I have a 1910 MS fullstock rifle(not a carbine) with a full length solid rib. I feel this was probably special ordered to increase weight, add to the asthetics and improve sighting. Has anyone encountered this before? Thanks.

You have a very desirable rifle and worth a bit more.

I had a 1910 with a solid rib. Yours is only the second one that I had heard of. The rib on my rifle was milled on each side and had a dished out appearance. I hope you keep yours!

K

PS Yours isnt missing the folding leaf sight is it?

Before telescopic sights became mainstream, a full length rib was a common sighting tool on hunting rifles, much like shotguns to this day.

I have seen many pre-1924 Mannlicher-Schoenauers, in all calibers, that left the factory with this custom feature. To the best of my knowledge, it was by special order, with added cost.

Yep, Kurt is right, the rib was an option on the early Mannlicher-Schoenauers. The list of options back then was astounding, and the rib is one of the neat ones.

LLS

I guess the rib isn't that rare of an option. Another thing I have noticed is the lack of fancy wood on the pre-war models.

The only wood I have ever seen on M-S rifles that even approaches "fancy" would be on the Premier models that were made for Stoeger.

Either there was little interest in fancy wood on working rifles, or Austrian walnut contains little figure. Somtimes you come accross a production model with a dark streak in it, but that is about it.

I have to agree with you Kurt, the MS-rifles i´ve seen pictures of on the net have rarly had fancy wood. However, I´m quite satisfied with the wood I have on my own. It´s a mod NO from 1959 and I´ll try to post some pictures of it in this post. It is not the most fancy wood you´ve ever seen but I like it. I belive it is the original wood.



Picture from above



Closed mechanism



Left side



Mount (EAW)



Open mechanism



Right side

Regards,
Morgan

Would any of you gents happen to have a picture or
two of the rib. I'm planning on having a custom
MS built and am looking for ideas.

My comment about the perponderance of plain wood pertains to the pre-war models for the most part. I have seen a bit more figure in post-war models. I attribute that to demand from the American market. The Europeans seem to have been satisfied for quite a while with the plain stuff. You see unfigured wood regularly on drillings and combination guns as well as custom Mausers. I suspect justifing the higher price of the MS rifles to the American market may have required a bit better wood. Still, for the most part even the post-war offerings appear rather mundane in comparison to similarly priced competition.
Imagine how nice the wood on a MS would have to be today to justify its' high price. I doubt you would see many fence posts.