M1886 Kropatschek Short Rifle

[oldfoneguy]

I put this in the Mauser section because it is a virtual copy of the M71/84.

I've had this since I was 23 years old but didn't fire it until I was in my 30's. Got it through the mail when that was still a thing because of its age and lack of ammo availability. Learned a lot by taking it from dark and non functional to ready for action as you see it now. The magazine was frozen in place and jammed, the feed ramp didn't work, broken rear sight and the stock was black with ???

It's a Kropatschek Short Rifle, not a carbine and certainly not a full size infantry rifle. Made by Styer in 1889 this is the lowest production of the Kropatschek series. It was issued primarily to noncoms. It's about a foot shorter than the infantry rifle and 4+ inches longer than the carbine. It also has the profile of the infantry rifle, not the full to the muzzle stock of the carbine.

It's all matching except the bolt and few parts of that match the bolt body. It has a functional magazine shutoff and 8 round tube magazine. I believe this series of rifles may have the first ever use of aluminum in a firearm. The feed ramp spring of all things is made of aluminum and is commonly broken because of this. I was seriously lucky to find one to make my gate functional.

It becomes seriously muzzle heavy when fully loaded and with the bayonet attached it becomes a handful. I could only imagine the full size rifle! This became a great companion to the original bayonet I bought when I was 13 and is a sweet wall hanger display.

There is an ingenious system of disassembly that simply by removing the cleaning rod and sliding out a pin the entire magazine assembly can be removed. There is an abundance of clear cartouches and stampings that were invisible until the stock was cleaned. That probably preserved them.

The only time I fired it was with Chilean surplus BP ammo dated to WWI era. Some were click... bangs some fired right off and accuracy of course was not great, and that was it. Got that out of my system and never fired it again. That was over 40 years ago and I doubt any of that over 100 years old ammo would still function but you never know. All that I have left are a few loose rounds and the newest boxes which are unopened and date to 1919.

The pictures went all over the place and not in the order I placed them but you'll get the general idea.