M88 Mannlicher is a direct and immediate decendent of the M1886 Austrian Mannlicher. This rifle too was a straight-pull, bolt action, box magazine repeater on the von Mannlicher design. As early as the beginning of production of the M1886 the need and desirability for a small bore rifle was evident.

This rifle is virtually identical to it's predessor but for chambering a newly designed 8mm cartridge, loaded originally with black powder and denominated 8x50R, but shortly thereafter converted to semi-smokeless as soon as such reliable propellant became available as the 8x52R Austrian Mannlicher cartridge.

The "converted" rifles were denominated M.88-90. Later, when smokeless powder became available, the cartridge was returned to an 8x50R configuration in rifles designated M.90. The sights of existing black-powder 8mm Mannlicher rifles were converted to accomodate smokeless ammunition by the cute but functional arrangement of screw mounting re-graduated sideplates onto the outsides of the existing rear sight walls.

M1888 rifles built from and after 1890 had new sights and were denominated M.90 or are sometimes referred to as M1888-90. It appears that a sizeable number of M1886 11mm rifles were converted to 8mm by rebarreling and re-sighting. These were denominated M.86-90, although I don't know how to differentiate the conversions from original M1888 rifles.

Produced in Budapest and Steyr (in Austria), and known as the Repetier Gewehr M95, the standard issue rifle of the Austro-Hungarian army was first produced in 1895.

Considered a strong design, the Repetier Gewehr M95 withstood a so-called torture test of firing 50,000 rounds through a single rifle without lubrication of any kind. It was consequently produced in huge quantities during the war.

At one stage during the war the Austro-Hungarian army gave consideration to using the German Mauser rifle in preference to the Steyr-Mannlicher, before concluding that it was inferior in design to their own weapon. This model was also subsequently used in large quantities by the Italian army (as World War One reparations).