind the crimp would rapidly expand more than the later improved boat-tail.

[Nevada Hudson]

Thank You!

[GOEX FFF]

[NOTABIKER]

what makes a great military rifle at a certain time and what makes a great historic shooter rifle today are two different things. maybe the Steyr was outdated in WW2 [ i never did understand why ] but for me it stands shoulder to shoulder with all the great WW1 & 2 rifles. i do not plan to jam the exposed bottem of my magazine in a trench any time soon.

[DesertWalker]

Originally Posted by Marcus von W.

The Steyr M95 is an interesting firearm. The straight pull bolt action is a better design than the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin except for it's evil and hateful bolt head. If you ever take the bolt out of the rifle without the proper and necessary little spacer clip that keeps the bolt head from snapping back and retracting faster than watching Barbara Boxer and Hillery Clinton having hot naked lesbian sex will make you lose a woody, you will understand what I am saying.

Ammo is out there but not easy to find and not cheap. There is WW2 era German, Austrian, Bulgarian, and Hungarian - this is collector item stuff that will cost you around a buck a round when/if you find it.... although that actually isn't that expensive any more, going by what I see boxes of even common modern rifle ammo going for these days. But that's o.k., it's not a gun you will want to shoot a lot. Recoil is fierce, especially with the little carbines - it's not a real user friendly bangstick.

Most of these were made by Steyr in Austria for Austrian forces in the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy and will have the little double-head Austrian imperial eagle marking. Some Austrian made ones were made for the Hungarian forces and have the Steyr marking but Hungarian shield and crown emblem. These are less common and a little more desirable. The other factory that made these was FEG in Budapest. These are scarcer than the Austrian Steyr made ones. Some Budapest made M95's went to Hungarian forces and have the Hungarian shield and crown marking, others went to Austrians and have the double eagle.

Bulgaria was a big purchaser of this model in the pre-Ww1 era, and some can be found with the Bulgarian lion crest on the side of the receiver, which adds collectability. Likewise, many were used by Czechoslovakia right after WW1 and will have small Czech lions and markings on the receiver and various parts - you gotta look hard and careful to see them, but they do add quite a bit of collectability.

There are 2 calibers for these, the original Ww1 Austrian 8X50r and the 1930's era Austrian 8X56r that was also adopted by Hungary. Unaltered 8x50r versions are a lot scarcer and more desirable, but ammo is waaaay more difficult to find and pricey, pricey, pricey! Besides the long rifles (these are scarce and in general worth more than the average carbine. There are 3 carbine variations - 2 original ones, the Stutzen and the carbine, which are differentiated by the original stocks, swivels, and presence or absence of a bayonet lug. There are also carbines made by the Austrians and Hungarians in the 1930's by cutting down rifles - these will have the longer rifle rear sight and the front sight blade will be mounted on a band on the barrel instead of directly on the barrel like an original carbine. Of course, over the years and multiple refurbs, the stocks tend to get switched around, so you can find cut down rifle stocks one real carbines, and carbine or stutzen stocks on other models. Also, carbine stocks have had swivels added and stutzen stocks have had them removed from the bottom of the butt and the hole patched, so it's not a big deal. But it is nice when you encounter one that does have the correct style stock.

Some of the ones that remained in Austria after WW1 were rebarreld in Vienna in the 1930's. These will have an Austrian federal eagle instead of an imperial eagle on the barrel over the chamber, with 1930's dates. I find these particularly interesting and collectable in good shape, because you KNOW that in 1938 they became German rifles.

Most of the M95's you encounter these days come from Bulgaria. The Bulgarians must have been not only poor but also not too bright, because they really liked these rifles and continued to grab them up after Ww2 when they were real cheap and nobody else wanted them. Much of my family is Bulgarian, so this is not hate on Bulgarian people and don't anyone try to turn it into such.

Italy also used a number of them acquired as WW1 booty and these will sometimes have Italian East Africa markings stamped on the stock. They are desirable. Many also were used in the Balkans, large portions of which were either under Austrian control or at war with Austria in WW1.

M95's often have rather dark, worn, and/or pitted bores. It's common enough that it's not a deal breaker, especially since it's not a rifle you want to shoot a lot anyhow. Nice clean bores are definitely a plus. Earlier imports with small, discrete import marks are a little more desirable than later ones with rough as a cheese grater "billboard" import marks.

If you can pick the gun and ammo up in the $100 range, you won't get hurt.

If it has been sporterized or dicked-with in any way, value drops to about half of that.

If you get it, post photos here and we will tell you more about it.

This is a very cool, succinct and comprehensive post..all posts should be written this way...