Steyr M95M Restoration

[Aragorn243]

I picked this up reasonably at my local gun auction today. Had hoped to get it for a little less but got carried away. Bore has strong rifling but is pretty dark.

Stock is basically worthless but the important parts of the rifle are intact. It has the fixed clip and it has an unbroken extractor.

This is as purchased:





Would have been a beautiful stock if Bubba had left it alone. Exposed metal shows some wear:



Some internals of the fixed clip. It does come out, just slides out when not in the stock:









And the extractor. This type must pick up the cartridge from the magazine or there is great risk to breakage. Cannot load the shell by hand into the chamber:



I had the incredible dumb luck to buy a stock out of a junk bin about 5 years ago for a sling swivel. Just tossed the stock in my attic stairwell and it's been there ever since. I had a sneaky suspicion it was a Steyr straight pull stock but never fully verified this. Pulled it out today and perfect fit:





Today I was able to locate a stock sling swivel and installed it. Also swapped out the original butt plate from the new purchase. Parts for these are not easy to come by but they do match or closely match other rifles. The rear sight, sight screw are the same as that on the M24, 24/47 and even the M48. The rear band spring is similar to that on the 24/47. I have these three parts on order from Numrich. Handguard probably impossible to find but they are a two piece. The rear portion is pretty standard for Mausers and I fit a Turk Mauser guard to check and then ordered one. The forward portion of the handguard is the remains of the original Steyr 95 guard. As I have a long rifle with a busted handguard that color matches this stock, I purchased a new long rifle handguard for that rifle and I'll cut the handguard from it to match this one. Barrel bands are a little tougher but I have located one of them.

Information

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[henry r]

you don't waste much time do you. thanks for posting it is good to see projects progressing quickly.

rather handy having an uncut stock on hand, plus access to a lot of the other bits (or close replacements). do you have the bayonet yet or is it on the to get list?

[Aragorn243]

I have several M95 bayonets but I don't know if any have been altered to fit the M95M. Muzzle ring is slightly enlarged to fit the larger barrel. Would not be hard to enlarge the muzzle ring on one. I don't think they were re-marked.

[Aragorn243]

According to Numrich, this is the one part I do not have any leads on. If anyone has one sitting in a box somewhere, please contact me. Numrich and every other online supply house that I've found is sold out of them.

[Aragorn243]

I dug out my three M95 bayonets. Two don't even begin to fit. The third goes on halfway before binding. Not sure if it is an original that is out of round on the one side or if it is just a loose fitting M95 bayonet. Problem with it is it went through the refurb and looks brand new. Would not match this rifle very well. Shipping projections put some of this stuff arriving a month from now but I suspect they will get here sooner. Two parts coming from Bulgaria. Last part I ordered from there came in a week. I think this is from the same guy so might be about the same this time around.

My current quandry is the sling. I have a photo in my Mannlicher book that appears to show the German K98 sling minus the keeper on it. I suppose this would not be out of the question once the war started as they found their way into German hands but would that be the most appropriate? Probably not. Can't get good images on any others and internet images are about worthless because most slings there have the US 03 slings on them and I know that isn't right. Some descriptions say it is a plain sling, no buckles with brass buttons on each end. And then there is the Yugo M48 sling minus the keeper. Spent most of last evening trying to find something definitive but had no luck.

[Aragorn243]

Decided to go with the German style sling as it is the sling in the only period photo of the rifle with a sling that I could find. Still waiting on everything I ordered. UPS truck stopped outside the house today.......and went to the neighbors, I was bummed.

[Aragorn243]

A part came. The Turkish hand guard. Spent about an hour shaping it and the front hand guard. Temporarily am using a lower band off a standard M95 for sizing purposes. Had to knock off the front sight to get the bands on. Worked out pretty well. I had to grind out a little off the inside for it to fit snugly around the rear sight, cut it to length and then cut it down for the barrel band. Then a small amount of shaping to taper the front and it looks pretty close to original. It is designed for a ring on the receiver end which the M95M does not use so that is not quite right.

Hoping some more parts come in the next day or two and I'll post some new photos.

[Aragorn243]

Rear sight came today and after I figured out I wasn't going to pound out the pin, it took me two seconds to mount it to the base. Slipped right in and fit perfect. Little screw that holds the hand guard in place also installed.

Close call on the sight, I had my hammer out and everything but something just didn't seem right.

[Vincent]

Hoping some more parts come in the next day or two and I'll post some new photos.

Yes, please post more pictures. This is an interesting restoration.

I like the cavalry sling swivel. It’s a nice bonus.

[Aragorn243]

Here it is to date. I think I need to work on the color of the Turk handguard. I have mahogany stain somewhere in the house but couldn't locate it so I used English something and Ebony. Didn't get either dark enough or red enough. I have an idea to fix up the butt end also. I think I'm going to grind/sand down the cut off part to get sawdust and then I'm going to mix it with gorilla glue and fill the groove on the end and sand it down.

The barrel bands are not the final bands. The upper is missing it's stacking rod and the lower is not correct. I still need to locate the cavalry version. I did get a band spring from Numrich but I'm not real happy with it. Too thin. I borrowed the two bands off my demilled M95 until I get the others. The upper band is coming from Bulgaria.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. Hopefully, I can locate a lower band fairly quickly, if not, I'm a pretty patient ebay stalker.