Steyr M95 Straight-Pull Semiauto Conversion 

There even is a machine gun conversion in the Austrian army museum. It was done by Austrian soldiers back in world war 1, but it is very crude and it actually looks like if it was just a nice try.

M95 Straight pull, one of the slickest designs, and they turned it into an equally slick semi-auto. I am truly utterly captivated. Sad it never caught on, but that's kinda the crux of this channel, right?

"It just works" - Ian, speaking at E3 Bethesda Conference 2015

An old boy at my local rifle club, told me many years ago, that he and a friend converted a couple of these carbines to 30-40 Krag. That was back in the day when surplus krag ammunition and parts were cheap and plentiful.

Interesting that Beretta, or whoever did the conversion, took the time to put a really nice stock on it with the sling mounts and the rest of the metalwork. I'd guess that the original rifle was one of the vast number of arms surrendered at the end of the war, I wonder what other projects resulted from similar acquisitions?

GunJesus speaks in a hushed voice that befits the chambers of the Cardinal of Beretta.

Old timey rifles with pistol grips always look so strange.

Oh my, is Ian advocating the sporterization of historical rifles? I never thought I would see the day.

Italy received huge numbers of M-95 Steyrs as reparations after WW1. SMI even loaded the 8x50 round. Your specimen possibly 8x50 rather than 8x56.

I have an m95 and I can only imagine what the recoil would be like in a full auto version of this.

It certainly gets points, for looks! Wonder who it would be to shoot

I'm an Australian and I have been considering the possibility of a straight pull to semi conversion M95 for some time, really glad to know it's a feasible option;)

" Just the project for the hobbyist gunsmith with a cheap extra M95 carbine and lots of spare time..." Time to add this to the list

I like these videos at the Beretta factory museum because you can tell Ian is very excited but is trying to speak quietly.

Probably the slickest looking semi auto conversion I've seen.

One of several semi-auto conversions attempted during and after WWI. As already mentioned, this is an M90 Carbine, with M95 Parts update. The Russians in 1915, attempted an "add-on" kit, using a side mounted gas piston cylinder with a single rod to a bolt handle clevis, eliminating the stirrup type rod used to pass the Magazine well ( similar to Scotti Model X s/a.). The clevis could be detached from the bolt handle allowing for manual use. One problem with sustained use, the side or underbarrel recoil spring would lose its temper and fail...Garand did resolve this problem. As to " slam fire, MG-ing", etc, the firing pin requires quite a stiff impulse to detonate the cartridge, and the final bolt head rotation prevents premature detonation ( a loose FP won't have sifficient force to ignite like a hammer riding a bolt in a Garand or MI carbine, or more to the point, the safety lugs on a Mauser 98 FP, which prevents firing without full lock. As a project, a lathe and milling machine are required and a new stock. The Russians modified their captured M.95 Sutzen stocks, and did not have an elaborate pistol grip and long buffer slide, just a slide extension ( like a Vetterli-Vitale. Proper gas takeoff and bleed off needs to be calculated to prevent hammering of the bolt, as the cocking piece hits the buffer. Nice conversion, probably done post WWI in Brescia. Have seen it in rack at Beretta Museum (2005)

A gorgeous looking rifle, and one I have never seen exactly.

I remember thinking "you could rig up something on the bolt handle and make it a janky pump-action". I'm glad someone took this even further.

I've been seeing your videos on Reddit and finally decided to subscribe. I really enjoy your content! Thank you for being so passionate about old guns.

Man I would love to do something like this..... by the time I’m old enough, smart enough and have the proper tools... gun like these will be consider “extremely rare” 😰

Way back when I was a gunsmith, I took one of these old rifles and converted it to a 444 Marlin cartridge. Made a great little woods gun for deer hunting. I used it one season and sold it at a gun show.

That is a really nice conversion. Too bad they didn't make more of these. All it needs now is a cover for the bolt and a non reciprocating bolt handle. And maybe a bigger magazine.

The rifle is in 8x50R, in use in Italy 1920s- 1940s Colonial issue. Italy never adopted 8x56R. Doc AV

Now this rifle should get an extended 20 or 25 round box magazine, like those sometimes seen on 1903 Springfield's or 98 Mauser's.

That is a *really* slick gun. I'm a bit surprised this didn't make its way into one of the Battlefield games, because this is right up DICE's alley.

Ian do you know of any place to find diagrams or schematics of this piece? I just so happen to have a cheap m95 I picked up with the intention of tinkering with and a fairly well equipped shop.

Smart system. I also prevents slaming slide in shooters face. Another one, that I havent hear about before. Brilliant.

2:18 "unmolested" gave me giggles...

I love your channel and your videos greetings all the way from Slovenia

There was a conversion of the earlier M88/90 rifle to an automatic support weapon complete with mono pod /bi pod, and a spike on the butt to ensure shooter didn't get close to the reciprocating bolt It may have been a conversion by Bulgarian Army - but still exist in a museum as a photo appeared a 1970s magazine.

It seems the rifle is actually still in 8x50mmR. When the Austrians and Hungarians converted their guns to 8x56mmR, they changed the rear sight leaf to meters - this one is still in schritt ( an archaic distance unit; equivalent of a 'pace'). [Although I believe the Bulgarians changed the sights on the guns they received back to schritt.] The biggest giveaway is the fact that the barrel shank isn't marked with and S or H. This was done by the Austrians and Hungarians, respectively, when the guns were reamed for 8x56mmR. Therefore this semiauto conversion was likely done before 1930 - before 8x56mmR upgrade programs.

I'm surprised this isn't in battlefield one.

@forgotten_weapons Ian, in the Polish Military Museum, in Warsaw, there is a similar but different M95 conversion from 1921 if I can recall correctly. I would be amazing if you're ever in Poland and the Museum would let you film one of them. They also have the wz.1938m semi-auto, wz.1939 'Mors' smg, and a wz.35 anti-tank rifle!

The Rifle is still in 8x50r as it doesn't have the 'S' or 'H' stamping on the barrel shank. That also helps date this to sometime in the 19teens to 1931-2ish.

Very simple and cost effective, but I can't help but think that the first time you fired that the bolt flying back so close to your nose would be quite disconcerting.

The open trough for the bolt resembles that a Scotti-Enfield semi-automatic conversion that was done in the mid-thirties. If this is a Scotti variant then the rifle is probably still in the original 8x50mmR. Italy received M1895 rifles as reparations after WW1.

The Russians alsodid aside mounted cylinder semi auto, avoiding the two slots in the Beretta prototype stock to allow the piston extension bars to get past the Mag well to the block across the rear end of the block. The Russian model had a simple Garand type bar from piston to lock into bolt handle. They did add a bolt rail, but not as long. Normal 5 round 8x50R charger.. Not known how many converted ( Stutzen) DocAV

Looks like it needs some sort of dust cover on the bolt. Looks like a pretty slick piece of work.

I'm surprised this isn't in Battlefield 1, since DICE overused prototype auto loaders In that game.

I wish they had added the conversion to bf1 as a medic gun with changed stats of course

Show us the iron sights just like you show scopes.

My only concern with DIYing a conversion of these is the probable lack of an interrupter on these old bolt guns. Without one you'll only get runaway 5-rd bursts and possible unwanted attention from the ATF. Also depending on the recoil (not so much buffer) spring-weight very fast bursts at that, which given the power of the 8x56R will probably not make for the most pleasant or aimable thing to shoot. I bet there isn't a bolt hold-open either, so loading 5-rd stripper clips just so you can burp them off in 0.2 seconds is going to get old fast. By the time you add all these you're already half way to a new design anyway, which makes cost savings of a conversion vs going with a straighforward from-the-ground-up new design (i.e. FAL) questionable. This is probably why all these inter-war conversion projects never got anywhere. I don't mean to rain on everyone's day but when you think about it bolties and self-loaders are much further apart in design than most people immediately realize, at least a decent, usable self-loader.

Now that's a nice little addition to my collection I would dearly love to have!!! 🤠👍

Judging by the lack of a "S" on the barrel shank I would say it is in 8x50r. Which would be correct for a gun done by the Austrians before the 1930's when most were converted to the better round. Also note the barrel band it similar to the one used on the M1938 Italian short rifle which would make sense if it originally one of the guns captured by Italy during the First World War. If it were done in Italy during WW2 it would still be in the 8x50r which this one is.

Damn right I bet that springs stiff!!The m95 is a bruiser of a little rifle. It's a rifle that can benefit from a rubber button pad!!! It would be a little scary to fire a semi auto one without something more substantial to catch that bolt near your face if it decided to get free. 🤨 I wish he would've disassembled it to show what all has been done.

I would like to see a blue print, also the disconnector set up

I think another reason for the lengthened receiver/stock is that if you tried to fire it like a traditional Steyr-Mannlicher, the cocking piece would punch your eye out :P

Well I just picked up 3 M95 rifles. And I wanted to try a project on one cause its more beat up than the others. Might try my hand at building this

If you added a big dust cover to the back of that and chopped off the pistol grip you could convince me it was an sks.

8x56R full house military load sure packs a wallop.. I don't know if I'd be interested in shooting a tinkering project chambered in a punchy caliber like that..

I've seen a very similar conversion in Poland, but the pistol grip was metallic

This so beautiful and so smart!

OEWG signifies a M90. 1902 dated barrel and the bolt and rear sight indicates a M90 updated to m95 standards. Probably still in 8x50r as there is no S on the barrel. They must have inletted the wood a bit on either side of the magazine to get the op rod around it. I wonder if that imparts and significant weakness to the stock or if the new stock is just that much thicker? Why the extension to the hand guard reward, past the rear sight?

Hopefully the gas system helps reduce recoil...I'm not very sensitive to recoil, but my M95 Steyr with Nazi marked WW2 vintage 8×56R ammo is absolutely brutal

damn that thing actually looks like a viable military arm. chamber it for .308 or .300 winchester and you have a serious marksman's rifle

The OEWG on the receiver tells us that the receiver started its life as Steyr M90, not M95 - although their actions are technically the same anyway. "True" Austian M95s had either a Steyr or Budapest mark on top and M95 engraved below.

Utterly cool! Thank you very much.

Hey Ian have you ever seen a troop tag under the butt plate? Is this only common with Swiss rifles or did any other military do this throughout history? Thank you for the great info in all of your videos we greatly appreciate it.

I have always wondered how strong those wooden pistol grips are, I feel like one good fall/ding would have it flying off.

Your voice is so relaxing, love your vids :)

I think you also have to modify the trigger mechanism to add a disconnector.

I normally dislike these kind of postwar/aftermarket versions, specifically if it's sportarized or stupid rechambering decisions. But semi auto conversions are cool (I do love that Turner SMLE conversion). As for this M95 conversion? It's a tad cursed, but that's mostly due to the weird stock/pistol grip design. The functional bits are awesome 👌

Dude, you are me hero :D Thanks for posting these videos :D

I'm not sure how you would do it, but I'd love to see a forgotten weapons app, something with all your articles that automatically adds your new ones if connected to WiFi. I would pay for that

I think the main reasons that these semi-auto conversions failed is because the designers tried too hard to keep as much of the original rifle and bolt as possible. wouldn't cutting the bolt in half and making it hammer fired and piston driven make it much more successful? new stock and shortened barrel and a shroud to cover up the receiver. someone should give this a try to a more modern bolt action rifle.

Has the barrel also been shortend ?

what's the difference between italian sling attachments and german sling attachments? coz you also see hk models with sling attachments like that

It would be a really cool project... Also illegal as hell unless you've got the proper FFL.

Like you already said, some of the hardware like the sling swivel in the stock and the plum blue parts about the bolt show it no doubt to be Italian. Probably done with some of the M95s they got off Austria as war reparations from WW1.

Do we have any evidence of a Schmidt-rubin system beeing modified this way? I think it would be a bit harder because the bolt doesn't naturaly run in a groove but I imagine the piston could be firmly attached to the bolt and held in two bearings instead. With the striker loop cut, a washer buffer installed and a thumb safety blocking the trigger it could be fun. Even in full auto..... Ohhh the possibilities :p

So how did the Italy trip come about? Did Beretta see your channel and invite you or...?

It looks a little like the Spas-12 when he holds it up...maybe its the pistol grip

The length of pull on this rifle looks a lot better than an unmodified m95

You and Karl should try this, I saw a old 95 in a big box gun store last week ,it was cheap, but the ammo i found out is not cheap at all, so I didn't buy it lol

The sights are so far away, haha. Throwing a new sight on the back might had been a good idea. Sure makes a strange stretched out rifle, but it would make a lot of sense to retro-fit a military and get them into the semi-auto game without having to adopt an entirely new rifle.

I am very sad that you did not field strip it so that we could see more how it was done.

Being a converted to semiautomatic bolt action rifle..... does it maintain the accuracy of the bolt action while being semiautomatic? Like a PSG-1 does?

A disconnector for semiauto is an essential part here that I can't see.

Really cool rifle

How much cheaper was it actually to convert straight pull bolt action rifles into semi-autos instead of producing new semi-autos?

I've got one lying around that I'd enjoy as a semi-auto, if you give me a hand with the machining and such!! I've also got a buddy with a machine shop here in tucson that could fabricate the needed parts, we'd just need your first-hand knowledge!

I bet that would be considered the best Medic rifle if DICE added that into Battlefield 1.

I wish you could have gotten some footage of you shooting it!

You say there are a lot of steyr M95 in the US but I've been looking for one for a good while and can't find one

the rear of the receiver looks similar to a Cei Rigotti, I'm probably wrong though

Ian, when did you go to Italy? These reference guns are very interesting - do you have many more you'll be releasing videos of?

This looks similar to what the Italians did with the Cei-Regotti

How close to their first marketed semiauto rifle is that?

Different camera? looks fisheye lens

I bet that thing is kind of scary to shoot with the bolt flying backwards at your face with each shot.

+forgotten weapons do you think you'll ever be able to lay hands on a Huot, the Ross Rifle conversion?

Ian can you a book review on the Rifles of the white death, please?

can you do a vid on the actual m95 straight pull and not a modification of it

but if you do such a conversion, dont you need to change the sear to reset after each shot?

I am very interested if anyone did produce any straight-pull rifles with the bolt lever on the left side in the same fashion as in G3 riffle. Or if anyone ever converted straight-pull riffle to pump-action. Both type of designs should greatly increase rate of fire.

You mention that you thought this was still in 8*56r - shouldn't this have been in 8*50r Austrian? I was of the impression that 8*56r wasn't a thing until the 1930's?

I wonder what halted this project.

Ian, how good of a rifle are the Steyr M95 long rifles re-chambered for the 8x56r? Ive heard the the extractors are weak and tend to break is that true? Is it a good rifle over all?

Part of me wonders why no nation in WWII regularized something like this. Almost every European nation apart from Germany were useng these rifles, so it woulda made sense.

that's what I call an austro-italian Garand!