In one of the previous articles, one of the rather interesting options for Mannlicher pistols with an automatic system built on a fixed bolt and a forward movable barrel was considered. The idea of creating such a sample turned out to be not the most successful, since such an automation system could not use powerful ammunition, and cartridges at that time were developing quite quickly. Despite this, Mannlicher continued to work on the creation of a pistol that would satisfy all the needs of the army and the civilian market. In fact, in parallel, the designer tried to create a weapon with a rigid locking of the barrel bore, as well as with a semi-free bolt.
Surprisingly, the second option turned out to be easier to implement, since the designer did not manage to achieve acceptable results in the durability of the barrel bore locking unit. And this system could not boast of its omnivorousness, since there was also a limitation on the power of the ammunition. So, one of the fairly common cartridges at that time was the Mauser pistol cartridge, but its energy turned out to be excessive for the pistol developed by Mannlicher, so the designer had to develop his own version of the cartridge, although the appearance of this ammunition was Mauser.
The automatics of the Mannlicher M1901 pistol works as follows. There is no rigid locking of the barrel, as mentioned above, however, the bolt interacts through the lever with the mainspring, which slows down the movement of the bolt when fired. Otherwise, the circuit works in the same way as the free gate circuit.
The Mannlicher M1901 pistol was repeatedly improved in an attempt to put the weapon into service with the Austro-Hungarian army, but the weapon did not become an army pistol, despite the fact that all the tests passed quite successfully. Nevertheless, this pistol was quite a success with the military, who acquired it on their own, for their own money.
The weapon has many options, respectively, and its name also changed from M1898 to M1905. In the process of improvement, the pistol changed its barrel length from 130 millimeters to 160, and its length changed, respectively, along with the capacity of an integral magazine (from 8 to 10 rounds). The weight also changed, but it never exceeded one kilogram. In other words, the constant attempts to create a weapon that would be adopted constantly, developed the pistol, adding new features and improving old ones.
Weapons are most widespread in Latin America, where this Mannlicher pistol takes the same place as our Mauser K96 pistol. Interestingly, ammunition for this pistol is still produced there, and the weapon itself, despite its age, can be found, although not often.
Thus, this pistol is a kind of exception to the rule, when an unusual cartridge causes a small proliferation of weapons. However, the cartridge is not so unusual, and at the time of the creation of the weapon there was no particular choice, so it is not surprising that Mannlicher managed to achieve a fairly large distribution of this type of weapon.
