STEYR MANNLICHER RIFLE OF 1886, 1888

Steyr Mannlicher bolt-action rifle of 1886. Although not the first bolt-action rifle, this model was the first straight pull back action rifle to be adopted by any nation. Production started in 1886 and finished in 1888 as a result of the Lebel 1886 rifle using the popular 8mm smokeless cartridge. It replaced the obsolete Werndl Holub (see item A1120). The rifle was designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher and used an 11mm cartridge, in 1888 re-barreled for the 8mm type cartridge, although many of the original 11mm type still survive. 100,000 units were produced at the Steyr Mannlicher AG factory in Austria known as the Austrian Arms Manufacturing Company or OEWG (Osterreichische Waffenfebriksgesellchaft). Rifles with Austrian acceptance marks are very rare, and most of the original rifles went to South America, and some turned up in Spain during the Spanish civil war. The first bolt action rifle was produced in 1824 by Johan Nikolaus Dreyse, Von Dreyse would perfect his Nadelgewehr (needle rifle) by 1836 and it was adopted by the Prussian army in 1841

Your comments:

• The Label didn’t replace the Mannlicher 1886 in the Austro Hungarian army. The Label was a French rifle. It was the introduction of the Label rifle into the French army, which made the M 1886 obsolete and therefore the Austrian army adopted the updated Mannlicher M1888, which fired smokeless powder rounds.
  .......... Tony Morgan, Oxford, 22nd of May 2022
  
  

A1594