The Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 rifle is an early bolt-action rifle, designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It was employed by the Austro-Hungarian army throughout World War I, and post-war by both Austrian and Hungarian armies. During World War II Romania employed the Mannlicher rifle heavily. Numbers of these rifles also turned out in World War II, particularly in the hands of second line and reservist units. Many were found in the hands of African guerrillas in the 1970s.

The M1895 is unusual in employing a straight-pull bolt action, as opposed to the more common rotating bolt of other rifles. It is also renowned for a high degree of reliability and sturdiness, although this requires decent care and maintenance with an extractor that is notoriously prone to breakage.

Rate of fire is fairly high, for a manual action weapon, as there is no requirement to turn or twist the bolt when operating the weapon, but the bolt is very stiff and there is considerable recoil, especially on the Stutzen (carbine) versions.

The M1895 was originally chambered in the 8x50mmR cartridge. Between the World Wars, both Austria and Hungary converted the majority of their rifles to fire the more powerful 8x56mmR round. Greece and Yugoslavia converted at least some of their captured M1895s to 7.92x57mm Mauser, fed by stripper clips instead of the original model's en-bloc clip system. This conversion was designated M95/24 in Greece and M95M in Yugoslavia. The M95/24 is often mistakenly attributed to Bulgaria, but 7.92x57mm was never a standard caliber of the Bulgarian military. These conversions are prized by collectors for their relative scarcity and chambering in a commonly available round, but suffer from a fragile extractor and a lack of replacement parts.

See also

• 35M rifle
• M.95 rifle

Notes

External links

• M95, M90, and identifying marks
• Modern Firearms - M95/30 (M1895)