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
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