[3] Around the year 1890 the Romanian military started its search for a small bore, smokeless powder firearm to replace the breech-loading single-shot Martini–Henry M1879.

They turned to the nearby Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft (ŒWG) in Steyr, Austria-Hungary where then-factory manager Otto Schönauer was modifying the German Gewehr 1888 rifle, the license on which ŒWG got as a compensation for patent infringement by the Komissiongewehr's designers on Ferdinand Mannlicher's en-bloc clip feeding system.

After Mannlicher and Schönauer removed all the obvious defects of the G88 caused by its hasty design (mainly fixed the double feeding problem by modifying bolt head geometry) and adapted the German modernization of the clip allowing the latter to be fed into the rifle regardless of whether the clip was turned up or down for a rimmed round, the Model 1892 rifle was ready for testing by the Romanian Army.

[4] After some minor improvements, the final variant, the M1893, chambered for the 6.5x53R round also called the "6.5x53.5mmR Romanian", was put into production.

Compared to the M1892 model, the M1893 had an additional stacking rod, reinforcing ribs on the lower part of the magazine housing, and a safety feature was added to the bolt so it could not be re-inserted if assembled improperly.

The rifle's bore, smaller than the usual Mannlicher product, also caused difficulties in finding compatible gunpowder.

Unassembled rifles were modified to accommodate the 8×50mmR Mannlicher cartridge and issued to Austrian Landwehr units.

[12] The Kingdom of Portugal bought about 12,500 6.5mm Mannlicher rifles and carbines from Steyr, some in 1896, for the Navy and Cavalry, and the remainder in 1898 for the Artillery.

[17] World War 2-era 6.5×53mmR caliber surplus and earlier ammunition is still available, but these are primarily corrosive in nature and rifles will require a thorough cleaning to reduce the development of rust.

Standard .323" 8mm S-bullets are correct for this caliber though best results are obtained from open-base bullets that can expand to fit the .329" bore.