Understanding Your Rifle
Mechanism
On this page you will find an explanation on how the M.95 works mechanically
Bolt
The M.95 is, unlike all but one of the other main line rifles of the Great War, a straight pull design. What this means is that unlike more traditional bolt action rifles where the operation requires four motions (up-back-forward-down), only two are required (back-forward).
This is achieved via a rotating bolt head that sports a pair of helical grooves that act as camming surfaces to turn a linear motion into a rotary one. The cocking happens on the opening stroke, making it a cock-on-open action.
The extractor serves in the functionality of this design as well, next to its usual function. It sports an attachment fitting into corresponding slots on the grooves of the bolt head, preventing rotation of the bolt head when unlocked.
Primary extraction is achieved via differing angles between the receiver's locking recesses and the bolt body/sleeve's grooves. The initial movement of the bolt body is almost exclusively used to rotate the bolt head, similar to how a classic turn bolt design would be rotated before the backward movement.
Mannlicher already had the idea of a straight pull design with a rotating head pattented in 1884, but due to manufacturing costs concerns was asked to come up with a simpler design, which turned into the wedge-locking M.86. When the new M.90 carbine was adopted he could simply reach back and alter his first design by moving the locking lugs from the back to the front for a wholly modern action.
Magazine
Mannlicher revolutionised the loading process in the early 1880s with the invention of the "Laderahmen" ("Loading Frame") that is commonly known as the
en-bloc clip today.
Unlike more traditional magazine systems, the clip in this case is integral to the functionality of the system, as the clip itself serves as the feed lips of the magazine. As the clip is pressed into the magazine, the follower spring is depressed and the cartridges will snag on the clip latch. The moment the last cartridge of the five-round clip is chambered, there is nothing left to retain the clip and it is ejected via the ejection port at the bottom of the rifle.
A big drawback of this design is the inability to load single cartridges into a less than full magazine. However, it is possible to eject a partially empty clip via pressing the clip latch release button on the inside of the trigger guard, allowing the follower spring to eject the clip out the top.
Single loading is generally not advisable and wasn't intended. However it can be done by placing the cartridge upon the follower spring and pushing it forward into the chamber. Putting it directly into the chamber forces the extractor to snap over the rim and can damage it.
The first and final mass-produced Mannlicher en-bloc clips loaded with 11.15x58mmR and 8x50mmR respectively. Despite other nations adopting a unidirectional clip, Austria-Hungary remained faithful to its monodirectional design, adding ridges to easily identify the top of the clip.
