Original Austrian Mannlicher M1888 Bolt Action Straight Pull Infantry Rifle in 8mm by Œ.W.G. Steyr – Serial 684 B Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. The small arms revolution started by the French M1886 Lebel rifle and its small-bore, smokeless-powder cartridge immediately caused shockwaves throughout Europe’s military establishments. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had just adopted a state-of-the-art technical masterpiece, the M1886 Mannlicher in caliber 11-mm Austrian. The challenge to the Empire was thus relatively simple: develop a comparable modern small-bore cartridge and then adapt their new M1886 to it. The resulting cartridge was the black powder 8 x 52R Austrian, and the rifle was the Model 1888 Mannlicher, a near-clone of the M1886. Two years later, they developed the smokeless powder 8 x 50R Austrian, the influence of the 8 x 50R Lebel cartridge being obvious, with a new Model 1888/90 to go with it.

This example is definitely in 8mm, though unfortunately we are not able to tell if it is an M1888 or M1888/90. It is marked Œ / W G over the chamber, indicating it was manufactured by Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft, (ŒWG, Austrian Arms-Manufacturing Company), a legendary factory with a long history. It is also marked with serial number 684B on the left side of the barrel, and W ?? 88 on top of the barrel chamber, which is not a marking we recognize.

Condition is very nice, with a great “salty” service used look, which is impossible to duplicate. You can almost imagine it emerging from the trenches of WWI, dirty and wet, then quickly wiped off, probably multiple times. Except for the middle barrel band, almost certainly a replacement, the metalwork shows a peppery steel patina from repeated cleaning to remove oxidation and rust, probably not with the most gentle of means. The stock shows extensive wear from service, with cracks by the butt plate, and also some missing chunks near the butt plate and in other areas. There are also areas where it looks like tacks or other ornaments were added to the stock, and later removed.

The rifle does cycle fairly well with a crisp dry fire, though it is a bit stiff, and it does have an intact firing pin and functional safety. The extractor on the bolt is still present, and we do not have any way to test the magazine to see if it still feeds. We did check the bore, and it still does show rifling, with a bright finish on the tops of the lands, however the grooves are definitely fouled and oxidized. Both sling swivels are present, and move easily.

A very uncommon rifling to find today, in lovely service used condition. Ready to research and display!

Specifications (rifle):-

Years of Manufacture: 1888-1895
Caliber 8×52mmR or 8×50mmR
Cartridge Type: Centerfire Cartridge
Barrel Length: 30 Inches
Overall Length: 50 Inches
Action type: Straight Pull Bolt-Action
Feed System: 5 round En-bloc clip Internal Magazine

More on the Austrian M1886, M1888, and M1888/90 Mannlicher Rifles:
The M1886 was the first Mannlicher design adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Baron Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher was a contemporary of the Mauser brothers, and it can be argued that his designs were more sophisticated and technologically advanced than Mauser models.

The M1886 has a straight-pull bolt, but the mechanism is wholly unlike the later M1895. In this rifle, a tilting breech lock is swiveled into locking position by the forward motion of the bolt handle. The brilliance of this concept is illustrated by its long line of descendants: the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR); the Bren Light Machine Gun and its Czechoslovakian ZB antecedents; the Belgian gun that became the British GPMG, subsequently adopted by many countries, including the U.S. There were many less-well-known derivatives of this design, also, and the GPMG is still widely used by military forces throughout the world.

Not only was the tilting breech lock revolutionary, but the loading system was also a brand-new development and had a long series of descendents. Mannlicher introduced what is now called the en-bloc or packet loading system. In this system, several cartridges are held together in a sheet-metal clip. The clip and cartridges are all inserted into the rifle’s magazine in one swift motion. When the last cartridge is fired, the empty clip drops out of the bottom of the magazine. Among the major rifles adopting this system one can count the French Mannlicher-Berthier, the Italian Carcano, and, most famously, the United States Rifle M1, or Garand.

Another very interesting feature of the rifle is the dual sighting system. The short-range front sight is a conventional barleycorn (tapered) blade. The rear sight is of an interesting but common 19th-Century design called a quadrant sight. The left ramp is graduated from 00 to 1700 meters and is used in conjunction with the V notch in the top of the sight leaf. The right ramp is graduated from 1800 to 2500 meters for the long-range or volley sight system. This system consists of a tapered-post front sight, mounted on the right side of the middle barrel band, and a very ingenious slide-out V notch on the rear sight leaf.