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German Model 98/40
General Specifications
Type . . . . . . . . .Turnbolt repeater.
Receiver . . . . . .One-piece machined steel foraging. Slotted bridge with stripper-clip guides.
Bolt . . . . . . . . . .Two-piece with separate non-rotating bolt head. Dual opposed locking lugs forward. Bolt guide rib on bolt with its integral bolt handle acts as a safety lug. Flat bolt face.
Ignition . . . . . . .One-piece firing pin powered by coil mainspring. Cocks on closing.
Magazine . . . . .Non-detachable staggered-column box type. Quick-detachable floorplate.
Bolt-stop . . . . . .Mannlicher type positioned on the left side of receiver bridge, stops bolt travel by contacting ejector over the left locking lug.
Trigger . . . . . . .Non-adjustable, double-stage military pull.
Safety . . . . . . . .Wing-type built into the cocking piece, locks striker and bolt when swung to the right.
Extractor . . . . . .Non-rotating, fitted into the bolt head. Uses separate flat spring.
Magazine cutoff None provided.
Ejector . . . . . . .Sliding type attached to the left side of bolt head.
The issue stock and forend can be remodeled if you want to keep expenses to a minimum. The main thing is to shorten the forend. It need not be any longer than about 14 inches.
There are no commercial receiver sights, triggers or safeties available for this rifle, although it is possible to install a double-set trigger made for the M98 Mauser action in the 98/40. There are no rechambering possibilities for this rifle. While no one makes a threaded and chambered barrel available for this rifle, a different calibered barrel can be fitted to the action. By rebarreling, this action would be suitable for such cartridges as the 257 Roberts, 7mm Mauser, 308 and 358.
I see no practical way to change the action so it cocks on opening, or an easy way to lengthen the magazine to accept longer cartridges.
Takedown and Assembly
Make sure the rifle is unloaded. To remove the bolt, raise the bolt handle and pull the bolt back while depressing the bolt-stop. Disassemble the bolt by first removing the bolt head. This is done by turning the bolt head so the ejector is in line with the bolt rib. Using a cartridge, place its rim under the extractor hook, lift or tip the hook outward, and pull the bolt head from the bolt. Turn out the ejector screw to remove the ejector. Remove the extractor by pushing down on the extractor spring with a tool so the extractor can be moved back and lifted out. Lift out the extractor spring. In reassembling the extractor, first insert the extractor spring in its slot with its round end to the rear, then push the extractor down until it slips in place.
Remove the firing mechanism by pressing the safety forward and unscrewing the firing pin nut from the firing pin, after which all the parts can be removed. Reassemble in reverse order, turning the firing pin nut on as far as it will go and then backing it off until the safety engages in its notch in the nut. Remove the buttstock by first removing the buttplate; then using a long screwdriver, turn out the stock bolt. Depress the floorplate latch and remove the floorplate, follower and spring. The follower and floorplate can then be slipped off of the spring. Remove barrel bands and trigger guard screws. Next, remove the trigger guard from the forend and the forend from the barrel. The buttstock socket and the magazine box are also released at this time. Drive out the floorplate latch pin to remove the latch and spring. Drive out the sear pin to remove the sear and trigger mechanism.
Push the bolt-stop pin out toward the bottom and remove the bolt-stop and spring. Reassemble in reverse order. The narrow end of the follower spring fits into the follower.
The barrel is threaded very tightly into the receiver and cannot be easily removed, nor should it be removed unless necessary, and then only if the proper tools are available.
Greek Model 1903 Mannlicher-Schoenauer FdH
TO MOST RIFLEMEN, the name Mann-licher-Schoenauer brings to mind a sleek little sporting rifle having a slim forend that extends to the muzzle of its short barrel. It is in the “elite” class of bolt-action sporting rifles, and it’s gained worldwide recognition and fame. Its popularity does not seem to decrease despite the great many other bolt-action rifles it has had to compete against since it was first introduced many years ago. It all started with the Greek Model 1903 M-S military rifle, for the M-S sporting rifle is basically a sporterized version of the military rifle.
The M-S action was developed in the Austrian Arms Factory at Steyr in 1900, the name deriving from those of Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher and Otto Schoenauer. Mannlicher, born in Mainz, Germany, in 1848, became one of the world’s leading military arms designers. He died in Austria in 1904. He is most noted for his development of the clip-loading magazine system, “straight-pull” rifle actions, and automatic rifles and pistols, for which he obtained many U.S. and foreign patents. Most military arms produced by the great Austrian Arms Factory, often called the Great Steyr Works, from the mid-1880s on, were of Mannlicher design. Otto Schoenauer, a native Austrian, was the director of the Austrian Arms Factory for a number of years. His main claim to fame is the rotary-type magazine used in the M-S rifle.
Although he was not the first inventor of the rotary-spool magazine system, Otto Schoenauer began working with that idea before 1885; it was first combined with a turnbolt 43-caliber rifle of Mannlicher design in 1887. A year later it was adapted to a Mannlicher straight-pull rifle. In the United States, Arthur Savage was working on his lever-action rifle fitted with a rotary-spool magazine, which he perfected by 1893 and on which he obtained patents. He became famous for his efforts which resulted in the Model 99 Savage rifle, which was made for many years.
The Schoenauer spool magazine, however, was not fully perfected until about 1900, when it was first successfully combined with a small-caliber turnbolt rifle. It is believed that Portugal obtained a few of the Model 1900 M-S military rifles. This rifle, with minor modifications, was adopted by Greece in 1903, and designated the Greek Model 1903 Mannlicher-Schoenauer rifle. It was produced in large numbers by the factory of which Schoenauer was the director. Mannlicher supplied most of the action designs.
At this point, I must backtrack a bit. In an earlier chapter I described the German Model 88 Commission action, designed by a group of men who borrowed some features from an earlier Mauser action and used the Mannlicher patented clip-loading single-column magazine system. Adopted by Germany in 1888, the only thing about this action which was “Mannlicher” was the magazine.
The Austrian Arms Factory in Steyr was one of the firms which contracted to make the M88 rifles for Germany. Because of the magazine, and because Mannlicher was also associated with the firm, and perhaps because they made some sporting rifles based on this action, the 88 rifles were often referred to as “Mannlicher”
