In the 1880s, the Dutch decided that their single-shot Beaumont rifles were obsolete and needed replacement. They started a program to modify them with 4-round magazines, and simultaneously set about finding a more modern rifle to adopt. After trying with some difficulty to test out new designs (access to internet reviews would have really helped them out) they finally decided on a combination of parts that they liked. The resulting rifle was adopted in 1895, along with a new 6.5mm cartridge based on the 6.5 Carcano round.
The Dutch stayed neutral through World War I, but built a lot of guns during the war just in case. Like many countries, they adopted a whole bunch of slightly different variants of rifle and carbine for different troops, resulting in something of a production nightmare. Most countries consolidated designs during the war, but the Dutch managed to add four more designs as a result of trying to reduce complexity (whoops).
The Dutch Mannlicher M.95 and the 6.5x53.5R Cartridge is a thorough-if-small guide to all of these different variants plus the 72 different types of cartridge used by the Dutch. It was published by the NVBMB (Dutch Association for the Study of Ammunition and Ballistics) on the 100th anniversary of the M95's adoption. Unfortunately, we are not aware of any source for the book other than used book dealers. If anyone knows of a source that has copies in stock, please let us know!
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Forgotten Weapons
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