The slickest turn-bolt rifle action ever is, by popular acclaim, Austria's Mannlicher-Schoenauer. It appeared in 1900, the Model of 1903 on its heels. The ‘03's “butterknife” bolt handle ran so smoothly through the split bridge, a downward flip of the muzzle would zip the drawn bolt forward and turn it into battery! A five-shot spool magazine fed 6.5x54 cartridges fluidly. In rifle and carbine form, the M-S of 1903 served Greece as its infantry arm through WW II. The 6-pound, full-stocked carbine, with its artfully understated curves, became a hit with hunters world-wide, including W.D.M. Bell, F.C. Selous, and Ernest Hemingway.
The long series of M-S split-bridge rifles sparked by the 1903 ended in the 1960s. Oddly enough, none were manufactured by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher, hired by Austria's arms factory in 1877, or by his colleague Otto Schoenauer. Both were designers, not industry tycoons. They labored at the Steyr works, in the Austrian city of that name.
Less celebrated now is a straight-pull rifle developed by
