Mannlicher M1885 Trials Rifle

About the Mannlicher M1885 Trials Rifle

The Mannlicher M1885 was an experimental straight-pull bolt-action trials rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher and built by Oesterreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft (Steyr). Patented in Britain in May 1885, it was a prototype intended to replace the obsolete single-shot M1867 Werndl-Holub, chambered for the black-powder 11x58mmR Werndl cartridge and fed by a five-round en-bloc clip. Its wedge-lock straight-pull action and en-bloc clip that dropped from the bottom of the magazine when the last round was chambered directly led to the adopted M1886, the first straight-pull service rifle of any nation.

Patented in the United Kingdom in May 1885, the M1885 introduced the trick of the en-bloc clip falling out of the bottom of the magazine the instant the last cartridge was chambered - a signature quirk that would define Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher rifles for the next three decades.

Mannlicher M1885 Trials Rifle specifications

The M1885 was a developmental stepping stone rather than a mass-issued service weapon; exact physical dimensions of the trials rifle are not well documented, so weight and length are left unspecified. Its cartridge and general layout mirror the production M1886 that followed it. The clip-drop feature it introduced became a hallmark of subsequent Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher service rifles.