Steyr M95

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Ironhand54

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A friend just gifted me one of these from his late brother's estate. I know nothing about them except what I can find online.

My biggest question is what caliber is it? The references say that it was made in both 8mm styer rimmed and 8mm Mauser. How do I tell the difference? A little history would be helpful too.

Thanks
IronHand
 
Pictures are very helpful. There are many variations. Most were chambered in 8x50R originally, then converted to 8x56R which was more energetic and used a spitzer bullet. The carbine or cut down rifle that I had bore a large S on the barrel ahead of the action. Mine was purchased for a wall hanger along with some ammunition in clips that wore nazi symbols. I never fired it, but was disappointed at the crudeness of the action compared to the K-31. I am told the recoil of the latter round in the lighter models was memorable. These were used by home guard and security troops.

Much more information available from sources such as this: https://www.breachbangclear.com/steyr-m95/
 
A friend just gifted me one of these from his late brother's estate. I know nothing about them except what I can find online.

My biggest question is what caliber is it? The references say that it was made in both 8mm styer rimmed and 8mm Mauser. How do I tell the difference? A little history would be helpful too.

Thanks
IronHand

Most M95s were converted to 8x56R after WWI, but there are still a few 8x50R examples that survived the arsenal rework. Look for an 'S' stamped on the barrel just forward of the receiver ring; that's a sign that it has been converted to 8x56R. The longer cartridge won't fully chamber in an unaltered 8x50 rifle, but the reverse may not be true. A full length infantry rifle is more likely to still be in 8x50, since most rifles were shortened at the time of conversion. 8x56R is available new from Privi Partizan, but 8x50 is largely a handloading proposition.

There are some pretty good videos available on the history of the M95:



https://www.full30.com/watch/MDE0OTI4/m95-mannlicher-making-8x50r-from-762x54r-russian

My own M95 is a stutzer in 8x50mm and I enjoy shooting it quite a bit with homebrewed ammo downloaded to roughly 30-30-level ballistics. The M95 is pretty hard on the shoulder with military ammo. With handloads, cartridge OAL is very important to ensure proper feeding from the en bloc clip -- short cartridges nose-dive and jam, so fairly long bullets are necessary.

Steyr2.jpg
 
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There was a gun shop around here that had an 8x50R M95 in the used racks for dirt cheap, something like $100. I thought the straight-pull bolt was cool, the light weight for a gun of that era was cool, and the price was really cool, but I passed on it when I found that there was zero 8x50R ammo in stock even online. When even Lucky Gunner and SGAmmo can't feed your rifle, you're going to have a problem.

A year or so later, I walked by a couple stripper clips of 8x50R ammo at a gun show, marked $15 for five rounds each. Whatever regrets I still had for passing on the Steyr were gone immediately.

Moral of the story: I hope your new rifle is in 8x56R.
 
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The Steyr m95 is designed for a rimmed cartridge and both the old 8x50r Austrian and the 8x56r are rimmed. The Austrians went to a more heavily loaded cartridge as mentioned above in the 1930's which is when they converted most of the long rifles they had into carbines. They use an odd .329 bullet rather than the .323 that the Germans used in their 8x57 Mausers. Prvi Partisan makes ammo for the 8x56r but not the older round. A few have been converted to non-issue rounds including a .303 British so have the chamber checked as these were $99 rifles a few years ago but now worth $350-400 in good condition so a conversion no longer makes sense for these.

You will need to acquire clips for the rifle and these clips are around. When empty, they eject through the bottom and new clips go into the clip feed at the top. (These are true clips rather than magazines).

The major issue with action roughness is because you need to do a detailed disassembly including the bolt which is a pain to disassemble. The bolt is a straight pull which means that it does not have fixed lugs like the Mauser bolts but the bolt head with the locking lugs rotates within the bolt body. Any dirt, crud, dried oil, etc. will tend to make the action sluggish and the only way (aside from possible using a ultrasonic cleaner which might also have some undesirable effects) is to disassemble and thorough clean up the bolt. While you are at it, I would also thoroughly clean the insides of the clip feeding magazine. I find that Slip 2000 does a spectacular job of lubrication that smoothes this action out as well as working for other straight pulls like the the Swiss K series rifle bolts and Ross rifle bolts.

There used to be step by step pictorials for the m95 in doing that but they have seemed to vanish as did the TN Gun Parts that used to be associated with the pages. Scarlatta and Mowbray's book on military rifles and their disassembly has a detailed description of what to do with color pictures. Worth the money especially if you get more milsurps.
 
Just remember to keep a penny handy when you pull the bolt.
It tends to snap shut when it is pulled out of the gun, making it very hard to insert into the gun.
When you open the bolt, place the penny flat in the space between the bolt body and the bolt head, where spring tension will hold it in place.
Then you can push the trigger forward and pull the bolt out the rest of the way.
After you complete your maintenance, pull the bolt head forward, twist it 90 degrees, and place the penny back in place until the bolt is re-inserted in the gun, then pluck out the penny and push the bolt home.
 
As others have said, 8x50r, 8x56r, and the Yugoslavian in 8mm Mauser, but it doesn’t take the enbloc clips. Look out for the s ‘spitzer’ Barrel marking. An 8x50r full length service rifle is pretty collectible as most were cut down in the 1930s and rechambered to 8x56r. Long rifles in 8x56r still have collectibility.

Fun fact, the 8x56r was the most powerful standard service round of WWII
0903E4D2-B12A-4DDC-864D-5F47640AAC71.jpeg
Austria even experimented tapping off gas to the straight pull for a prototype semi auto
 
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Fun fact, the 8x56r was the most powerful standard service round of WWII
Errrrr.... not really. According to Cartridges of the world, it fired a 206 grain bullet @ 2034 FPS for 2233 Ft Lbs of muzzle energy. Wiki has the same bullet @2300 FPS for 2420 Ft Lbs .That latter load would equal the M-2 ball round with its 150 GR bullet @ 2700 and 2423 Ft Lbs of energy.

The 8mm Danish Krag is listed in COTW as firing a 198 Gr bullet at an astonishing 2740 FPS for 3310 Ft Lbs. This,however, is listed as a "factory load" The military load is listed as having only 2100 fps with a 237 Gr round nose bullet.

Wiki Tells a different story They list the 237 Gr bullet @ 2460 FPS as the military load. And the 196 GR military load @ 2530. They also list the pressures at 44,000 PSI. I can believe the pressure figure, but I'm a little skeptical of some of those velocities.
 
The Steyr m95 is designed for a rimmed cartridge and both the old 8x50r Austrian and the 8x56r are rimmed. The Austrians went to a more heavily loaded cartridge as mentioned above in the 1930's which is when they converted most of the long rifles they had into carbines. They use an odd .329 bullet rather than the .323 that the Germans used in their 8x57 Mausers. Prvi Partisan makes ammo for the 8x56r but not the older round. A few have been converted to non-issue rounds including a .303 British so have the chamber checked as these were $99 rifles a few years ago but now worth $350-400 in good condition so a conversion no longer makes sense for these.

You will need to acquire clips for the rifle and these clips are around. When empty, they eject through the bottom and new clips go into the clip feed at the top. (These are true clips rather than magazines).

The major issue with action roughness is because you need to do a detailed disassembly including the bolt which is a pain to disassemble. The bolt is a straight pull which means that it does not have fixed lugs like the Mauser bolts but the bolt head with the locking lugs rotates within the bolt body. Any dirt, crud, dried oil, etc. will tend to make the action sluggish and the only way (aside from possible using a ultrasonic cleaner which might also have some undesirable effects) is to disassemble and thorough clean up the bolt. While you are at it, I would also thoroughly clean the insides of the clip feeding magazine. I find that Slip 2000 does a spectacular job of lubrication that smoothes this action out as well as working for other straight pulls like the the Swiss K series rifle bolts and Ross rifle bolts.

There used to be step by step pictorials for the m95 in doing that but they have seemed to vanish as did the TN Gun Parts that used to be associated with the pages. Scarlatta and Mowbray's book on military rifles and their disassembly has a detailed description of what to do with color pictures. Worth the money especially if you get more milsurps.
The cleaning requirement is a bit over blown here. Yes, after you get one straight from storage you have to clean it thoroughly. But, after that the bolt stays fairly clean.

I bought mine way back when they first came in the country and was sold for about $150, and that included 1000 rounds of 8 X 56R in clips. I went through that 1000 rounds without ever disassembling the bolt and not seeing any performance degradation.

Yeah, it a trench, it might have been a bear to keep operational, but as a range or even a hunter, they are pretty slick and easy to keep going.

And, though its been awhile since I had mine apart, I don't recall the bolt being all that difficult to disassemble/assemble. Certainly no worse than a Mauser.

 
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A
Austria even experimented tapping off gas to the straight pull for a prototype semi auto

You know I think everyone tried to turn their stockpiles of Bolt actions into an Automatic Rifle

Turner Semi Auto Enfield
upload_2019-11-17_13-34-7.png
Semi Auto 1903



Howe Automatic Rifle



Charlton automatic Rifle



Howard Francis Self loading Carbine

upload_2019-11-17_13-47-47.jpeg

Makes you think it would be a fun conversion..
 
Semiautomatic would be a neat experiment but I have been wondering about rebarreling to a more common round. Looking at a large pistol round like 44mag,454casul, 500 S&W or something in the 30-30 class. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Ironhand
 
"The Lee Enfield Story" by Ian Skennerton has a good run down of the trials that lead to the Lee-Metford.

Some of the magazine Martinis can be seen here.

Others:

View attachment 872100

As to the Madsen, it is basically is a semi-auto Martini action.


Many thanks sir, you know when it comes to firearms you can not even make some crazy ass comment about what if, without finding out it is true..

Many thanks, I will need to dig into those...
 
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Errrrr.... not really. According to Cartridges of the world, it fired a 206 grain bullet @ 2034 FPS for 2233 Ft Lbs of muzzle energy. Wiki has the same bullet @2300 FPS for 2420 Ft Lbs .That latter load would equal the M-2 ball round with its 150 GR bullet @ 2700 and 2423 Ft Lbs of energy.

The WW2 load for the 8x56R has 2420 (low end) to 2560 ft lbs (which would make it a strong contender for most powerful of WW2) from a ~19" barrel. Other listings show 2630 ft lbs from a 23-1/2" barrel. The 8x57 SS is at 2730 ft lbs from a ~23-1/2" barrel. The mid-war .30-06 M1 ball was 2700 ft lbs from a 24" barrel but by WW2 M2 ball dropped it down to 2630, M2 AP however is back up to 2770. Most powerful for the 8x58R Danish Krag is 2630 ft lbs but that's likely from the 32-inch barrel.
 
My full-length M95 is in 8x56R, and a joy to shoot. You know you're shooting something, but it's not brutal like the carbines tend to be.
 
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