M95/30 (?) steyr

[jugulater]

oh boy, im in for it now, ive fallen off the wagon again and bought another old military gun. this time around its a Steyr Straight pull rifle that i think may be of the M95/30 Stutzen variety, shes not the best looking specimen, the blue has worn to a grey and the stock isnt the best, but the barrel is spotless on the inside and unlike most the trigger pull is crisp, although it has about a mile worth of slack.

she only has side swivels and only has one visible acceptance mark that dates to 1917. also it has the tall non-banded front sight. what exactly do i have here? a carbine converted to a Stutzen? or just a weird m95/30?

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[jugulater]

i took it out to test it out with some Bulgarian surplus ammo. i had some very good results i was easily able to kill some 2L jugs at 100 yards. The bulgarian surplus burned really clean and wasn't dirty at all, the recoil was a bit wild though.

my picture came out sideways, oh well.

[jugulater]

It appears these little things aren't very popular, No wonder it sat on the rack at the pawnshop for so long.

[Scharfschuetze]

I can't help you with the ID of your carbine, but I enjoy shooting the rifle version of the Model 95. In fact my Grandfather used one in the Great War before he was wounded by a Russian machine gun, so there's some family history there.

I've only used jacketed bullets in mine, but sooner or later I'll size down some .338 boolits to roughly .331" for it's bore.

Be sure to load with the Manlicher 5 shot clip that these firearms were designed to use. Single loading and trying to force the extractor over the case's rim will often break the extractor and it's now a hard to replace part.


mile worth of slack

That's probably the initial stage of the double stage trigger. Most military rifles of this time frame used it for the safety of good sear engagement, yet with a relatively light let off on the second stage. The first stage takes up a few pounds of pressure, thus reducing the second stage sear engagement and pull weight. US martial rifles used the system from the 1892 Krag through the M14 rifle. Once you're used to it, it is a very good system.

Photo one is a cut-a-way of the 1895 in the Austrian Army Mueum in Viena. The second is my 1895 and the third is a photo I took in the Rainer Regiment's Museum in Salzburg, Austria.

Rainer Regiment:

http://www.rainer-regimentsmuseum-salzburg.at/eng/geschichte/regiment.htm

Austrian Army Museum:

http://www.hgm.at/

[jugulater]

i got one Nazi marked clip with the gun, and im aware of the extractor issues these are prone to.

my barrel slugged out to about .334 and im planning on running cast through it, i went ahead and ordered the noe version of the Oldfeller boolit, a set of lee dies, and a .329 push through sizer that ill open up to .336.

My family line also originates from an area that was once part of Austria-Hungary as well, but I haven't been able to find out if i had any ancestors in WW1 yet. A M95 long rifle is on my want list, hopefully one as good looking as yours.

its fun to imagine some of the places an old military rifle could have been.

[JeffinNZ]

I bought 5 en bloc clips at a gun show a few years back just in case one day I found a nice rifle.

[Scharfschuetze]

Jeff,

That's what I call a PLAN!

[JeffinNZ]

Jeff,

That's what I call a PLAN!

Well, just like my Carcano, you can't shoot it without the clips and sure as hens lay eggs, if I hadn't bought them I would have found a rifle and then no clips would be available.

[DanM]

I never shoot my M95 without using the clips. I even powder coated some of my clips in bright orange so I could find them easier in the woods. We have all heard the obligatory warning not to single load, and I don't, but has anyone ever witnessed a broken M95 extractor? The Steyr M95 actions seem robust, and the extractor is heavier than many. I believe these actions are as strong as any of that period. Obviously it is better to err on the side of caution, and always use the clips, but has anyone ever really seen one of these extractors break?

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Probably not many, but if it happens, you can bet your life that it will happen when the supply of extractors has dried up. I have a milling machine, and I would get it done, but it looks a pestilentially difficult part to make. Lest anybody think this is the situation right now, though, both extractors and clips are available from http://www.gunpartscorp.com/Manufacturers/Steyr-33512/M-95StraightPull-42197.htm , cunningly classified under Steyr.

I like this action very much. It is strong and reliable, and people have made fame and fortune decades later with commercial straight-pull actions that I consider no better. The short movement of the bolt head, actuated by a long movement of the body, gives pretty good primary extraction. The only real snag in operation is that it can't be cycled in silence. There is a reason, though, why you can't use an adjusting screw or permanent modification to take up that initial pull of the trigger. It isn't very different from the modern Armalite action, in which gas ducted through a tube imparts a rearward movement to the bolt body exactly as your fingers do in the M95. If Mannlicher had lived longer, we might have seen something.

He did make an early bid to design a semiautomatic action of manageable size (which everybody knew would be the thing of the future) by a surprisingly slight alteration of the angle of the locking-lugs, and placing a closed rear end behind the bolt. Unlike the Armalite, pressure on the bolt face forces it to rotate. The military normally only use one load, but I think variation would have produced either unreliability or disaster, and the case was ejected with dangerous velocity.

Ifa primer punctures in the manual M95 or M95/30, gas could leak into the interior of the bolt, with somepossibility of forcing it to open prematurely. To provide a supplementary lockat the moment of firing, the first pull of the double-pull military triggercauses it to rise into the notch between two projections on the bolt. If youinstall an adjusting screw to keep that first pull permanently pulled, as canbe done with so many other military rifles, you must grind away those boltprojections, which is emphatically not recommended.

[jugulater]

Got my NOE version of the Oldfeller boolit today. usual NOE quality. it drops the boolits just shy of .339 which is just fine because i have a ~.335 groove diameter. my reloading dies and push through sizer are due to arrive in a few days but I couldn't wait and decided to see if my gun would chamber a round with a .339 boolit.

and it seems this gun has the classic 8x56r chamber dimensions as it chambered perfectly on a cartridge loaded with the as cast boolit.

i added a picture showing my cast load compared to a Bulgarian surplus round (it came out sideways again)

[Scharfschuetze]

both extractors and clips are available from

Probably shouldn't have mentioned it! Extractors are listed as "Sold Out."

[jugulater]

i better buy a bunch of clips before they are all gone too!

[Point-Man]

It appears these little things aren't very popular, No wonder it sat on the rack at the pawnshop for so long.

I think one reason they aren`t to popular is because the ammo can`t be bought at your local gun shop. New ammo cost over a dollar a peace. Also the little rifle kicks like a mule. Not what most AR shooters are used to. I have found the best place to get clips is to buy surplus ammo with clips. Last gun show I attended a guy was selling 8x56r box of 10 for 10 $ with clips.

[jugulater]

Im lucky because i have a gunshop thats within a 25 minute drive of me that specializes in all types of military guns. they stock Bulgarian surplus 8x56r for $14 per 20, not bad, but not as good as buying 7.62x54r.

i wont be buying anymore surplus though. im going out monday to burn up the rest of the Bulgarian stuff i got and to test out some cast boolit loads.

i pulled apart 20 of the Surplus rounds and loaded the primed cases with my own cast boolt loads, hopefully i can achieve some good accuracy out of the little carbine.

ultimately i would like to use it as a my deer rifle next season, possibly get one of those scope mounts that attaches to the old sight base ( the proper term escapes me ). most of my deer hunting is done on my uncles property in West Virginia, lots of walking up steep hills so I figured the little M95 would be perfect, but im gonna need minute of milkjug accuracy at 250 yards if i plan on actually killing anything.

[muskeg13]

You can shoot the M95 single shot without the clip and not risk damage to the extractor, but it's slow going. You just need to carefully work the cartridge rim under the extractor with the bolt pushed forward a bit. Push the bolt forward about 3/8 inch, so that when looking down you see the bolt face and extractor exposed forward of the rear of the receiver. Insert the cartridge rim into the groove formed between the bolt face and the extractor claw. Then, snap the cartridge fully in place with your thumb. Once the cartridge is held in place against the bolt face by the extractor, slowly feed the bolt forward until the nose of the cartridge enters the rear of the chamber, then you can push the bolt fully into place like normal. It may help to use a finger to hold the cartridge in place and in straight alignment with the bore as you ease the bolt forward. You're replicating the same actions of the bolt picking up a cartridge and feeding the rim under the extractor, except that you're introducing the cartridge from above instead of from below the bolt as it would be if the cartridge is fed from the clip.

Do not, under any circumstance, insert the cartridge into the chamber first and then attempt to force the bolt into battery. This is how to break the extractor because you're trying to force the extractor completely over the rim, and when the bolt is nearly locked in place, there is no way for the extractor to flex and ride over the rim.

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I single load rounds when sighting in or testing new loads from the bench and don't want to insert a full clip.

[Scharfschuetze]

Good photos Muskeg.

Nice Lyman SME sight on your rifle. I'll bet that helps get your zero sorted out.

[Larry Gibson]

And....those beautiful brass surplus cases are easily converted to SR Boxer primers.

Larry Gibson

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[jugulater]

larry i read your write up on converting Berdan primers to boxer just yesterday and i plan on converting all of my brass using your method.

im not sure how long these cases will last, i had one split along the body last time i was out shooting. i guess just running cast shouldn't cause any issues.

[muskeg13]

The Lyman SME sight works great. Good sight picture and fast to get on target. It works fine with the original front sight. My brass cases shown are Prvi Partizan from Graf & Sons: http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/category/categoryId/793? Wooah! They are $20 more expensive than a year or so ago, now $76/100, but at least it's very good brass.

[jugulater]

i was really interested in the rail system that mounts right on the original sight base. I really dont want to modify my gun.

i have a bunch of military brass i can convert and even more 7.62x54r boxer brass that i could use.

if i got another already sporterized gun i would definitely mount a lyman sight on it.