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Mystery Rifle II
- Thread starter Cyrano
- Start date
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deadin
US Veteran
Austrian Steyr M95 Straight Pull 8mm
OP
It's a Steyr straight pull, but I need more information about it.
jlrhiner
US Veteran
Quoted from "The World Encyclopedia of Guns",
"Before World War 1, Calvary units were highly regarded elite formations. No army was complete without a cavalry branch, and Austria was no different. The only differences between the carbine and the M1895 rifle issued to the Austrian cavalry between 1895 and 1918 were overall length, barrel length and weight. In the Calvary, the problem of mud was less crucial than in the infantry, but by the spring of 1915 all Austrian calvary units were relegated to an infantry role. Horses had no place in trench warfare, and the 1895 carbine was to short for bayonet combat. After the war, many carbines ended up as police weapons, due to their convenient size. They were rapidly made obsolete by the flood of Mauser rifles in the 1920's and 1930's."
Specifications are listed as;
Mfg. Steyr
Cal. 8x50R
Cap. 5
Action Straight pull bolt action
OA length 39.5"
Barrel length 19.65"
Weight unloaded 7 lb.
"Before World War 1, Calvary units were highly regarded elite formations. No army was complete without a cavalry branch, and Austria was no different. The only differences between the carbine and the M1895 rifle issued to the Austrian cavalry between 1895 and 1918 were overall length, barrel length and weight. In the Calvary, the problem of mud was less crucial than in the infantry, but by the spring of 1915 all Austrian calvary units were relegated to an infantry role. Horses had no place in trench warfare, and the 1895 carbine was to short for bayonet combat. After the war, many carbines ended up as police weapons, due to their convenient size. They were rapidly made obsolete by the flood of Mauser rifles in the 1920's and 1930's."
Specifications are listed as;
Mfg. Steyr
Cal. 8x50R
Cap. 5
Action Straight pull bolt action
OA length 39.5"
Barrel length 19.65"
Weight unloaded 7 lb.
OP
Interesting quote; I never knew that about WW I carbines. However my rifle is not the one shown in the specifications.
Autococker07
US Veteran
Steyr M95M, 7.92X57
Yup. I owned one. These were obsolete Austro-Hungarian WWI rifles that Yugoslavia converted to use abundant WWII German cartridges. The give away is the hole that empty Mannlicher clips fall through is covered. Guides were added for Mauser stripper clips to feed cartridges into a new magazine that is centered within the old wider one. An M was added to the receiver ring stamp.
Last edited:
Autococker07
US Veteran
I bet that is WAAAAAAAYYYYY fun to shoot with euro 8mm LOL.... I have never seen one of the in person, but would grab it up in a heartbeat, being a bit of an K98 fan.....
OP
Autococker 07 and K22 fan got it; Nice going guys. These originated as Austro-Hungarian military rifles in 8X50 R. After the Treaty of St Germain des Près which ended World War I with Austria-Hungary, these rifles were largely distributed throught the balkans, and Italy got enough of them to arm their troops in their colonies with them. The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later Yugoslavia got a bunch. They liked the rifle but wanted to stick with the 8X57 German military cartridge, so they rebarreled their rifles and worked over the magazine. They put new bolt heads and extractors on them too, restocked them and developed new sights.
These rifles saw VERY hard service in WW II with Tito's Partisans, and most of them are in NRA boat anchor condition. If you have a presentable one, you have a pretty rare bird.
The weak point is the extractor, which is very liable to breakage. The design is different than the 8X50R extractor and probably the mettalurgy is different. Many rifles are found with broken extractors. Replacements are non-existent. If you shoot yours, extract the fired case very gently, and don't let the extractor snap over the rim of a chambered round. I shot mine a little, found it wasn't all that accurate and decided to retire it, primarily for fear of breaking the extractor.
These rifles saw VERY hard service in WW II with Tito's Partisans, and most of them are in NRA boat anchor condition. If you have a presentable one, you have a pretty rare bird.
The weak point is the extractor, which is very liable to breakage. The design is different than the 8X50R extractor and probably the mettalurgy is different. Many rifles are found with broken extractors. Replacements are non-existent. If you shoot yours, extract the fired case very gently, and don't let the extractor snap over the rim of a chambered round. I shot mine a little, found it wasn't all that accurate and decided to retire it, primarily for fear of breaking the extractor.
Make sure the sheet metal magazine conversion insert is in place if you are looking at one to buy. It's easily over looked as missing and often is.
It's a single shot rifle w/o it, and a poor one at that with the weak extractor as explained above.
It's merely sandwiched in betw the action and the magazine box when the rifle is assembled. It rattles around a bit but is secure in that way, it won't fall free from the rifle in normal use.
It's a hard item to find generally. The last one I had I sold 5 yrs ago and it went for $70 then.
The last M95M I had looked nothing like the OP! Mine was like a lot of them, saw some really hard use. But it worked OK, I shot it w/ some unkn milsurp ammo at the time. I think the short M95 in 8x56 kicked more, but neither were what I'd call a pleasure to plink with for an afternoon.
All long gone but they were fun at the time.
It's a single shot rifle w/o it, and a poor one at that with the weak extractor as explained above.
It's merely sandwiched in betw the action and the magazine box when the rifle is assembled. It rattles around a bit but is secure in that way, it won't fall free from the rifle in normal use.
It's a hard item to find generally. The last one I had I sold 5 yrs ago and it went for $70 then.
The last M95M I had looked nothing like the OP! Mine was like a lot of them, saw some really hard use. But it worked OK, I shot it w/ some unkn milsurp ammo at the time. I think the short M95 in 8x56 kicked more, but neither were what I'd call a pleasure to plink with for an afternoon.
All long gone but they were fun at the time.
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