![]() ![]() ![]() If you can make every bullet count and avoid chaotic situations where you need more than one shot at a time, the Werndl can be a very satisfying weapon to master. As with the Italian soldiers issued old Vetterli rifles, the troops given the Werndl did sometimes find themselves in combat with their decades old firearms. They were issued to some rear-echelon forces so that more modern weapons could be concentrated where combat was expected. The reliable but elderly Werndl, in elderly but reliable hands. As such they were never intended for use by frontline troops. The Werndl is a reserve rifle - a perfectly serviceable single-shot breechloader… but no match for the fire rate of modern guns. Austro-Hungarian soldiers nicknamed it the ‘Ruck-Zuck’ rifle (meaning ‘back and forth’ rifle). This gave the M95 a very solid 20-25 rounds per minute rate of fire. ![]() The Steyr-Mannlicher M95 was a very effective rifle with an unusual straight-pull bolt action, meaning the user would pull it back then push it straight forward again, saving two motions compared to more typical bolt actions where the user had to go up-back-forward-down. Reichert - a company who also made microscopes. This is the standard issue Austro-Hungarian rifle fitted with Viennese made optics by C. Steyr-Mannlicher M95 with C.Reichert Scope While uncommon, rotating spool magazines are still in use with some weapons today!ĭiagram showing the rotating spool magazine. While the rifle was fed by stripper clips, inside was a rotating system, as you can see in the diagram below. This part was designed by Schönauer, hence the name of the rifle. The Mannlicher–Schönauer had one other interesting feature - a rotating spool magazine. Mannlicher–Schönauer in use assaulting the Solkan church. Nonetheless, production went ahead for the Greeks, with more than 100,000 supplied before 1914 - rifles ordered afterwards were diverted to the Austro-Hungarian armed forces. The 6.5mm cartridges were an unusual choice which may also have made it less appealing. It was a very well made and reliable weapon, but that made it expensive to produce. This led to situations like these Mannlicher–Schönauer rifles built for export to the Greek army being pressed into service with Austro-Hungarian forces.Ī conventional looking rifle hiding an unusual magazine… The fury of war always consumes a huge amount of material and equipment, and certainly during the First World War no army had an easy time finding enough of anything, even basic items like rifles. RiflesThe workhorse of military conflict for a long time, rifles are the most common weapons in Isonzo and you’d do well to acquaint yourself with their strengths and weaknesses. ![]()
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