m95

[adrians]

morning .
i just got my 1st steyr m95 (i'm a mauser guy but hey it was a steal so i snagged it up ), anyhoo what do i need to get this thing up and running ,
i got plenty powder,, ect,ect, need dies and a good mold and brass .
any M95 guys out there in cyber land if you could be so kind to advise me in my new endevour i would be awsomely over the moon .
this rifle is for fun plinking only i know it won't shoot the eye out of a gnat unless i'm not aiming at it then i t probably would:twisted:[smilie=w::evil:

[Bret4207]

Try the Lee 338 mould. Their 329 mould is usually too small. Their push through sizers can be opened pretty easily to .332 or more if you need it.

[adrians]

thanks bret 4207,
will order the mold , and dies (sometime this year )lol.
might try e-bay to see if anything there would be o.k any suggestions?
:twisted::confused::evil:

[NickSS]

Most of the 95s currently on the market are in 8X56R but some of the older ones (:ike the one I got) is in 8x50R. You should make sure which you have. Most of the ones chambered for the 8X56R have an S stamped on the receiver ring. They are dandy little rifles and can be made to shoot well.

[adrians]

morning, yep mine got de "S" i'll slug the critter befor i go any further to see how big he really is !:twisted::-?:evil:

[wallenba]

I tried the Lee 338 mold but had trouble getting it sized down to .334 (my bore is .3315). The guys here will tell you that it likes larger boolits than .001 over bore dia. due to the deep rifling. I already had a .329 Lee mold that dropped at .331, so I lapped it out using Wheeler 220 compound and it drops at .335-.336 now. I have a .338 checkmaker on order from Pat Marlins. Since I use the Lee die set I cannabalized an expander plug from a 338 Winchester die and chucked it in a cordless drill and carefully turned it down to .332 using 400 grit emery paper. This is as far as I've gotten so far with mine. Going to wait till I have checks before I shoot it.

[adrians]

wow! sounds like a little bit of "backyard" rocket science to me ,but if that what it takes to get mine rockin i'll print this post out and read again when i get "tooled up "lol.:twisted::coffee::evil:
thanks wallenba.
have a great day....

[MilSurpFan]

I've been using the Lee 338 unsized, unchecked lubed with LLA and with 10 grains of Trail Boss.

The neck in the rifle I am using is so large that after firing, the .340" diameter bullet usually falls straight through the unsized case necks. It's BIIIIG.

Seems to hold around 2" groups at 50 yard. Not terribly impressive, but easy on the shoulder and plenty entertaining. Does slightly better with jacketed loads but the recoil can get stout.

[dualsport]

Keep your eye out for clips, grab them when you can. The guns are nice, well made, but, I wonder sometimes what they were thinking. In a combat situation sometimes a guy might need to be quiet while working the bolt. I don't know how he would do that, these things require a snappy yank to open and close. That said, it's a powerhouse of a load in a light gun, might be a good dark timber elk gun or even bear.

[MilSurpFan]

Keep your eye out for clips, grab them when you can. The guns are nice, well made, but, I wonder sometimes what they were thinking. In a combat situation sometimes a guy might need to be quiet while working the bolt. I don't know how he would do that, these things require a snappy yank to open and close. That said, it's a powerhouse of a load in a light gun, might be a good dark timber elk gun or even bear.

Yes, getting the Mannlicher clips is a bit more expensive these days and the rifle is a pain to use without them. I have had decent results single loading by placing the case with the rim a bit in front of the bolt face so it balances on the follower. When the bolt is closed, the rim will slide up under the extractor nicely, just take it easy.

The bolts should be easy to work on these rifles. Often, the bolt is not set up correctly and this will leave the bolt head rotating under spring tension and binding against the lug races in the receiver. If you pull the bolt out and the bolt head snaps closed immediately, you know you have a problem.

As far as noise goes when the rifle was designed nobody was thinking about sneaking around being quiet. Just was not a consideration.

[MilSurpFan]

wow! sounds like a little bit of "backyard" rocket science to me ,but if that what it takes to get mine rockin i'll print this post out and read again when i get "tooled up "lol.:twisted::coffee::evil:
thanks wallenba.
have a great day....

In the mean time if you just want to test it out, AIM Surplus has Privi Partisan FMJs for sale. Pretty pricey, but you'll need the brass anyway. Firing full-house jacketed loads will probably also convince you of the wisdom of shooting cast in these rifles. :)

[adrians]

hey milsurp it's funny you mention the AIM ammo cos i got some on the 21st ,two boxes .
i have heard of its legendary kick so i think when i "get rid " of all the j-boos i'll be downsizing my handloads quite a bit (my shoulder hurts from an afternoon mauser shoot!) .
got dies ,,got powder,, got well everything but boolits,but i will fix that little problem very soon.
have a great xmas and a groovy shooting new year.adrians.:twisted::Fire::evil:

[budman46]

adrians,

neat gun, fantastic price and just weird enough to really enthuse me. :mrgreen:

i 'beagled" my lee 8x56 mould, opened lee's push-thru sizer to .331 and lube my gas-checked castings with liquid alox.

i found clips here: http://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalog/Products.aspx?catid=5932. milsurpfan gave you the info on how to single-load without messing up the extractor.

i tried my fave load of 17 gr of 2400 with the m95, but it needed a bit more oomph. 20 gr works well, giving me "minute-of-milk jug" accuracy at 100 yds, offhand. velocity is 1800 fps and the bore shows no leading.

budman

ignorance is fixable, stupidity is forever...

[closey]

The bolts should be easy to work on these rifles. Often, the bolt is not set up correctly and this will leave the bolt head rotating under spring tension and binding against the lug races in the receiver. If you pull the bolt out and the bolt head snaps closed immediately, you know you have a problem.

Mine does that, i thought it was just a feature of the rifle.

Is there a procedure to set up the bolt correctly?

Closey

[Tedly]

Shooting mine with either the Graf's brass or Nazi milsurp with 16.0 gr AA5744 @ 2.900" OAL with as cast Lee C329-205-1R about .3315 dia. Gas checks I put on these with a homemade swager and then pan lube with a homemade lube. Can get group about the size of an egg at 50 yds... this load shoots to the sights...more tweaking need to get to 100yds...Tedly

[adrians]

great info fella's iv'e learned alot in so short of a time about this funky little banger .
will look forward to shooting it soon ,i'm still undecided on a boolit yet but am going to get a lee sizer and open it up a tad then go from there(my bore slugs at .332), it's happening fellas i can feel it '
have a great night. adrians:evil:[smilie=w::twisted:

[abunaitoo]

I have found that I needed a big bullet to work in my M95.
331 diameter.
I have a RCBS die set that would work with condom bullets but not with the big cast bullets.
I got a Lee die set and modified it to work.
Also modified a Lee 8X57mm crimp die.
Both work great.

If someone is interested in the RCBS die set, I have it for sale in the selling section.

[iron brigade]

today i received my m95. loaded 25 up. 22 loads were 8.5 grs of tb. other 3 were 6 grs of unique. shooting was done at 25 yards off hand. bullet was the lee .329-205 as cast, lube lee alox. shot 2 clips then started shooting them single. can't wait to bench them at 50 yards.
nice accurate fun lil plinker.

[MilSurpFan]

Mine does that, i thought it was just a feature of the rifle.

Is there a procedure to set up the bolt correctly?

Closey

I had the link at one time... have to look again. The extractor has a tab that drops in a notch on the bolt body (inside the bolt). This keeps the bolt head at full extension until the bolt is closed. Also keeps the bolt heads from jamming aganist the lug races while working the bolt. They are a bit um.... "finicky" but really neat rifles.

[MilSurpFan]

I finally got the scanner working again. Here is the last group from one of my M95s with cast bullets. This was a cracked stock special from AIM.

This is with the Lee 338 cast of wheelweight, tumble lubed and unsized. No gas check was used. 10 grains of Trail Boss.

Pic is 10 shots at 50 yards. Was not working very hard, just plinking. There's room for improvement, but as this was only shots 40-50 of this load and afterward I found that the stock had re-cracked. Need to fire some more and see if the flyers continue. My goal is under 4 minutes at 100, so a bit more to go, but should be reasonable.

Apparently, the jacketed loads in Pic 2 were more than my poor stock repair could withstand. :) Yes, same POA for both.

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/6A9933E12FA8F6F/standard.jpg

.............This is about the best I've done with my M95, but I haven't touched it in a considerable amount of time. One possible problem with the Lee C338 - 205 - R is that the lube grooves bottom out at .315" which is about the bore diameter in a lot of the M95's.

.............Buckshot

[Wayne Smith]

I'm suprised no one has told you that Bruce (BRP Enterprises - see Vendor section) has the Oldfeller mold that Buckshot used available for individual purchase. It is the mold for the M95 Steyr. It does take 338 gas checks - Blammer has had them, I don't know current availability.

[adrians]

yer iv,e heard tell of the oldfeller mold ,i think that is worth lookihg into,thanks W.S,:twisted::coffeecom:evil:

[Mike Venturino]

I ended up with two of the M95s in 2010. In April a local fellow called with a really nice one for sale with 650 rounds of 1939 dated Nazi ammo, still in the Nazi clips, still in the Nazi 10 round boxes, still in the Nazi wooden crate. Then my father in law passed away and unknown to us he had another M95 in his closet.

I haven't fired either yet but I bought Graf brass and 100 jacketed bullets, and the Lee mould. Its all sitting here waiting for "spare time."

You guys keep talking about them here so I'll have someplace to start.
Mike V.

[adrians]

[smilie=1:hey mike if that "spare time " doesn't come soon you know that nazi ammo may self destruct lol , you might aught to let me try some before it goes boom,[smilie=1:.
all jesting asside thats an impressive stash you have ,get some time and have fun, thats what i would do anyhoo!.
have a great night .adrians:twisted::-P:evil:

[dualsport]

I have a small quantity of the Nazi stuff bought at a gunshow 25 yrs. ago, I didn't have the gun then, just thought the ammo/boxes was interesting. After getting a M95 I found that shooting that old ammo wasn't fun at all, kicks like a mule, but still works. Mike, save yours for an investment, sell it later and go to someplace warm for a vacation. How about a feature article on hunting with cbs in Hawaii? Maybe pick a gun that would have been used there a hundred years ago. What did the whalers shoot? Or the big shots at C&H?

[Intel6]

I bought all the reloading stuff of an old fellow when he passed away and ended up with a sealed tin and one that was almost full of 8x56R ammo. I decided I better go see about getting the rifle and picked one up for less than $100 out the door at Big 5. Fun little gun, got some dies and brass to start loading PB bullets with it.

Neal in AZ

[Buckshot]

...............A 208gr spitzer boattail (a VERY modern looking slug) at 2300 fps from one of those small M95 Stutzens is pretty entertaining :-)

Mike, .............."I haven't fired either yet but I bought Graf brass and 100 jacketed bullets, and the Lee mould. Its all sitting here waiting for "spare time."

If you mean the Lee C329 - 205 - 1R, it 'might' work as mine and those I've heard of from others is that they seem to drop at .330" give or take a smidgen. The 'might' part is again, from my 4 Steyrs and other folks is that the grooves are more normally seen to be .332". However if you had 5 of'em and checked, all 5 could vary from each other!

Since the bores appear more consistent at .315", when the boolit fully engrave there is considerable lead being moved around which may help in what's an otherwise marginal situation. Their chambers can also share in the outsized dimensions. A fired case from one of my M95's will allow a slug for a 338 to drop through.

...............Buckshot

[leadman]

The Nazis marked ammo is real stout. I was firing a 95 over the hood of my truck and it was lifting me right off the hood.
The Lee 329 mold take 8mm gas checks, not 338 just in case you get this mold. I lapped one out so it drops .331".

[fatelk]

The bore on mine slugged at .3315, and I just got gas checks and a sizer in .332" (thanks Buckshot!). I sized a few boolits, but haven't had a chance to try them out yet. I'm in the middle of school work, still sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to hear about a job, and we have a fussy baby that seem to think day is night and vice-versa.:)

When I first got my Lee moulds, I cast some at .329 and tried them out, thinking maybe they would work OK for a light plinking load. No such luck - terrible accuracy and even worse leading. I lapped and beagled the moulds to about .332. If I get a chance to try them out in a few days, I'll report back.

[dualsport]

I had the link at one time... have to look again. The extractor has a tab that drops in a notch on the bolt body (inside the bolt). This keeps the bolt head at full extension until the bolt is closed. Also keeps the bolt heads from jamming aganist the lug races while working the bolt. They are a bit um.... "finicky" but really neat rifles.

It finally hit me. Something must be wrong with the way my bolt is assembled, it binds hard when closing and opening. That's why I had the impression it's a noisy sucker to run. But the way it is can't be right. Any advice on properly assembling the bolt or what to check? I'm ready for another goround with this old gem.

[abunaitoo]

Try this link for bolt problems.
http://www.ryngate.org/M95/
Just honing the trigger made a world of difference.

[dualsport]

Thanks abu, that link is a little gold mine.

[adrians]

great link thanks ,when i looked at my bolt sure enough the right lugs bottom edge was just a tad lower than the extractor (my bolt was a little stiff ) ,so i filled it down to flush and the bolt seems to operate a little smoother and its easier to cock .thanks again ,adrians :evil:[smilie=w::evil:

[dualsport]

OK, I'm admitting a dumb thing. My M95 bolt is fine. Here's how I fixed it; After starting the bolt back into the action, I pushed down on the bolt handle a bit, the action holds the bolt head and the twisting finishes setting the bolt head into it's proper alignment. Easy smeasy, smooth again. Now I can get to work on that trigger.

[MilSurpFan]

Try this link for bolt problems.
http://www.ryngate.org/M95/
Just honing the trigger made a world of difference.

Thanks abunaitoo, that is the exact link I was referring to earlier. Been so busy with work I neglected to search for the page.

[chrispy]

I just checked the bore on my new acquisition..... slugs at 333 to 334 in the grooves and 318 across the lands. The slug comes out looking sort of square, with rounded corners..

I am up for a 338 mold then, just have to custom up a sizer, and neck size die for the cases.

Oh the joys of casting your own!!

Chrispy

[kyswede]

My M95 carbine slugged at .316/.334 so I bought some .338 dia. cast bullets and sized them in a Lee push-thru sizer opened up to .335/.336 dia. I bought 100 new brass from Grafs and have been using 13 grains of Red Dot for plinking loads. Hardly any recoil compared to surplus ammo. I have not checked accuracy other than making pop cans fly.
kyswede