trooper

The pistol is a Chilean contract gun...so may well be marked as a "1911"... that would be amusing. 9mm Steyr , fixed 8 round mag in the butt loaded with stripper clips. This may well be the easiest obsolete handgun to actually shoot.... why? 1. Starline makes 9mm Steyr brass (!!!!) and in any case it is almost dimensionally identical to 38 Super Comp 2. 38 Super dies reportedly work just fine 3. Stripper clips? LOL.... Rim diameter of 9mm Steyr is .382 - And 5.56 rim diameter is .378. Yes.. M16 stripper clips reportedly work! How cool is that? Do we have a "Foreign guns" side match for WB?

Well.... I now have the 95 Steyr...and have shot it. Man.. did I get lucky. It looks like a refurb...wood and bluing are very nice indeed (but stamped serial numbers on the wood are still very clear....) Rifling looks crisp and sharp and... TBH? Pretty much unused. Receiver/barrel and stock have matching numbers... bolt and upper handguard do not. Can't say i'm at all surprised. Sights and trigger are what you would expect on a rifle from that era... (im hoping the trigger can be improved..we will see!) Accuracy is fine with jacketed. Waiting on some lead pills to try... I tried the "% of case capacity" Trail Boss loads but couldn't get above about 1300 fps. So a bit more research was done and Im using the local "AR2209" which is pretty much an analogue of 4350. FOUR clips came with it...a little bonus.. and Wow! What a great system! On the fifth round there is a little "ping" and the clip falls out the bottom... as advertised. Loading a clip is smooth and easy. If you get the feeling Im impressed you are absolutely correct! Being the Infantry Rifle it is quite long... a 30.5" barrel will do that.... but it handles pretty well. I suspect I will haul it over there before too long...and join the fun... An old CAS friend saw my photos of this rifle and revealed he had TWO of the 1912 Steyr pistols... Because he's a good bloke he agreed to sell me one to "round out" my Austro-Hungarian combat set...lol Sitting out the 28 day waiting period on that right now.... sigh.

Thanks!

We are currently shooting "what ya brung" but Australia is probably a bit far to go just to shoot jacketed! LOL Dusty! A QUESTION! Are you using the "70% case capacity Trail Boss " loads with lead in these rifles???

Will do! The rifle is coming with about 70 cases... 100 projectiles...3 Mannlicher clips...and dies. So I can make a good start there.....The barrel condition is of course the big question. no matter how good it might LOOK the proof is, as always, in the shooting. Still... this will be an interesting experiment....

We are slowly getting BAMM going Down Under too.... Had 2 matches so far as part of State WB matches and as you folks might have guessed the most common rifles used here (so far) are of course the Lee-Enfields. We've seen early WW1 vintage No 1 Mk III's, right up to late war No 4 Mk Is... along with Mosin- Nagants, Mausers and a sole O3-A3 (they are scarce and $$$$$$$$$$ down here unfortunately) Those of you who know me won't be surprised to know I've been looking for something...different. Would love a K-31 (or a Krag) but availability here is very poor... what I DID find is perhaps a LITTLE more different than I was intending. An M1895 Steyr Infantry Rifle. 1917 manufacture. Straight pull. Uses Mannlicher style en bloc clips. 8 x 56R...which uses an odd 329/330 projectile - which fortunately ARE available. Looking forward to seeing how this 102 year old Austro-Hungarian Army issue rifle goes on the range... fingers crossed. As an aside , while I was shooting a Mosin at our last match a thought occurred to me... Just HOW unlikely is it that a rifle built at the Tula Arsenal (200 kilometres south of Moscow) ...in 1928.. would end up being used at a shooting match - in Australia - based on a Movie set in 1913 Mexico? (Yep..I do have too much time on my hands!!!)

Awful news. Fred was so kind to us "furriners" over the years... A fine gentleman is gone.

As a WB shooter who is also a very keen IPSC shooter I wouldn't mind starting in "Condition 1"... but... like Last Chance I don't think it would make much difference to WB I don't know what other pistol events the OP shoots, but it is QUITE common at big IPSC (and USPSA) matches to have Israeli start stages, and even Unloaded start stages...(does that make them "retarded" too?).and the RO only ever says "Make Ready" if it is in fact an unloaded start... in IPSC and USPSA it is "LOAD and make ready" every other time...just sayin… The BIG improvements in my view have been the changes to "Slide forward" penalties and allowing tactical reloads.....YMMV of course....

At my most recent WB match here in Australia there were 2 stages where a tactical reload offered a benefit.... but I suspect I was the only shooter at the match to actually do so...on both at least. I feel perhaps far more comfortable with the concept as an IPSC shooter of some years experience. Talking to others at the match they generally saw the downside of doing something they were NOT used to...and so refrained. I think its a great addition (as is the 7 rd mag useage after all, that's what the gun was designed for , right?) and that the game is just getting better. Yes, the RO needs to be on the ball...but that is nmot new, especially in WB.