Anyone have M95 Mannlichers to show off?

[Claven2]

I was not into straight pulls when these were common 8 to 10 years ago. I should have bought one or two back then.

I used to have a non-refurb carbine a long time ago in original 8x50r, but it’s really challenging to reload 8x50R such that it shoots to spec. You basically need a .323 round nose FMJ bullet with an open base. Back then I was fire forming ingman 54R brass and loading bullets pulled from old 8x57J ammo, which were round nose fmj open based bullets of about the right weight.

I only had a handful of those bullets from a gunshow find so that didn’t last long and I kinda lost interest at the time. With all the new US RTI guns coming in that are 8x50R maybe someone will produce that ammo again like ppu or fiocchi- who knows.

Wish I still had that carbine now

 

[bjmurata]

Lol, if wishes were fishes. Boy have I been down that road. I sold off many very very nice milsurps that I will never be able to replace. Not doing that again with my goodies I have now, my family can handle that once I'm ten toes up.

 

[The.22guy]

I was not into straight pulls when these were common 8 to 10 years ago. I should have bought one or two back then.

I used to have a non-refurb carbine a long time ago in original 8x50r, but it’s really challenging to reload 8x50R such that it shoots to spec. You basically need a .323 round nose FMJ bullet with an open base. Back then I was fire forming ingman 54R brass and loading bullets pulled from old 8x57J ammo, which were round nose fmj open based bullets of about the right weight.

I only had a handful of those bullets from a gunshow find so that didn’t last long and I kinda lost interest at the time. With all the new US RTI guns coming in that are 8x50R maybe someone will produce that ammo again like ppu or fiocchi- who knows.

Wish I still had that carbine now

Do you recall the powder and the grains for you load by chance ?.
I have a carbine in 8x50r that I wouldn't mine loading up some rounds for.

 

[Snider shooter]

Do you recall the powder and the grains for you load by chance ?.
I have a carbine in 8x50r that I wouldn't mine loading up some rounds for.

I am using 165 gr Lee cast with 20 grs of Alliant 2400.

 

[Claven2]

Do you recall the powder and the grains for you load by chance ?.
I have a carbine in 8x50r that I wouldn't mine loading up some rounds for.

I’d have to go digging but pretty sure it would have been a 3031 load.

 

[Eaglelord17]

Here is some photos of a few of my M1903's (Bulgarian M95's) in the original 8x50r. All would have been captured by some other nation in the region to stay in the original caliber, the 1909 Budapest Contract specifically was captured by the Greeks due to the 'EA' stock repair.

 

[dariush49]

I had one of those years ago that looked great but was totally mismatched numbers and another CGN member on here that I know bought a couple functioning spotters as spares for his example.

The modified m95m extractors aren’t that weak, but they do not ride over a rim. You have to feed from the mag or the extractor breaks. Many people ruined those rifles learning that lesson.

Got pics of yours?

I actually found instructions online and made one. It worked pretty well

 

[bjmurata]

Some really nice rigs showing up here in this thread. Great to see the different variety of them in the pics along with the background information.

 

[Eaglelord17]

Now the question is do we want to limit it to M95s or do we want to include other variants based off the M90 action (which the M95 is ultimately is). Things such as the K1893?

 

[Claven2]

Now the question is do we want to limit it to M95s or do we want to include other variants based off the M90 action (which the M95 is ultimately is). Things such as the K1893?

I think we can be pretty liberal on the interpretation. Whatcha got?

 

[Claven2]

Here is some photos of a few of my M1903's (Bulgarian M95's) in the original 8x50r. All would have been captured by some other nation in the region to stay in the original caliber, the 1909 Budapest Contract specifically was captured by the Greeks due to the 'EA' stock repair.

Great looking pair of Bulgarian contract 95's. Do you shoot them?

 

[Eaglelord17]

Great looking pair of Bulgarian contract 95's. Do you shoot them?

Theres actually 3 in the photos, the one at the top is a 1909 Budapest contract. The photo of the two is a pair of 1903 Steyr contracts.

I have shot a couple of them. They aren’t particularly accurate rifles with the ammo I have made. 8x50r is a difficult round to reload due to the lack of proper sized bullets (244grn .323 bullets aren’t exactly commonly available never found a source personally).

The 8x56r rifles are generally better for shooting purposes.

 

[Dosing]

If reloading for higher pressures I would just caution that the M95 has awful gas handling for blown primers. The gas and particles tend to travel straight back, and come out around the cocking piece. Be absolutely sure to wear glasses. I was never so thankful for prescription glasses as when shooting M95s.

 

[Claven2]

Theres actually 3 in the photos, the one at the top is a 1909 Budapest contract. The photo of the two is a pair of 1903 Steyr contracts.

I have shot a couple of them. They aren’t particularly accurate rifles with the ammo I have made. 8x50r is a difficult round to reload due to the lack of proper sized bullets (244grn .323 bullets aren’t exactly commonly available never found a source personally).

The 8x56r rifles are generally better for shooting purposes.

Ppu now sells 208gn .330 fmj projectiles, people are having luck getting a .329 expander for their 8x50 dies and loading the ppu spritzers in 8x50r cases.

If you haven’t tried it, worth an attempt I think.

 

[Eaglelord17]

Ppu now sells 208gn .330 fmj projectiles, people are having luck getting a .329 expander for their 8x50 dies and loading the ppu spritzers in 8x50r cases.

If you haven’t tried it, worth an attempt I think.

Might be worth trying. From what I recall the accuracy I got was relatively low in comparison to the effort put into getting it shooting. I did have pretty good results with my M90 (the 1888 action) rifle though. It was also more fun to shoot as the action was smoother than the M95.

Some day I plan on converting the donor action I have into 7.62x54r, figure that could be a lot of fun.

 

[Eaglelord17]

So here are the M90 (M95) action rifles I have at the moment.

Top is a M95 drill rifle, second is a Bulgarian M95 1903 Steyr contract still in the original 8x50r, third is a Bulgarian M95 1903 Steyr contract still in the original 8x50r, fourth is a Bulgarian M95 1909 Budapest contract still in the original 8x50r (greek captured), and last is a Swiss K1893 made by Sig in 1895 this particular example was privatized in 1922.

Side view of the three Bulgarian M95s. Bulgarian M95's are the easiest to accurately date manufacture as most M95's didn't have manufacture dates on the rifles instead having acceptance dates on the barrel chamber. The Bulgarians ordered 9 different contracts, two from Budapest and seven from Steyr.

View of the top of one of the Bulgarian M95 receivers showing the rampant lion crest as well as the main practical difference between a Bulgarian contract and a standard Austro-Hungarian production the gas vent hole in the top of the bolt. Bulgarian bolts were also serialized to the rifles on either the bolt handle or the bolt knob (hard to see but the numbers are on the handle on this one).

The Austro-Hungarians didn't serialize the bolts to any particular rifle for their M95 production, and serial numbers on the bolts of a standard M95 were added post manufacture generally in refurbishment by any number of countries that used them later on. The other main difference being the Bulgarian rear sights had numbering on both sides of the sight, I forgot to take a photo of it well I had it all set up.

Here is a photo of the top of the M95 drill rifle, they 'demilitarized' it by milling into the chamber and cutting the firing pin plus welding the firing pin hole solid. I can't verify roughly when this rifle was made as the milling process destroyed the chamber acceptance dates. In the future I intend to rebarrel this particular rifle to 7.62x54r as the cartridge is basically the same size as 8x50r (you can actually fire it through a 8x50r rifle though it isn't recommended) and get it shooting again.

This is the top of the K1893. It has the Sig markings as well as a privatization date on it. The K1893 is a handy little carbine, very smooth and my favourite of the 1890 action rifles I have handled.

Also a little trick for anyone struggling to keep the bolt head extended for inserting it in their rifle, if you put a dime in between the bolt head and the bolt body it can hold it forward so you can insert it.

Oddly enough the only two rifles I ever regret selling was a 8x50r M95 carbine which had been captured and re-issued by Italy and a 8x56r M95 police carbine with the taller front sight. The 8x56r carbine was dead on at 100m and shot really well, very smooth.

 

[bjmurata]

What a fabulous line up you have there. Very nice indeed.

 

[Claven2]

So here are the M90 (M95) action rifles I have at the moment.

Top is a M95 drill rifle, second is a Bulgarian M95 1903 Steyr contract still in the original 8x50r, third is a Bulgarian M95 1903 Steyr contract still in the original 8x50r, fourth is a Bulgarian M95 1909 Budapest contract still in the original 8x50r (greek captured), and last is a Swiss K1893 made by Sig in 1895 this particular example was privatized in 1922.

Side view of the three Bulgarian M95s. Bulgarian M95's are the easiest to accurately date manufacture as most M95's didn't have manufacture dates on the rifles instead having acceptance dates on the barrel chamber. The Bulgarians ordered 9 different contracts, two from Budapest and seven from Steyr.

View of the top of one of the Bulgarian M95 receivers showing the rampant lion crest as well as the main practical difference between a Bulgarian contract and a standard Austro-Hungarian production the gas vent hole in the top of the bolt. Bulgarian bolts were also serialized to the rifles on either the bolt handle or the bolt knob (hard to see but the numbers are on the handle on this one).

The Austro-Hungarians didn't serialize the bolts to any particular rifle for their M95 production, and serial numbers on the bolts of a standard M95 were added post manufacture generally in refurbishment by any number of countries that used them later on. The other main difference being the Bulgarian rear sights had numbering on both sides of the sight, I forgot to take a photo of it well I had it all set up.

Here is a photo of the top of the M95 drill rifle, they 'demilitarized' it by milling into the chamber and cutting the firing pin plus welding the firing pin hole solid. I can't verify roughly when this rifle was made as the milling process destroyed the chamber acceptance dates. In the future I intend to rebarrel this particular rifle to 7.62x54r as the cartridge is basically the same size as 8x50r (you can actually fire it through a 8x50r rifle though it isn't recommended) and get it shooting again.

This is the top of the K1893. It has the Sig markings as well as a privatization date on it. The K1893 is a handy little carbine, very smooth and my favourite of the 1890 action rifles I have handled.

Also a little trick for anyone struggling to keep the bolt head extended for inserting it in their rifle, if you put a dime in between the bolt head and the bolt body it can hold it forward so you can insert it.

Oddly enough the only two rifles I ever regret selling was a 8x50r M95 carbine which had been captured and re-issued by Italy and a 8x56r M95 police carbine with the taller front sight. The 8x56r carbine was dead on at 100m and shot really well, very smooth.

Really great lineup of rifles there!

 

[everydayshooter]

I had one of those years ago that looked great but was totally mismatched numbers and another CGN member on here that I know bought a couple functioning spotters as spares for his example.

The modified m95m extractors aren’t that weak, but they do not ride over a rim. You have to feed from the mag or the extractor breaks. Many people ruined those rifles learning that lesson.

Got pics of yours?

Ya mine is also mismatched but I still like it. It’s also sporterized but it’s still neat to have a chunk of history.

 

[Claven2]

Anyone know of a place I can find a complete Mannlicher 1888 or 1888/90 bolt in Canada?