Mannlicher M1895

Repeating Rifle Model 1895
Mannlicher M1895 Rifle. From the collections of the Swedish Army Museum.
Type	Bolt-action rifle
Place of origin	Austria-Hungary
Service history
In service	1895–1945 1895–1918 Austria-Hungary
Used by	See Users
Wars	Boxer Rebellion First Balkan War Second Balkan War World War I Revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918–20) Second Italo-Ethiopian War Spanish Civil War World War II
Production history
Designer	Ferdinand Mannlicher
Designed	1895
Manufacturer	Œ.W.G. in Steyr F.G.GY. in Budapest
Produced	1896–1919
No. built	approx. 3,500,000
Variants	See Variants
Specifications (M95 Rifle)
Mass	3.78 kilograms (8.3 lb)
Length	127.2 centimetres (50.1 in)
Barrel length	76.5 centimetres (30.1 in)
Cartridge	M95: 8×50mmR M95/30 & M95/31: 8×56mmR M95M & M95/24: 8×57mm IS
Action	Straight-pull bolt action
Rate of fire	approx. 30-35 rounds/min
Feed system	5-round en bloc clip (stripper clip in M95/24 and M95M), internal box magazine
Sights	Rear V-notch flip-up sight graduated to 2600 paces (1950 meters) and front post (telescopic sight on scoped variant)

The Repeating Rifle Model M1895, better known as the Mannlicher M1895 rifle is a bolt-action rifle, designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher that used a refined version of his revolutionary straight-pull action bolt, much like the Mannlicher M1890 carbine. It was nicknamed the Ruck-Zu(rü)ck (German slang for "back and forth") by Landser (a German term for "troops").

The M1895 is unusual in employing a straight-pull bolt action, as opposed to the more common rotating bolt-handle of other rifles. It consequently renowned for combining a high rate of fire (around 30–35 rounds per minute) with reliability and sturdiness, although this requires decent care and maintenance with an extractor that is vulnerable to breakage due to a lack of primary extraction.

History

Austro-Hungarian soldiers armed with Mannlicher M1895 carbines at the Isonzo front.

It was initially adopted and employed by the Austro-Hungarian Army throughout World War I, and retained post-war by both the Austrian and Hungarian armies. The main foreign user was Bulgaria, which, starting in 1903, acquired large numbers and continued using them throughout both Balkan and world wars. After Austria-Hungary's defeat in World War I, many were given to other Balkan states as war reparations. A number of these rifles also saw use in World War II, particularly by second line, reservist, and partisan units in Romania, Yugoslavia, Italy, and to lesser degree, Germany. Post war many were sold as cheap surplus, with some finding their way to the hands of African guerrillas in the 1970s and many more being exported to the United States as sporting and collectible firearms. The M1895 bolt also served as an almost exact template for the ill-fated Canadian M1905 Ross rifle, though the later M1910 used a complicated interrupted-thread instead of two solid lugs.

Ammunition

Round nosed 8x50R cartridge.

The M1895 was originally chambered in the 8mm M.1893 scharfe Patrone (8×50mmR Mannlicher) cartridge. Between the world wars, both Austria and Hungary converted the majority of their rifles to fire the more powerful 8×56mmR round. Yugoslavia converted at least some of their captured M1895s to 7.92×57mm Mauser, fed by stripper clips instead of the original model's en bloc clip system. This conversion was designated M95/24 and M95M. The M95/24 is often mistakenly attributed to Bulgaria, but 8×57mm IS 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.

Variants

M95 Rifle

This was the basic variant. It was chambered 8x50mmR Mannlicher. The iron sights were graduated from 300-2600 paces (225-1950m). It was used during World War I by majority of the Austro-Hungarian Army troops.

M95 Short Rifle

This short rifle (aka. Stuzten) was mainly used by special troops (i.e. Storm troops) during WWI and auxiliary soldiers in WWII. It chambered the 8x50mmR Mannlicher cartridge. Its sights were graduated from 500-2400 paces (375-1800m).

Weight: 3.09 kilograms (6.8 lb)
Length: 1,003 millimetres (39.5 in)
Barrel length: 500 millimetres (20 in)

M95 Carbine

It was chambered 8x50mmR Mannlicher and used by cavalry units of the Austro-Hungarian Army as a replacement to the Mannlicher M1890 carbine. The sights were graduated from 500-2400 paces (375-1800m). It didn't have bayonet lugs.

Sniper rifle

Sniper rifle variant.

The main difference from the standard rifle and short rifle was the telescopic sight mount. The scope was mounted slightly to the left so the rifle could be fed by en bloc clip. Approximately 6,000 long and short barreled sniper rifles were made in the years 1915-1918.

Conversions

The Mannlicher M95/30 conversion.

M95/30 was a conversion in the First Austrian Republic by Steyr-Mannlicher during 1930-1940. These rifles carry the letter S meaning Spitzer stamped on the barrel. Main modification was the rechambering to 8x56mmR cartridge. Other changes were the conversion of rear sights from the older pace unit to meters and addition of a brass front sight protector (in Bulgaria these were removed). Most of the long rifles were cut down to Stutzen length, these can be identified by a band mounted front sight.

31.M or M95/31 was a conversion done in the Kingdom of Hungary. Rifles were converted 1931-1935 by FÉG in Budapest and carry the letter H stamped on top of the chamber. The conversion included rebarreling to the new 8x56mmR pointed bullet cartridge, new metric back sight and addition front-sight protectors. Long rifles were cut down to carbine length and designated 31/a.M. They weren't used for much time and were withdrawn to storage when the new 35M rifle was introduced. Some were reissued during WW2. A small number were rebarreled but weren't cut down for the Hungarian Governmental Guards, these had special long bayonets.

M95M or M95/24 was a conversion to 7.92x57mm cartridge by the Kragujevac Arsenal in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. These rifles feature rear sights almost identical to those of the Yugoslavian M24 Mauser, are fed by 5-round stripper clips and are prone to extractor malfunction. Some of these rifles were found in the Kingdom of Greece by the German forces durng WWII and were mistakenly attributed Greek origin.

Table of features

Various Mannlicher rifles and carbines. The long rifle on far left is an 1888 model and the carbine in the middle is an 1890 model carbine. The rest are various 1895 models.

	Cartridge	Length	Weight	Sling Swivels	Bayonet Lug	Notes
Rifle Model 1895	8x50mmR	128.2 cm (50.5 in)	3.63 kg (8.0 lb)	Under	Yes
Carbine Model 1895	8x50mmR	100 cm (39 in)	2.95 kg (6.5 lb)	Side	No	7 inch gap between front and rear barrel bands
Short Rifle Model 1895	8x50mmR	100 cm (39 in)	3.13 kg (6.9 lb)	Under	Yes	5 inch gap between front and rear barrel bands
Carbine Model 1895 with Short Rifle lug	8x50mmR	100 cm (39 in)	3.18 kg (7.0 lb)	Side	Yes	7 inch gap between front and rear barrel bands
Carbine-Short Rifle Model 1895	8x50mmR	100 cm (39 in)	3.22 kg (7.1 lb)	Either	Yes	5 inch gap between front and rear barrel bands
Short Rifle-Carbine Model 1895	8x50mmR	100 cm (39 in)	3.27 kg (7.2 lb)	Both	Yes	7 inch gap between front and rear barrel bands
Rifle Model 1895/30	8x56mmR	128.2 cm (50.5 in)	3.63 kg (8.0 lb)	Under	Yes
Short Rifle Model 1895/30	8x56mmR	100 cm (39 in)	3.22 kg (7.1 lb)	Either	Yes
Short Rifle Model 1895/30 from Long Rifle	8x56mmR	100 cm (39 in)	3.22 kg (7.1 lb)	Either	Yes	Long rifle rear sight
Rifle M95M and M95/24	7.92x57mm	110 cm (43 in)	3.86 kg (8.5 lb)	Both	Yes

Accessories

Bayonet

The bayonet on the left is a standard service bayonet, the other two were used by NCOs.

The weapon was issued with a standard ten-inch blade knife bayonet that was unusual in that the edge faced upwards when mounted on the rifle. Majority of them were made by Œ.W.G. and F.G.GY., some marked 'BMF' by (Berndorfer Maschinenfabrik), some marked with two crossed hammers and two crossed swords by Ludwig Zeitler in Vienna and some marked Ernst Busch Solingen were made by a manufacturer in Germany. The overall length was 360mm and the blade was 248mm long.

Late in World War I resources were limited and they started manufacturing replacemet (German language: Ersatz) bayonets. These were fast to produce, cheap and made completely out of metal.

Night sights

A set of rear and front Luminous Sights M. 1916.

A number of Model 1916 night (Luminous) sights were issued during World War I. The rear night sight is a small brass plate that is placed underneath the rear sight leaf. The front sight clamps around the rifle's front sight base.

Users

• Albania: Approx. 4000 rifles were ordered by the Albanian Revolutionary Committee in 1911. Albania also received a number of rifles after First World War as war reparations.
• First Austrian Republic: In service from October 1918 to the Anschluss.
• Austria-Hungary: In service from 1895 to Dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918. They saw a lot of action during World War I as the primary weapon of the Austro-Hungarian Army.
• Kingdom of Bulgaria: Starting in 1898 Bulgaria began importing Model 1895 Mannlicher rifles, in the beginning exclusively from Steyr and later also from Budapest . Approx. 83,000 long rifles and 2,000 carbines were imported.
• Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovakia had about 300,000 Mannlichers of all models in their possession. The M95 was the most common.
• Finland: Finland obtained approximately 2300 rifles during the 1920's in the 8x50mmR Mannlicher caliber. They were marked SA and are very valuable among collectors.
• Nazi Germany: Used by German police during WW2.
• Kingdom of Greece: Greece had a number of M95/24 rifles chambered for the 8×57mm IS and after the Axis occupation of Greece in April 1941 arrived at the disposal of the Wehrmacht under the designation Gewehr 306(g).
• Kingdom of Hungary

Hungarian soldier with a Mannlicher 31.M in World War II.

• Kingdom of Italy: Captured on the Italian Front and received as war reparations.
• Ottoman Empire
• Second Polish Republic: Received by armed police in the 1920s.
• Portugal
• Francoist Spain: During the Spanish Civil War, the Soviet NKVD Agency supplied the Communist Republican Forces in Spain with 20,000 Mannlicher Wz.95 rifles and carbines purchased from the Polish Ministry of Defense. The rifle shipment did not reach the Reds, it was captured by Franco's Nationalists. Most Spanish Civil War weapons ended up on the U.S. surplus market during 1959–62. These guns may have additional Spanish Civil War markings and various graffity.
• Kingdom of Romania: Issued to second line troops.
• Russian Empire: During the First World War, captured rifles were widely used in the Russian army because of the lack of domestic rifles and cartridges for them. Russian captured rifles may carry a Cyrillic letter П (P). Russian efforts to convert their service rifle, the turning blot-action Mosin-Nagant to self-loading action were unsuccessful, that's why they decided to alter the straight-pull Mannlicher M1895 rifle, but arrived to the conclusion that development of automatic rifles requires a diffenrent approach by inventors.
• Kingdom of Serbia: Captured during the Balkan Wars from Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary during WWI, also received as war reparations in original caliber. Passed on to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
• Turkey
• Kingdom of Yugoslavia: Yugoslavia inherited a great amount of Mannlicher rifles from territories that were part of Austria-Hungary up to the the end of First World War and from Kindgom of Serbia. Rifles in original configuration were used by the Gendarmerie. Around 122,000 were converted to 7.92x57mm Mauser caliber as M95M and M95/24.

See also

• Mannlicher M1890 Carbine
• Mannlicher M1888
• Weapons of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
• M1895 Lee Navy — An American straight-pull rifle
• Ross rifle — A Canadian straight-pull rifle

External links

• M95, M90, and identifying marks
• Modern Firearms – M95/30 (M1895)
• Photogallery of carabine Mannlicher M.95