It was the first of the Austro-Hungarian service rifles to introduce the feature of the clip dropping out of the bottom of the magazine when the last round is chambered.

[3] Rifles in original (11 mm) caliber with Austrian acceptance marks are a rare find.

The rifle still had a long life, however, and turned up in Spain in the hands of republican troops during the Spanish Civil War in the hands of members of the British Battalion at Madrigueras where they were used for training before being replaced on the eve of the Battle of Jarama by more modern rifles such as the Mosin-Nagant.

In 1876 Mannlicher visited the Centennial Exposition to study firearms design, and he researched plans and models at the patent office in Philadelphia.

[5] He may have been exposed there to Orvill Robinson's project which was patented in the US (but not in Europe)[6] (and produced, until his company was bought and shut down by W.R.A.).