Mannlicher 1905
Cal.7.65mm
The majority of the models were sent in Argentina, receiving a typical engraving on the side of the weapon.
At the time of the recycling of these military weapons on the civil market, this engraving was filed to avoid any confusion on the property of these weapons.
Since only 15.000 of these Argentine 1905's were made it remains a relatively hard to find item. They can be found both with and without the Argentine engraving on the left side (less common).
Mannlicher Steyr 1905 Commercial
Here I have a Steyr Mannlicher 1905 which I believe to be an early commercial pistol. Most of the Mannlichers that I have seen in Argentina and Uruguay have had the Argentine crest ground off the right side of the action. This one never had that crest, rather it has the words, "SYSTEM MANNLICHER" stamped on the right side of the pistol.
I believe this to be an early model because in a catalog I have it says that the 1905 Mannlicher had stamped on the right side: "MODEL 1905". The "SYSTEM MANNLICHER" stamp was used on the right side of the 1901 model, so I surmise that the earlier stamp was used on this, even though it is clearly the 1905 model - this shown by the grips and by the fact that the rear sight is on the rear part of the breech block, not on the barrel.
The left side of this model then has the lettering: "MODEL 1905, WAFFENFABRIK, STEYR". The 1901 pistol only had the lettering: "WAFFENFABRIK, STEYR" on the left side.
My catalog says that later production moved all of the letters to the left side so that the Argentine crest could be stamped on the right side, these later models then had following lettering on the left: "SYSTEM MANNLICHER, MODEL 1905, WAFFENFABRIK, STEYR".
Perhaps all "commercial" models had the kind of stamping found on this pistol, but I have no idea how many commercial models were made, nor when they were made. The information found in the catalog I have may also be in error, I have found other errors there before.
Here is the information I have besides the manufacturer's stamps on the action:
1905 Steyr Mannlicher semi-auto Pistol, cal. 7.63mm Mannlicher, serial # 2566, Manufactured c1906 length: barrel 159 mm, overall 242 mm.
Richard
