Mannlicher M95/24

About the Mannlicher M95/24

The Mannlicher M95/24 is a Yugoslav rebarreled conversion of the Austro-Hungarian Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 straight-pull bolt-action service rifle, produced at the Kragujevac Arsenal in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the interwar period. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, the new Yugoslav state inherited enormous stocks of captured M1895 rifles chambered in the obsolete 8x50mmR Mannlicher cartridge and set about standardizing them on the far more common 7.92x57mm Mauser round already adopted for the domestic M24 Mauser short rifle. The conversion fitted a Yugoslav M24 Mauser barrel, matching sights and handguards while retaining the original Mannlicher straight-pull bolt and receiver, but replaced the M1895's bottom-ejecting en-bloc clip system with a Mauser-pattern five-round internal box magazine loaded from a stripper clip. The resulting rifle is roughly 1,100 mm long and weighs about 3.86 kg, combining the rapid straight-pull action of the Mannlicher with the ballistics and ammunition logistics of the Mauser cartridge. The conversion was mechanically imperfect: the extractor is prone to breakage when the rifle is fired as a single-shot, and replacement parts are scarce, but the M95/24 remained in Yugoslav reserve and second-line service until the Axis invasion of April 1941.

Yugoslavia solved its interwar rifle shortage by marrying two rival empires' technology: the lightning-fast Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher straight-pull action and the German Mauser's 7.92x57mm cartridge and stripper-clip magazine. The hybrid worked, but its extractor had an unfortunate habit of snapping when a soldier tried to feed single rounds by hand, a defect that still frustrates collectors today.

Mannlicher M95/24 specifications

The M95/24 and the closely related M95M are both Kragujevac Arsenal conversions of the Mannlicher M1895 to 7.92x57mm Mauser; sources frequently treat the two designations interchangeably, with the M95/24 specifically associated with the use of Yugoslav M24 Mauser short-rifle barrels, sights and handguards. Grafting the higher-pressure 7.92x57mm cartridge and Mauser stripper-clip feeding onto the Mannlicher straight-pull action produced a serviceable but fragile hybrid; collectors prize surviving examples for their scarcity and for chambering a still-available cartridge.