I was looking at a Steyr M95 short rifle today. This one is marked with an S on the receiver, which I am told means that it is chambered in 8 x 56R. Is this ammo pretty hard to come by? I like the idea of the straight pull bolt, and for $200 I can see it as a nice truck gun if I can either get ammo and the clips cheaply enough.

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Vaya con Dios

I have two of these rifles and I find them a little challenging to shoot and clean. Ammunition is not easy to find in quantity. Usually you can find ammo at a gun show for about ten dollars for ten rounds and it's normally Nazi marked from the late 1930's, along with two five round clips. The clips themselves can usually be found on the auction sites for about five to seven dollars each, depending on the seller. Ammunition in quantity could be found at Century Arms, Aim, or one of the other distributors, if you get lucky. I have waaay more surplus military rifles than I need and I bought two M95 Steyrs as representative samples. They are fun to shoot but the disassembly and reassembly is a chore. I wouldn't reccomend one if you were in a fight for your life. You would be better served with a VZ 24, Short Turkish Mauser, Mosin Nagant carbine, or similar turn bolt for a little less money. My 2 cents.

De Oppresso Liber

I always thought they were an interesting design and if not for the required clip would probably been a popular action for conversion. They are probably the easiest action to convert to left hand.

You can get the old German/Austrian repackaged stuff...Hornady..or I guess Privi is making it too...Ammo hasn't been difficult for me to find.

You need to buy some of the old corrosive stuff for the clips..then buy some modern stuff. The Hornady ammo I got is 200gr softpoint..hot enough for moose..

I sold my last carbine a couple of years ago along with 1300 rds of the Nazi marked ammo.
It was fun to play with for the years I owned it but they do kick the snot out of you!
I never shot any of the commercial ammo, so I don't know how that stacks up. Reloading would allow you to make up most anything you wanted of course.

I had bought the ammo when it was $1/box so I did well on it. I kept a few of the en-bloc clips 'just in case'.

I've had a couple of the full length rifles in the past though they are hard to find. They are much more pleasent to shoot with the extra weight.

Try and find a rifle/carbine that has a bolt in it that will keep the bolt head in the forward/unlocked position when dismounted from the action.
The bolt head is made to snap back rearward with some preassure against it but should lock in the forward position sufficiently to allow not only reassembly of the bolt into the action but also a smooth cycling action.

One which is worn on the inside in the locking groove on the cam will snap shut as soon as it is pull from the action. Pulling the head forward may hold it's position there (which is needed for reassembly) but the slightest touch/bump and 'snap' it goes back again. This also makes for a rough working action during cycling the rifle as the bolt head is twisting in the receiver raceways under spring preassure.
(To remove the bolt from the rifle,,push the trigger forward and hold,,while pulling the bolt from the action).


If I were in need of a cheap centerfire Milsurp rifle and ammo for a truck or camp gun,,I'd probably buy a Mosin Nagant in carbine or short rifle form.

I had one years ago that had just this done to it. It had been restocked as a typical European "Stalking" rifle with cheekpiece and a very thin lightweight stock. (Not a worked over military stock, but probably an Austrian gunsmith made from scratch stock). It had also been rebarreled with an 18" thin barrel with a full length rib. The bolt handle had been replaced with one that didn't stick out like ears on an elephant. Was actually a nice looking handy little rifle. The problem was it only weighed about 5 lbs and kicked like a mule. Also the barrel was only good for about 3 rounds and you had to let it cool off as it would "warp" from the heat.

(And, yes, it had the "snapping" bolt head. Sometimes if they snapped in just the right position they were nearly impossible to get in or out.)

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

For the 'snapping bolt head' problem, a penny or a dime, placed between the bolt head and bolt body will keep them apart long enough for you to get them in the gun. Or you can make something out of a piece of small channel iron to keep the two parts apart. I filed one out of a fired 30-06 case once, and it worked pretty well.

The ammo is hard to come by and expensive and hard to reload for since
the "S" conversion has a bore diameter of .329". As an artifact of a bygone era, fun to have, as a practical using piece, no.

There are a few little tricks to compete against the bolt head snapping back into the bolt body and not letting you get the thing reassembled. But the fact remains that the parts are worn inside the bolt.

Both the notch on the cam itself and the small knife-edge on the back end of the extractor that is supposed to lock into that notch and effect the hold on the parts are worn on many of the surplus rebuilt guns.
The arch in the extractor itself is the 'spring' power behind the effectiveness of it all. All three components need to be working correctly or it just won't hold open.

Getting the bolt back into the action is one thing. But without the positive stop working, the bolt head will twist against the recv'r rails while cycling the action making for the rough operation commonly found on these.
Many sporters built on these actions have a lighter mainsping installed to minimize the problem.