| 1914-18 Small Arms of the Austro-Hungarian Empire |
| The M95 carbine was considered the best rifle of its time for Austro-Hungarian troops.
It had a straight-pull bolt. The straight pull was considered an advantage in the rate of fire compared to a turn bolt rifle. The disadvantage was under battle conditions the action tended to jamb. The Austrians had considered switching over to a Mauser type action but the war had started and it was too late for them to change with all the other problems needing attention including just trying to find enough rifles to supply the troops! In July 1914 the Austrians had 118,000 Werndle rifles, 1.3 million M86-90 and M88-90 rifles, 80,000 M90 rifles, 850,000 M95 rifles, and 67,000 M12 Mexican mausers (rifles confiscated that were being manufactured for a Mexican contract). There were also 5,000 Mannlicher-Schonauer 6.5mm M3/14 contract rifles that were issued to the Polish legion. In 1915 Contract Romanian M1893 rifles were converted to use the standard 8X50R cartridge. Three thousand Columbian (contract) M14 mausers were issued to the volunteer rifle regiment of Karnten. 66,000-72,000 updated M13 �88 commission rifles were being supplied by Germany and 632 Madsen light machine guns were purchased from Denmark. In 1916 captured Russian rifles were being converted to the 8X50R cartridge and captured Italian Carcanos were being issued. Almost 50,000 C96 broom handles were imported from Germany. 1903 mausers were used in fighting alongside the Turks. 3,000 Chilean contract mausers were put into use. The Bergmann light machine gun was being used for anti-air defense. A lightened version of the Scwarzlose machine gun was developed and an automatic 9mm pistol with a 16 round extended magazine was issued. 9,873 were still in service at the end of the war. In 1917 Japanese M97 rifles captured from the Russians were issued to Marsch-Batailion IR14 Handguns used were the Steyr M12. The Roth-Steyr M1907 and preferred by the Hungarians was the Frommer M12, also still in use by second rank troops were the Rast and Gasser M1898 and Gasser models 1878, 70-74. The Steyr-Pieper M1909 automatic pistol was the favorite private purchase pistol for officers. Source for most of the written information is from: �Central Powers� Small Arms of WW1� John Walter. |
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| Soldier with a M95 long rifle |
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| Soldiers with M90 rifles |
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| M95 short rifles showing the proper use of the rifles stacking hook. |