A Look at the Steyr M95 Mannlicher

Brief Introduction:

The Steyr M95 or the Mannlicher M1895 is one of the least known (in opinion) military surplus rifles available on the US market compared to, say Mosins, Mausers, and garands. Approximately 3,500,000 Steyr’s were made by Œ.W.G. in Austria, F.G.GY. in Hungary, and Zbrojovka Brno in Czechoslovakia between 1896 & 1920. You would think that this rifle chambered in an 8x56R or 8x50R cartridge would be more popular considering the running rate for these rifles all matching is around the $300 mark give or take.

Functions:

The Steyr M95 is one of a few guns that uses a straight pull/push bolt instead of a traditional rotating bolt like a standard bolt action would. At least on mine, the action has some minor resistance when initially loading the first round into the chamber.

The Steyr is fed through a 5 round single stack en bloc clip. When the last round of the clip is chambered the clip drops free through the magazine well, producing a distinctive *ping* sound similar to the M1 Garand. If needed, there is a small button on the inside of the trigger guard that when pressed will eject the clip and any remaining rounds in the clip into the air allowing you to clear the gun without racking the bolt ’till empty.

Pictured right is my steel target with cartridges placed atop of it to compare their physical size.  The 8x56R is almost identical in length to the 7.62x54R. The safety of the gun is on the back of the bolt and on the left-hand side. The safety is pretty basic: flip-up the switch to turn the safety on, and flip it down to turn it off. The safety is also not a decocker, as the only way I have found to decock the gun is to pull the trigger, grab the bolt, and ride it home slowly. This can also be done in reverse to re-cock the bolt into a firing position. (Picture below in the next section gives visual aid along with the video above.)

The Iron Sights:

These are pretty basic sights with just two rear posts with the distance ranging from 300 “paces” all the way out to a whopping 2200 paces, and a single point front post adjustable for windage with a small hammer. I personally have only shot 60 rounds through this gun and never did any accuracy testing or sighting in during the process, but they are similar to that of a Yugo M48 Mauser so I assume the process would be much the same.

At the range. 

I took this rifle to the range at the last PA /k/rew meetup over Memorial day weekend. A few people were unfamiliar with the gun thinking it was an M44 variant Mosin Nagant. First impressions of the gun were the large bayonet, the odd necking of the cartridges, and the ejection of the enbloc clip. The M95 has a very stout recoil impulse that will surprise most shooters. Why it recoils harder than an M44 is beyond me, because I think the Mosin is a smooth (I’m saying this very loosely) shooter.

Final Takeaway (These are personal opinions so take these with a grain of salt.)

The specific variant is a naval Hungarian.

Pros:

• Cheap to get(budget depending)  at around the $400 mark as of  6/20/17
• Unique design and bolt function.
• Fun conversation piece.
• Fun to shoot.
• dat bayonet.
• Easy to find on Gunbroker or Armslist.
• Nazi stamped parts and ammo

Cons:

• Nazi stamped parts and ammo.
• Heavy recoil for weak folk.
• Long trigger pull for some.
• Ammo comes in waves from PPU and the price reflects that at $1.13 a round.
• Spare parts are hard to find for specific model.

All in all this rifle comes off to me as more of a collectors item or something to shoot every now and then if you do reloading (depending on your budget).

Be sure to keep an eye out for my review on an Indian Lee Enfield, IWI Tavor with trigger upgrades, And a torture test on a Hi-Point that only a /k/ommando could dish out!

Any questions regarding the rifle please leave a comment below and I will get back to them as soon as I can. Thanks for reading.