The Steyr M95 - CGN compiled knowledge.

[Heatseeker]

I got to talking with a guy at work the other day. He says he has a Steyr M95 he wants to unload for cheap. He has a few rounds of ammo as well. I don't know anything about them, but I got first dibs from him.

Should I pick it up?

[smle-man]

Make sure you have an orthopedic surgeon on retainer! The carbines have an amazingly brutal recoil.

[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.

[GOEX FFF]

^^ Marcus gave you a good basic run down, and saved my fingers from typing out my own response.
Especially the line about the Boxer/Clinton bolt-head analogy. lol Which ironically, can be nullified for the mere cost of a dime.

I've been a strict collector of the 1895 M.95 straight-pull Mannlicher for about 15 years now. Having examples in the collection of some the very early first Repetier-Stutzen produced, to original Repetier-KarabinerStutzen, Repetier-Karabiner, Repetier-Karabiner mit Stutzenring, Repetier-StutzenKarabiner and Long rifles all in 8x50mmR. With variants of Bulgarian contract, (Bulgaria never actually produced the M.95 themselves. In the early 1900's, they were Austrian made rifles under contract for Bulgaria and stamped with the Bulgarian crest) Italian, Polish and Czech accepted pieces, to post-war 8x56mmR Austrian M.95/30's, Hungarian converted 31.M's and both as M.95/34 Bulgarain referbs, to the Yugoslavian M.95M, M.95/24 7.92mm (8x57) conversions.

Among others, I also have a 1913 accepted, Budapest produced M.95 KarabinerStutzen that was then sent to Italian East Africa (marked with the AOI on the stock) then later most likely went to Somalia or Etheopia, and THEN ended up as a captured piece in an Arabic nation which then received it's own Arabic serial number on the receiver. Through it's LONG journey, it has remained all original, non-import, correctly matched and still remains in 8x50mmR. There is a rich history in many of these rifles.

While this site has some small basic info errors, it's still a good reference and will help give you a visual at least of the M.95.

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

[glennsche]

more of a question for Markus... arent most 8x56?

ie, you see the carbines at gunstores for 100 bucks or so... these have been passed around from all over ended up in Bulgaria before being sold here to surplus nerds like us, these tend to be 8x56 right, isnt that the more commonly encountered variant?

[GOEX FFF]

more of a question for Markus... arent most 8x56?

ie, you see the carbines at gunstores for 100 bucks or so... these have been passed around from all over ended up in Bulgaria before being sold here to surplus nerds like us, these tend to be 8x56 right, isnt that the more commonly encountered variant?

I know you directed the question to Marcus, but since I'm here.. Yes, most M.95's out there were converted from 8x50mmR (M.93 O-Patrone) to the 8x56mmR (M.30 S-Patrone) in the 1930's. Which then changed the designation from the M.95 to M.95/30 (or in the case of Hungarian 8x56mmR conversions, the 31.M, beginning in 1931). Bulgaria obtained most all of the M.95/30's and 31.M after this time-frame and refurb them, having their own designation of M.95/34 which are most of what you encounter in today's market.

[Marcus von W.]

Yes, most of them - especially the imports from Bulgaria (which started showing up in the mid 1980's) are 8x56r. However, original ones in 8X50r show up for sale once in a while. Long rifles in 8X50r are more common than carbine length ones - a lot of these were used as non-firing trainers and were imported in the mid 1980's from Europe....these often have the firing pin clipped, the bolt face welded up, and a big visible hole cut in the top of the chamber. However, others are intact and unmolested and are in firing condition.

[Marcus von W.]

Adding to what Goex said, they are an interesting rifle with lots of history and if you know a little about them you can find some scarce and historical variations at very affordable prices.

The 8X50r ammo has always been exceedingly difficult to find. The 56r ammo was also about non-existant until the mid-1980's when cases of Ww2 German ammo came on the market. This is good, clean stuff made by Rottweil in 1938 or 1939 (I forget which - I had a pile of this that I sold off recently) with little Nazi Hitler-chicken markings on the box, clips, and ammo. It came in original grey-green painted wooden chests with German markings and Nazi eagles. Even the chests are rather collectable these days.

About the 5 round clips - you need one of these little Mannlicher monstrosities (unless you have one of the Yugo 8mm Mauser converted rifles), or you have a very slow and clumsy single shot rifle.

[GOEX FFF]

^^ And to add further to that,

The surplus 8x56mmR you see that some call "Nazi" ammo was actually all produced by the Austrians after the German/Austrian Anschluss of 1938.

Also as mentioned about the clips, one should also be aware that if you don't have a clip to feed from and close the bolt on a chambered rimmed cartridge case, you have good chance of breaking your extractor as it tries to ride over the rim on closing. M.95 extractors are hard to find loose in their own. Not to mention, M.95M or M.95/24 modified and thinner extractors for the rimless 7.92 are just about impossible to find. M.95M and M.95/24's have an internal fixed clip in the magazine that holds the cartridges, but they are often missing which makes them into a single shot and also prone to extractor breakage. Always use a clip while shooting your M.95's.

Here's one of my M.95M's showing the "fixed" internal clip, (that differs very much from an M.95 clip) which like their extractors, are not available anywhere. One can also note of the hand full of modifications to the M.95M and M.95/24, is the channel milled out and thumb-relief in the receiver for use of 7.92 stripper clips.





Note the "hook" on the original clip lock/release has been cut off as it's no longer needed for the internal "fixed" clip.
As well as the magazine's clip drop hole has been sealed closed.

[6mmintl]

buy Privi partisan brass at midway or graf & Sons, Lee dies, and the lee .329-205 grain bullet mold/lee liquid alox lube, and shoot 15-17 grains of Alient 2400 and your shoulder will thank you

[Heatseeker]

Thank you Marcus and Goex! I now have an idea what I'll be looking at along with some history of the rifle.

I'll report my findings when I see the rifle.

Thanks again.

[GOEX FFF]

M.95 - These will be original un-converted, un-refurbished pieces that are still chambered in the original WWI 8X50mmR or "M.93 O-Patrone" cartridge. A correctly matched M.95 will only be serialized on the receiver, bbl, LEFT side of the butt-stock and often on the top hand-guard under the rear ladder leaf sight with the last two digits of the serial. Bolts were not serialized. Original M.95 8x50mmR rear ladder sights were graduated to 500-2400 schritt (or "steps").

M.95/30 - Austrian converted beginning in 1930 to the 8x56mmR, or "M.30 S-Patrone" cartridge. This Austrian conversion is noted by a large "S" stamped on the top of the chamber ring on the barrel, which stands for "Spitzgeschoss" or quite literally "Pointed Bullet". M.95/30's also received a taller front sight and a new rear ladder sight graduated to 300-2000 meters to compensate for the new and more powerful M.30 (8x56mmR) cartridge.

31.M Puska - This was the Hungarian's re-designation of their newly converted M.95 to 8x56mmR. Which the adoption of the new 8x56mmR for the Hungarians began in 1931. Hungarian converted 31.M will be stamped with a large "H" on top of the barrel/chamber ring, much like in the same manner of the Austrian "S" stamp. This "H" stamp stands for "Hegyes Tolteny", also quite literally translates to "Pointed Bullet".

M.95/34 - The M.95/34 are all the M.95/30 and 31.M 8x56mmR conversions..etc that were sent to Bulgaria after WWI from Austria and Hungary in addition to all of the Bulgarian M.95 contract rifles that remained in Bulgaria and went through the 1930's Bulgarian refurbishment and rebuild process. No where else was this designation of "M.95/34" used but from Bulgaria and is found in Bulgarian manuals of the time. Part of this rebuild, the Bulgarian's re-stamped numbers on M.95/30, 31.M parts such as bands, stocks, barrels and or the receivers. Bolts were also commonly electro-penciled to match. So, whenever you encounter stamped bands, stamped or electro-penciled bolts or serial numbers on the RIGHT side of the Butt-stock...etc, these are all signs of the Bulgarian post-war ownership and the M.95/34 rebuild.

Alright, clear so far?

Now, onto the basic configurations of the M.95.

First, is the Repetier-Karabiner: or "Carbine". This configuration will have a set of sling swivels mounted on the side only. One side swivel on the lower band, and one side swivel in the wrist. There is also a 7" distance between upper and lower bbl bands. Original M.95 Repetier-Karabiner upper bands had no bayonet lug or stacking rod. Original lug-less/rod-less Karabiner bands are VERY scarce. Later, Karabiner upper bands received a bayonet lug, literally welding or braising on a lug to the band. These lugged Karabiner bands are also quite uncommon to find, as just prior to WWI, most rifles were fitted and updated with Stuzten upper bands that had stacking rods and bayonet lugs.

Next we have is the Repetier-Stutzen:
This configuration will have a set of sling swivels mounted on the bottom side only. One bottom swivel on the lower band, and one bottom swivel on the butt-stock. There is a 5" distance between upper and lower bbl bands. Original M.95 Repetier-Stutzen upper bands all had stacking rods and bayonet lugs.

Next, is the Repetier-KarabinerStutzen:
This configuration will have 3 sets of sling swivels as well as side sling-bar. One bottom swivel on the lower band as well as a fixed side sling-bar. One side swivel in the wrist and a bottom swivel on the butt-stock. There is a also a 5" distance between upper and lower bbl bands. Repetier-KarabinerStutzen also have the Stutzen upper band with stacking rods and bayonet lugs.

Now, the Repetier-StutzenKarabiner:
This configuration is just like a Repetier-Karabiner Stutzen, having with 5" between bands. But rather than a fixed side-bar lower band, it will carry side & bottom swivels on lower band band, a side swivel in the wrist and a bottom swivel on butt-stock. This will also carry a Stutzen lugged and stacking rod upper band.

And finally, the Repetierkarabiner mit Stutzenring:
This configuration is simply a Repetier-Karabiner having 7" between bands with a side swivel on the lower band, side swivel in the wrist and fitted with a Stutzen lugged/stacking rod upper band.

Clear as mud? I know it's a lot to take in but I promise I'm almost done.

Long rifles and cut downs:
It's quite obvious when you encounter a long rifle, so I'll touch briefly on how to spot a cut-down long rifle. Note, that just about ALL Repetier-Stutzen, Repetier-KarabinerStutzen, Repetier-Karabiner, Repetier-Karabiner mit Stutzenring, and Repetier-StutzenKarabiner had short ladder rear leaf sights and wedged mounted front sights. The tell-tail signs of a cut-down long rifle will be a short rifle bearing long ladder leaf sights and a banded front sight. Also note that sometime during a rebuild, a short Karabiner/Stutzen type was re-barreled with a long rifle barrel bearing a banded front sight. A quick check of the serial number on the receiver and barrel will determine this if they match, not just along with the same number, but also same style of font. As noted before, the Bulgarians would commonly scrub the non-matching number and force-match barrels on their M.95/34 rebuilds and it's obvious when the number fonts don't match the original receiver numbers.

Now, one might ask "My short rifle has a long rifle banded front sight, but the rear ladder sight is short...what gives?"

There are two possible scenarios to this -
1.) It has been made from a cut-down long rifle, and during its modification to a short rifle, it was fitted with a short ladder rear sight.
2.) During WWI, to speed up barrel production for carbines, banded long rifle front sights (as opposed to the dovetailed/wedge mounted carbine sights) were also known to have been used on some new carbine barrels.
So it doesn't necessarily always mean that a particular short rifle with a banded front rifle sight, bearing also a short ladder rear sight was made from a long rifle.

Nevertheless, IMO, that doesn't affect the beauty of these rifles.

Receiver markings and part letters.
STEYR marked receivers are pieces made in Austria.
Parts you find that are stamped with the letter "K" are all Austrian made.
Austrian acceptance stamps on top of the bbl/chamber-ring will bear the stamp of W-n (Austrian eagle) and the last two digits of the year of that specific rifle's acceptance.
The "W-n" stamp stands for Wiener-Neustadt located south of Vienna in the state of Lower in North-East Austria.

BUDAPEST marked receivers are pieces made in Budapest, Hungary.
Parts you find that are stamped with the letter "R" are all Hungarian made.
Budapest acceptance stamps on top of the bbl/chamber-ring will bear the stamp of BP, a single shield or double shield (the double shield starting with the change of Monarchy in 1916 after the death of Emperor Franz Josef) and the last two digits of the year of that too, specific rifle's acceptance.

There are many M.95 that were built in Budapest but were accepted in to service in Austria.
So it's not uncommon to find a Budapest made rifle bearing the Austrian Wiener-Neustadt "W-n (eagle)" acceptance stamp.

There are also early, late and Ersatz (substitute standard) style of parts such as sling swivels, cocking pieces, inner structures of butt-plates, top guards...etc. Though, we'll save that for another day if the need arises.
But ALL parts from both Austria and Hungary M.95, whether early or late style are interchangeable. And it's also common to find "K" and "R" marked parts mixed with each other.

Bulgarian crested receivers are A-H made pieces under contract for Bulgaria and the design was exactly the same.
Correct Bulgarian contract rifle bolts however, will have a gas relief hole in the top forward portion of the bolt-body.


Hope your eyes aren't crossed now and that helps expand on what to look for when you've entered the world of the M1895 straight-pull Mannlicher and it's variants.

[mosinnagantm9130]

I'm just gonna throw it out there-

Between the info that Goex and Marcus posted, this thread should probably be stickyed.

[Eddie1965]

Don't mean to thread jack, but seeing all the great information on this thread I might as well keep it going...

I have a Bulgarian crested M95 made in Budapest 1909 and by the description posted by GOEX FFF above it fits in the Repetierkarabiner mit Stutzenring category. It is all matching but this is where I got stumped. The bolt has the SN stamped, not electro penciled, on the bolt knob but the bolt is missing the gas hole. Could this be an exception to the Bulgarian bolt rule?

[GOEX FFF]

Hey Eddie,

Yes, in fact, a number of Pre-WWI Bulgarian Contract M.95's were serialized by the Bulgarians on the bolt by stamping. The Bulgarian's were the only ones to do this to their bolts and is a sign of Bulgarian ownership.
Why it may not have a gas-hole, could be that the bolt was a later replacement of a standard non Bulgarian contract bolt (which would have been common with repair parts being used). Or later, in the 1930's Bulgarian rebuild, the bolt received the infamous Bulgarian stamping. In the 1930's Bulgarian rebuild, both electro-penciling AND stamping was continued Bulgarian practice.


Just for reference, here's what the Bulgarian bolt gas-hole looks like - (Photos by "nick" on Gunboards.com)