Who has one of these? it's a WW1 era 6.5mm, unique bolt action rifle

tiriaq said:
Yes. The condition of the one that I saw was not as nice as the OP's, but very respectable. It is my understanding that it came out of an Orange Lodge in Ulster.
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Mine was in rough shape, bore was washed out. But I baught as a curiosity and I knew Smellie didn't have one so I "accidentally" left it at his house!

They are very rare, according to history most of the 10,000 ordered were confiscated by the British coast guard. I've only found 4 others floating around on various forums. Including the one I had they were all under serial number 500 and 3 of them were only like 50 numbers apart.
 
Nobody willing to estimate a fair value yet so I can get ready to list it in the EE?

BTW, the die set I have is now special order only if you can even get a set and worth close to $200 shipped from the USA and the clips are worth about $20 each without even considering the formed brass, about a hundred or so!

And I promise not to do a Spanish FR8 pricing on it and double the highest estimate!:onCrack:f:P:
 
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mkrnel said:
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That's a good looking rifle, my unqualified guess would be $800.00, at least that's what I would pay for it in a heartbeat.
 
Considering how scarce ANY Dutch Mannlicher is, and the condition of this one, I would think it should ask considerably more than that.




As to Number 453 of the UVF contract, it is here and it ain't goin' NOWHERE!
Next time Tinman204 gets down this way, I have a spare fairly-decent Krop which has been trying to escape. I will point it toward his truck. He can take it home and feed it.
 
I'm guessing a fair few people are waiting to see what I am going to list it for!

Does $1475 shipped with all the extra goodies sound fair to most? I see similar condition but more common 7x57mm Brazilian M1908 and M1935 rifles go for $1500-$1600 regularly and while they are nice and reasonably scarce, when was the last time anybody saw one of these?

Also this rifle is very easy to feed once you have the clips and reloading dies ($185 USD) like mine does, you can easily form cases from regular .303 British brass and load to about the same level as a 6.5x55mm Swedish Mauser.


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Here are pictures from the Hembrug Arsenal on the Dutch War Museum website now only accessible via the Internet Wayback Machine -

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This is the example they show in the Dutch War Museum Collection, bolt does not even match -

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Dutch Marines -

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OP, I don't ever recall seeing a Dutch 1895 in such pristine condition. I have one that has been sporterized and a Jackenkroll scope mounted by cutting a huge dovetail in he top of the receiver. The scope bases are made for detachable rings. The rifle started life as a carbine and the job was done by an old friend by the name of Tiny Tim Ryan. Now long deceased. The bolt on mine has been altered to a butterknife profile. The rear sight has been removed and the front sight is a Williams after market. The top of the bolt has two holes d&t to accept a "peep" sight.

The cases are easily made from 303 Brit and a set of regular 6.5x53 rimless dies.

My rifle is very accurate with 140 grain and heavier bullets. I haven't tried lighter offerings. Nice handy rifles with very low recoil. IMHO, if that rifle were mine, I wouldn't shoot it. Just to nice to chance mucking it up with a mishap or ham fisted looky loo at the range.
 
Nice condition... very nice.
Does anybody know if Romanian Mannlichers had different features and markings? Never saw Romanian one, only Dutch.
 
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bearhunter said:
OP, I don't ever recall seeing a Dutch 1895 in such pristine condition. I have one that has been sporterized and a Jackenkroll scope mounted by cutting a huge dovetail in he top of the receiver. The scope bases are made for detachable rings. The rifle started life as a carbine and the job was done by an old friend by the name of Tiny Tim Ryan. Now long deceased. The bolt on mine has been altered to a butterknife profile. The rear sight has been removed and the front sight is a Williams after market. The top of the bolt has two holes d&t to accept a "peep" sight.

The cases are easily made from 303 Brit and a set of regular 6.5x53 rimless dies.

My rifle is very accurate with 140 grain and heavier bullets. I haven't tried lighter offerings. Nice handy rifles with very low recoil. IMHO, if that rifle were mine, I wouldn't shoot it. Just to nice to chance mucking it up with a mishap or ham fisted looky loo at the range.
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Yeah, I felt the same and never shot it because I thought it was too nice so it sat in the back of my safe queen safe. I have an urge to pick up some other toys in a different direction so I will be cleaning out some of my other never used collectables soon too.

BTW, Apparently the reason they shoot so well is their bore is on the tighter side of .263 where other 6.5mm rifles have bores around .264 and above so because of that they shoot nearly all 6.5mm (.264) bullets extremely well!

I doubt anyone will ever see another Dutch Mannlicher this nice again, I posted these pictures on a large American forum with a dedicated Mannlicher sub-section and none of the old hands there could ever remember seeing one so nice before either! It came out of a deceased estate with other high end collectable milsurp rifles!

Apparently the Germans took all of these rifles when they occupied the Netherlands during WW2 and reworked and used themselves, this one must have left europe before WW2. even the ones in the Dutch War museum are rough and mismatched examples.

I should have asked more for it as it sold as soon as it hit the EE! and I had multiple offers to buy, so it appears others recognized the value and uniqueness of it as well!
 
Rear sight on the Rumanian rifle was a more conventional type, not the ratchet-type elevator stops as on the Dutch.

Stocking also was very slightly different.

If you have the UVF type, you pretty much have the Rumanian except for calibre.

Text Book of Small Arms (1909) gives the Dutch as sighted from 200 to 2000 metres, Rumanian as sighted from 500 to 2000 metres. Dutch barrel was 31-1/8 inches to Rumanian 28.56 inches, Rumanian rifle was 3/4 of a pound lighter in weight. Rate of twist was the same, at 1 turn in 7.84 inches. In both cases, ammunition was the 6.5x53R with a 163-grain .2637" RNFB slug; Rumanians loaded 36 grains of powder to Dutch 36.26 grains.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks Smellie, it seems like visually Dutch and Romanian Mannlichers are different for sure. But what about marking? Any country specific stuff on Romanian?
 
Tinman204 said:
Like this?

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I recently ended up with this one.

It's a Steyr model of 1904, more commonly referred to as an "irish mannlicher", they were build from leftover Romanian 1893 actions. They were chambered in 8x57j (.318" bore) and sold to the Irish.

Very similar to the rifle in this post.
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I saw that one when it was on the EE. Does it actually have the Irish markings?
From what I've read, the model 1904 is rare because it was basically a commercial failure and Steyr only had 2 big buyers: the Irish, and a Chinese warlord. When WW1 started, the remaining unsold stock was issued to the Austro-Hungarian army.
 
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