Royal Tiger Imports 1888 Mannlicher Rifle

[Aragorn243]

Pointed ones have the Nazi eagle on them? Produced it 1938? Seem to be pretty common.

So the pointed ones won't chamber. I was meaning to investigate that. Now I'm really curious.

Results of the experiment:

A full clip of 8x56r will load and lock in place so that answers the clip question.

The first round will strip out of the clip.

The second round was jambed deep into the magazine with the point hard into the front of the magazine. I suspect rounds 3, 4 and 5 are also wedged in there. The pointed bullets are too long

Hitting the clip extractor immediately pushes it up and out but the points of the bullets catch on the rear of the receiver and you have to mess with the bullets to get the clip out.

I attempted to chamber a round by pushing it in with my finger. It would not go all the way in. Possibly still full of gunk, but the neck could be different, haven't looked into that. It was approximately 1/16th of an inch protrusion.

I did not attempt to close the bolt on a round. Don't need that kind of potential excitement.

[browningautorifle]

Pointed ones have the Nazi eagle on them? Produced it 1938? Seem to be pretty common.

Mine don't have an eagle but they were made in '44. Clip has an superimposed H A...over each other.

[Aragorn243]

The ones with the eagle are Austrian. These are the only ones I've ever seen. Hungary and Bulgaria also produced the ammo. Any possibility it is AH rather than HA? AH is Hungarian made. ML is Bulgarian as is BO.

[browningautorifle]

Any possibility it is AH rather than HA? AH is Hungarian made.

They are superimposed, one lies directly over the other, on top of each other. I believe Hungarian, would make sense.

[Eaglelord17]

The 8x56r cartridge was also designed to have the same overall length (or pretty close) as the 8x50r cartridge so you could keep the same magazines, clips, and rifles with only having to modify the chambers (and potentially rear sights). This was accomplished by having a shorter spitzer bullet and bumping up the cartridge length as the original round nose bullets were exceptionally long leaving a lot of space to make up with the shorter bullet. Fairly smart what they did, and it avoided the issues the Italians faced when they adopted the 7.35x51 cartridge over the 6.5 as you could chamber both rounds in their service rifle, firing the bigger bullet in the smaller barrel could be pretty dangerous though.

[oldpaul]

I have a Terni M35 Short Rifle, 1940 dated, Finn marked in 7.35mm Carcano and also a well worn M91 Cavalry Carbine made at Brescia, 1893 dated in 6.5mm Carcano. I measured the neck diameters of several rounds of each caliber (original Italian military ammo) and the 7.35mm averaged about .030" larger in diameter than the 6.5mm. The minimum I have is .028" difference. There is no way the 7.35mm will chamber in the 6.5 mm rifle, well maybe if I helped it along with a five pound sledge hammer. It's a pretty tiny control group but that's what I found. Tom

[bob q]

There is no way a 7.35 will chamber in a 6.5 rifle . I do not know how that myth got started , but a 30 cal bullet is nowhere close to a 26 cal bullet in dia .

[Aragorn243]

The stock has arrived at that place I like. Nice soft glow and no stickiness. Took about 5 coats of BLO. I'm replacing the magazine well. It was the one area I was not really happy with on the rifle. It has some fairly heavy pitting and it just bothers me. Replacement isn't that much but I expect I'll have some finish issues. Probably have to remove it so it looks right. I'll see when it gets here. I have to swap out all internals but they are all in good shape. Ordered the missing screw so that will be taken care of also. Still waiting on the sling. Still can't find a bayonet.

[Singer B]

The stock has arrived at that place I like. Nice soft glow and no stickiness. Took about 5 coats of BLO. I'm replacing the magazine well. It was the one area I was not really happy with on the rifle. It has some fairly heavy pitting and it just bothers me. Replacement isn't that much but I expect I'll have some finish issues. Probably have to remove it so it looks right. I'll see when it gets here. I have to swap out all internals but they are all in good shape. Ordered the missing screw so that will be taken care of also. Still waiting on the sling. Still can't find a bayonet.

Sounds like a fun project!!

[Aragorn243]

The rifle is now complete with the exception of the bayonet. Sling came yesterday and the screw and magazine came today. I figured I'd have to fix the finish on the new magazine but I'm going to leave it alone. Someone else wants it to match the pitted, dented piece of crap original will be here for them to swap out.