Caliber size on Steyr M.95

B

bbman25

New member
its my uncles rifle, i have never encountered one of these before. he lent it to me to try and figure out what it shoots. ive attached links to the photos of the markings.
what i know is they were originally chambered in 8x50MM R but converted to 8x56 in the 1920s-30s. supposedly this was indicated by an "S" stamped into the barrel, and a banded front sight. this rifle has the banded sight but no S, leading to some confusion.
a sport shop guy gave us some 8x56mm R ammo from hornady (also pictred) but it does not chamber it all the way. this makes me believe this rifle was in fact never rebarreled, and is still chambered for the 8x50mm.

to the best of my knowledge and research it was made in 1915 and has the austrian markings.
please see the pictures and let me know what you think!

here is a link to the photos on photobucket.
http://s1340.photobucket.com/user/bbman25/library/m95
 
is it still rifle length or was it cut down to carbine length? that usually followed or went in line with the caliber change. if it's a carbine and it still won't chamber 8x56R then it may have got through a second conversion to 8x57 by the Nazis late in the war. 8x57 has a much shorter shoulder than the x56R and smaller base which would prevent the 56R from chambering just as it would with x50R.

I'm not sure what markings went along with the german conversions but that big cut along the top of the receiver seems like it would not have been an original factory marking.
 
as far as i am able to tell, it is still full length.

the research i did mentioned an 8x57 conversion, however the bolt is even further open with an 8x57.

i have also seen that there are several types of 8x50 and 8x56mm ammo available.
 
I believe you are probably referring to 8x50 lebel and 8x56 mannlicher-schoenauer. you want 8x50R hungarian mannlicher or 8.56R hungarian mannlicher.

full length rifles would more than likely still be original 8x50R.
 
thanks for the info, i will try to track some down and see how it works. some have said that the banded front sight indicates a rebarrel, even on a full length rifle, which led to much confusion.
 
The 8x57 Steyr-Mannlicher that I had had either Greek or Cyrillic markings on it. (The particular letters, unfortunately, were common to both alphabets, so I could never be certain if the gun was Greek or Yugoslavian, although most likely the latter.)

Regardless, although the outside was a little bit beat up, the gun would shoot 4" groups at 100 yds. with open sights. Also, it didn't require the use of en bloc clips.

More than likely, you have a gun that is still in it's original 8x50 chambering.
 
Does it look like this?

My Steyr M95 Carbine (in 8X56r)
steyrm95overview.jpg
 
If 8x56 won't chamber and it has no S on the barrel it is still in 8x50. Buffalo arms has dies but they are a little pricey. You can reload using 7.62x54r brass and I've had good luck with flat based .323 bullets.
 
Thanks everyone, turns out that i got VERY lucky at the gun show today.. picked up a bag of 20 rounds 8x50 for $50. i couldnt pass it up, and by my figuring given how hard it is to find versus the process of making new brass to reload.. etc, im okay with that price.

anyway, they chambered perfectly and all 5 cycled without a hitch. its definitely an 8x50, which is pretty neat.

i also grabbed some reloadable nagant ammo to cut down the cases and make more 8x50. cant wait to get to the range with it!
 
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