Mannlicher M1890

About the Mannlicher M1890

The Mannlicher M1890 is an Austro-Hungarian straight-pull carbine designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher and manufactured by the Oesterreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft (Steyr). Developed from the M1888/90 rifle, it was intended for cavalry, gendarmerie, artillery, pioneers and other mounted or specialist troops who needed a shorter, handier weapon than the full-length infantry rifle. The M1890 retains Mannlicher's wedge-block straight-pull action: instead of the lift-pull-push-turn cycle of a Mauser, the bolt handle is drawn straight back and pushed straight forward, with a downward-pivoting locking bar at the rear of the bolt dropping into a recess in the receiver to lock the breech. Compared with earlier Mannlichers the carbine used a much shorter action, so the trigger guard flows straight into the magazine housing and the cocking piece sits almost directly over the trigger. It feeds from a five-round en-bloc clip loaded from above; the empty clip drops free through the bottom of the integral magazine once the last round is chambered. Chambered for the smokeless 8x50mmR Mannlicher cartridge, the cavalry carbine dispensed with a stacking rod, handguard and bayonet lug to save weight, while a gendarmerie pattern was fitted to accept a knife bayonet. Roughly 105,000 carbines were produced by Steyr between 1890 and 1896, and they served Austro-Hungarian mounted and second-line troops through World War I until superseded by the carbine versions of the definitive Mannlicher M1895.

To make the M1890 as light and snag-free as possible for mounted troops, its designers stripped away the stacking rod, handguard and bayonet lug entirely and compressed the action so far that the cocking piece sits almost directly over the trigger, giving the little carbine an unusually stubby, purposeful silhouette next to the long M1895 rifles it fought alongside in the trenches of the First World War.

Mannlicher M1890 specifications

The M1890 sits between the M1888/90 rifle and the rotating-bolt-head M1895 in the Mannlicher straight-pull lineage. Unlike the M1895, which locks with a rotating bolt head, the M1890 keeps the older wedge/block locking system. Three principal patterns were made: a stripped-down cavalry carbine (no bayonet lug or stacking hook), a gendarmerie carbine able to mount a knife bayonet, and a navy short rifle. Because the smokeless 8x50mmR loading was later standardized, some sources describe the black-powder-era M1888 cartridge (8x52mmR) versus the smokeless M.90 loading; the M1890 as issued fired the smokeless round.