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Moved from old YW site:
gschwertley
Interesting M95 seen in museum
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This weekend we were in Port Townsend, Washington. While there, I visited the Coast Artillery Museum at the former Fort Warden. This fort was situated at a choke point along the entrance to Puget Sound and was part of a system of coastal defenses designed to keep enemy ships out of our ports.
Fort Warden was the home of the 14th and 248th Coast Artillery Regiments. I will write more about the subject of coast artillery at a later time.
At the museum that is located at Fort Warden, they maintain many interesting displays. Among these is a room full of rifles from the late 19th Century up to the end of WW2. In the display is an M95 Austrian Steyr. This particular one is a cut-down rifle, with the cut-down rifle stock that has the wide band spacing. The rear sight is the type used originally on the long rifles. It has the sling swivels mounted underneath, in the long rifle style or the original Stutzen configuration, and it has a sling loop on the side of the rear barrel band but the wrist of the stock is not drilled for a sling fixture there. The interesting part is that this rifle is in its original caliber of 8x50R. Never before have I seen a cut down-rifle in 8x50R, so it doesn't seem to be a Bulgarian rework; maybe an older Austrian one. It has the very low front sight typical of M95 short rifles chambered for the 8x50R cartridge with the 244 grain bullet. The stock is marked on the right side of the butt, "RZK" over "Kr 21" parallel to the butt plate. The chamber date is 1916 Wn. This rifle has seen much handling as there is not much finish left; otherwise it seems to be in good condition.
Can anyone interpret that stock marking? A unit marking of some kind, isn't it?
Quite a number of other Mannlichers were represented in this display, including an M90 Austrian and several 6.5mm rifles from a number of nations. They had a Dutch 6.5 carbine, the one with short wood on it, and the description said it had been "made in Germany in 1918." It think this must have been a mistake, and somebody thought "Hembrug" was "Hamburg." The Germans weren't making these for export in that last desperate year of WW1, were they?
yockey5
I believe you are close on the stock markings. I have read of these being cut down while still in service, long before Bulgaria got a hold of them.
The other 6.5 caliber was not made in germany, but rather made by the Dutch. HEMBRUG is correct.
coffee pot
5thDragoons
I have an M95 Long rifle in 8X50R that has RZK stamped into the butt using large letters. I would certainly like to know what it means. SW
prez1981
Sounds legit. Not sure about the RZK marking, but the Kr 21 is generally attributed to Poland. They obtained a limited number of M95's after WWI. I've been looking for one for a long time. Sounds like something to check out.
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