Greek Mannlicher 1903/14 buy or not?

[DanM]

Well I snuck outta work and ran to look at this rifle. I was told it was a 6.5, probably a Jap. Well, it is actually a Greek Manlicher 1903/14. My friend who knows little, but likes old rifles told me it was in great shape, and unaltered. Well,
the condition is good. The bluing has turned mostly brown, and there is some light rust on the in the white bits. The stock is pretty smooth, and may have been sanded at some time. The main problem is that the forend is gone. The barrel is uncut, and the bore will likely be very good when cleaned up. I have done some preliminary research, and found that is a Styer and shoots the 6.5x54(53) round. The little country pawn shop was asking $125, and will take $100. It does have that cool rotary magazine, and seems light and well balanced. The bolt number does not match the receiver and barrel numbers, but the ones I have seen pictured on collector sites don't match either. It is a full length rifle, and not a carbine. So What do yall think? Does anyone here already have one and load for it? Seem like a cool little rifle....

[Ricochet]

Too bad about the forend. I'd probably give 'em $100 for it to play with, anyway.

[NuJudge]

They all have excess headspace, so DO NOT full length size. If you do you will get head separations on the second firing.

Most were cleaned improperly, damaging the rifling at the muzzle. Some shoot fine anyway.

Using one with Norma 156gr Softpoints on deer is quite an experience. I've never seen so big a hole on the far side.

You might find a scrapped stock somewhere you can harvest the forend from, and splice it into yours.

[Bret4207]

You'll kick yourself if you pass it up. Heck, get it for $100.00 and I'll give $125. plus shipping!

[NoDakJak]

Snatch that rifle up young man. The Greek MS was the Rolls Royce of military rifles. I don't know where the Greeks got the money to buy them as they were very expensive to manufacture. Holland & Holland and some of the other top name British firms converted many of them to very expensive sporters. A MS with a good barrel is definetly worth spending a good chunk of money on. Just don't plan on converting to a different caliber as the rotor in the magazine is very hard to alter. That rotor also contributes to making it one of the smoothest operating and most positive feeding rifles in existence. Karamojo Bell used this rifle and cartridge to harvest more than 900 elephants with when using the 160 grain round nose bullet. If you still don't want it then let me know where it is and I will buy it. Neil

[DanM]

My budget is as tight as they come, so any purchase has to 'pay off' for me. I will want to shoot it asap. It all hinges on brass availability. I have discovered that Graf's sometimes has 6.5ms brass from Privi, but not just now. I haven't been able to find any info for converting a more common case to 6.5ms. That would be a help. I have been reading up on the history of this rifle, and there is a lot to cover, but history don't shoot....

[45 2.1]

6.5MS brass can be be made from 30-06, if you have the dies and know how to reduce the body diameter on a lathe. Very tedious to say the least. Commercial loads are your easiest source.

[georgewxxx]

Dan, do you know anyone that has a FFL or a C&R dealers license? Black Hills Shooters has 6.5 MS Norma brass 50rds @ $30.00. They were cheaper yet 2 years ago when picked mine up. For some reason 6.5MS is the cheapest of all Norma brass. We've been shooting it through a commercial 1903 Mannlicher with set triggers.

http://www.bhshooters.com/index.htm

I a pinch, you can use the 6.5MS dies to load 6.5JAP, so I assume if you have 6.5 JAP dies or brass you should be able to make yout Mannlicher go bang. We did form 6.5 JAP brass from 35 Remington brass too, so that might be an option also....Geo

[Pepe Ray]

6.5 MS is the same as a 6.5 Carcano w/an extra MM in the neck. Yes they can be made via several routes but unless your needing the work, why bother? There's brass available.
Pepe Ray

[Shiloh]

Buy it, and scrounge a supply brass. Your find sounds like it has potential. The question you must ask yourself: is the potential worth $100. To me it would be.

Shiloh

[DnPtt]

I'll give you $265 for it if it still has the Greek crest on the receiver ahead of the bolt.

[DnPtt]

plus the costs of shipping of course

[Frank46]

I have a Greek with the "14" on the receiver. Bubba got to this one. Filled in the cleaning rod hole and two round patches where the stud for the sling swivel went. I had high hopes of resurecting it especially that now more brass is coming. The bore is a sorry mess but there is rifling of a sort. The floor plate is in the white and I believe the barrel band is also. I'd to go look through my stash to see if I still have the sling swivel stud and sling swivel and may also have the cleaning rod as well.
And I think I have one box of hornaday 160 grain round nosed bullets. I would still have to check both the receiver for who made it and the bolt for the same reason.
Question is what will it sell for? It has some minor pitting on one side by the stockline
so if you are interested in a shooter rather than a collector this may be your chance. Normally I would prefer cash. But how about a rifle swap. I'm looking for a 1911 swiss service rifle that has been converted to 7.5x55 swiss or a swiss K31 that was made in 1946 hopefully with a beech stock or walnut. And six boxes privi partzan
7.5x55mm ammo soft poing if they have it. So there you go. This will have to go through my dealer to your dealer I wanna keep it legal. I believe the stock has been lightly sanded as well. Well thats about all that I can remember. If anyone is interested let me know via pm. Truthfully would prefer the longer 1911 over the K31
as the old eyeballs don't focus as well as they used to. I'd like to give it a home by someone who will appreciate what they have and if they replace the bbl to restore it to shooting condoms and cast so much the better. Each person will pay the insurance and shipping costs. My rifle to your dealer and your rifle plus ammo specified to my dealer. I would also like a 1911 with a very good bore as I plan on shooting cast bullets in this rifle. If no one feels this is an even exchange or their being taken advantage of then Please don't enter into this deal. I do not have a camera and descriptions are to the best of my ability. Regards,Frank

[NoDakJak]

I have owned and shot several rifles chambered for the 6.5X53R and 6.5x54 since the early sixties. At that time, making brass for the 6.5x53R was a simple matter of using 303 British or 3040 Krag brass. Shove the shoulder back, neck to 6.5 and trim. Some rifles had headspace tight enough that you had to remove a slight amount of brass front of the rim to chamber them. We never had to ream necks as the generous military throat accomodated the thick neck. The 6.5x54 is siply the 6.5x53R without a rim. We simply chucked the 53R cases in the lathe and turned the rim to fit the 54 bolt face and were in business. I have used the 6.5x54 die set to load for all these rifles for fourty five years with no problems. 6.5x53, 6.5x53 1/2 and 6.5x54 are purely a matterof semantics, depending on who manufactured that particular brass. Barrel diameters are something else again. Americans normally accept .264 as being the proper diameter for 6.5 mm. Whoops!! All of my european manufactured 6.5s have measured .266 to .268 with the exception of the 6.5x55. Slug your bore! Have fun! Neil

[Harry O]

The Greek rifle/carbine was mechanically the same as the 1903 commercial Mannlicher-Schoenauer, which sells for $1,000 to $2,000 in decent shape today. It has the same split rear receiver and rotary magazine that the commercial ones have. I have an article somewhere that shows how to convert a Greek to a commercial MS. Mostly stock work and redoing the bolt from straight to turned-down spoon-type.

The cartridge it uses is rimless, not rimmed and brass is available (but not cheap). It has a good reputation as a deer rifle and has been used many times for larger game (up to elephant). It gets away with that because of the very long bullet for the bore diameter (lots of penetration). There are also a few places that sell parts if you want to restore it to military specs.

I would grab it if I were you. If you don't grab it, you should post the name and phone number of the place so someone here can get it. I have only seen two of them and both were in VERY bad shape. I passed on them. This one sounds better.

[George Tucker]

Not to change the subject, but i have a 1903 Greek Mannlicher Schoenauer Full lenght Millitary in 6.5, it is all origonal, but is missing the Butt Plate, i contacted Springfield Sporters, they have lots of parts for this Rifle, but not the Butt Plate, the Rifle is in excellant condition, the bore is very good, it slugs .268, do any of you fellows know where i could find a Butt Plate?. thanks George Tucker, tucke@cableone.net.

[Bret4207]

Put this request down in "Wanted" in the Swapping and selling section George. Some one may be able to help.

[jonk]

I picked up one some time back, full length military. It was beat all to snot and the bore was, what I can only describe, as a sewer pipe, covered and packed with rust.

The outside cleaned up but the bore is VERY pitted.

It shoots like crap with standard loads but actually shoots light loads very surprisingly well. A surplus Carcano bullet over 1cc of 2400 or 1.3cc of Red Dot does very well.

So I'd certainly snatch it up at that price, even if a sporter.

[Shootn]

My father gave me one that was converted to a pretty nice full-stock sporter in the past. He paid $20 for it because the friend he bought it from claimed you couldn't find ammo for it! He had actually been firing 6.5X52 Carcano in it and had even tried 6.5X51 Jap! Several years ago I got a supply of new brass cheap. but haven't reloaded for it yet. I'm trying to find a cheap set of used dies. I would have loved to had the Lee Loader that went in the classifieds recently.

Derek

[jgavrile]

Does anyone know where I can buy a replacement stock for the 1903 Greek Mannlicher rifle??

[StarMetal]

Does anyone know where I can buy a replacement stock for the 1903 Greek Mannlicher rifle??

Sorry to say that is going to be nearly impossible to find.

Joe

[TCLouis]

There is/was a set of dies for this gun either on the 24 hour forum, or accuratereloading forum.

[StarMetal]

There is/was a set of dies for this gun either on the 24 hour forum, or accuratereloading forum.

They were on this forum and I bought them. Sorry.

Joe

[Multigunner]

The action alone would worth a C Note, if the bolt is any kind of reasonable fit at least.

A guy brought one by back in the 80's and it was perfect a bring back his dad had picked up during WW2. I offered him 250 USD on the spot and he wouldn't take it.
More than book value but I figured I'd never see another in such great shape.

The Germans stored the captured rifles under poor conditions and those hidden away by Partizans faired noo better, so bores are usually dark and often ruined.

Not sure but I'd heard somewhere that bolt numbers didn't match when new, a difference in their way of numbering parts, but that may be a fable.

If the barrel is original length and salvagable I might even go so far as to have a duplicate of the military stock made for one.
But if the muzzle end of the bore were trashed and stock already cut I'd probably trim the barrel as much as needed for good accuracy, or rebarrel to a case that fits the spool, then finish the sporterizing and be happy with such a fine sporter.

If all parts needed could be found I'd restore it, even if that meant a new barrel.