Kiwi Medals

This is the Mannlicher M95/30 Austrian battle rifle. In this example it is the Kavaliere Repetier-Carabiner M1895 or carbine /30 in 8x56R caliber. Most likely this was cut down to stutzen length when it was converted from the 8×50 caliber in the thirties.

M95/30 was a conversion in the First Austrian Republic by Steyr-Mannlicher during 1930–1940. These rifles carry the letter S meaning Spitzer stamped on the barrel. Main modification was the rechambering to 8×56mmR cartridge. Other changes were the conversion of ladder sights from the older pace unit to meters and addition of a brass front sight protector. Many long rifles were cut down to Stutzen length. Most of M95/30s were sent to Bulgaria during 1938–40, where front sight protectors were removed.

These rifles were also used by second line units as well as the Balkan allies of Germany. This particular example shows an Austrian acceptance mark HV 35 indicating it was accepted into service in 1935 after being modified for the new round.

Hungarian soldier with an M95, 1940

This entry was posted on January 2, 2016 at 5:19 PM and is filed under Firearms with tags Austria, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany (Third Reich), Heer, Mannlicher, Rifles, Steyr, WW2. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.