I just got this one last night. It doesn't seem to have been used much as most of the black paint remains. It's shown with my commie M.95M for size perspective.
A little background on the Bulgarian trainer:
After WW1, Bulgaria wound up with thousands of M.95 Steyr long rifles. Many were shortened to 'carbine' length - some were converted to 7.9 and had the M applied to the M.95, making them M.95M for "Mauser" cartridge.
Hundreds more were 'de-milled' by making a large opening over the chamber and welding over the bolt face. The firing pin was chopped off. The bolt face was milled flat, and the rifles were issued to what we would call high school students and other cadets for close order drill and manual of arms training. Cheep black paint was shoddily applied to designate them as trainers.
I've seen some that were all beat up toward the front like they had been used for bayonet practice - possibly bayonet fencing.
Bulgaria exported these to America in the late 50s - early 60s. I have actually seen the ads in old gun magazines from that era advertising these as lamps!
The ad I recall showed them in groups of three with the butt plates welded to a metal stand. Wires were run up the barrel by way of the convenient opening over the chamber and a cheep lamp shade was added.A large percentage of the remaining examples were simply taken down and the parts sold separately. There aren't all that many of the original trainers left, so I'll keep this one like it is... unless I luck into a nice long rifle barreled action in 8x50R at a cheep price!
SW
More detailed pics of the action here: http://www.gunbroker.com/auction/ViewIt ... =117023848