Mannlicher-Schoenauer rifles have carved out a unique niche in the African hunting fields over the years. With their butter knife bolt handles, split rear bridge, and shotgun-style trigger guards (on some models), they have a distinctive look about them. If you do wonder how well they were made, merely cycle the bolt of a Mannlicher-Schoenauer and experience what is probably the smoothest bolt action of them all.
The Mannlicher-Schoenauer action was a collaborative effort between Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher and Otto Schoenauer. Von Mannlicher designed the action while Schoenauer was responsible for the rotary magazine, one of the design’s major pluses.
The Mannlicher-Schoenauer is probably the closest associated with the 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schoenauer cartridge (although there is a 6.5x54 Mauser as well, a beast of a slightly different colour). The 6.5 MS was introduced in 1900 as a military cartridge for the Greek Army, but it quickly gained popularity as a sporting cartridge, especially when chambered in the lightweight and elegant 1903 Mannlicher-Schoenauer carbine. The 6.5x54 MS was, in fact, merely a rimless development from the earlier (1892/1893) military Mannlicher rifles made for the Dutch and Romania. For some years, British gunmakers
