Decisions decisions- dealing with siblings and the economy?

You have an extremely interesting little rifle which was designed by the great Ritter Ferdinand von Mannlicher. It was built before 1919 and saw service in the First World War. In the 1930s it was factory-rebuilt and modified for the then-new Model 30 cartridge, the 8x56R, which shoots a 208-grain bullet of .329" diameter.

It will flatten anything in North America, it's handy, it's light and it is very reliable. Also, it uses the Mannlicher clips and is fast to load and it has genuine Mauser-type controlled-round feeding. You can eject a partly-full clip upwards if you have the bolt back and you push the little button inside the triggerguard.

Empty clips fall out the bottom as the last cartridge is fed so, if you don't want to lose a clip, put a piece of masking-tape across the empty-clip chute. Works for me. At a hundred bucks, it's a steal.

Last one I saw was 3 times that and it was completely wrecked by some bozo with a saw and a wood-rasp... and no taste or sense of decency. Ammo will be your problem, though. The gun-show stuff with the Eagle-and Swastika is Austrian ammo, built after the German occupation of 1938.

You also can find original Austrian ammo from time to time. And there is ammo marked with a Standing Bear. This is Bulgarian, made at Sofia Arsenal.

All of this old ammunition is rather violently corrosive: it lines your barrel with SALT, each and every shot you fire. I would get a few of the cartridges, just to have them, but hoard your clips: they are no longer made anywhere and you need a clip to load the magazine. IF by any chance you should shoot any of this old ammo through your rifle, clean the barrel interior afterwards with BOILING water, then run a rod with a dry patch down to dry everything out, wait 5 minutes and oil.

Inspect carefully the next day; potassium chloride can be sneaky, as I found out. The Hornady ammunition should be really good stuff and the casings are reloadable. You can also get bullets to fit this cartridge now.

Primers and powder are the same as all the other military cartridges. For a Carbine OR a Stutzer, you should load with a FAST powder: IMR-3031 is the best choice here. If you are near a PRVI PARTIZAN dealer, you will find that they, too, make this cartridge and they load it hot.

Lee Precision makes the special dies for reloading this number, and they are only $32 for a set which will last your lifetime. Lee makes a whole line of well-made, inexpensive reloading tools and the factory service is just unbelievable. See their website at leeprecision.com.

You have a genuine chunk of First World War.... and Second World War... history in your hands. This would be an excellent start to a collection of 20th-Century Military Rifles. BTW, these were also made in a Rifle version with a 30-inch barrel but otherwise identical to what you have.

They were used primarily by the old Austro-Hungarian Empire and by their ally, the Kingdom of Bulgaria. After WWI, they were used in Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, some in Czechoslovakia and captured/war-prize weapons in Romania and Greece. You are now a bona fide Military Rifle Collector/Historian.

Welcome to the club! We have a couple of guys on canadiangunnutz who have these and just love them. BTW up there, WHERE did you find CHEAP Kar98ks?

Last 50 I saw cost half the national debt! ..

Ehh, its not the best deal in the world. And the hornady ammo is cheap because its underpowered. You would have had better luck getting a Karabiner 98K.

Cheap as HELL, cheaper ammo, and the smoothest action i've seen on a battle rifle. And as an added bonus, they're always in good shape.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.