While I was home on R&R I found a bargain on a 1903 Greek Mannlicher Schoenauer. A local pawn shop had it and I picked it up for a whopping $100 out the door. It is chambered in 6.5x54 MS. The issue stock had been hacked and the barrel had some type of commercial sights installed. The action is in great condition and unaltered. Eventually I would like to do something very special with this rifle. I know very little about the MS rifles. My plans are for this to be strictly an open sight rifle to keep it slim and light with very clean lines. It will get a nice quarter rib with express sights. And of course it will get a full stock and butter knife bolt handle.

What are my options to re-barrel to a different caliber? I would like to keep the amount of required action work to a minimum. What “standard†calibers will work in this action with minimal action work? Is there anything special I should know about working over a MS?

If anyone has any advice, suggestions or comments I would appreciate hearing them.

This is one action that needs to be left along in the original caliber if possible. The problem is in cutting the cam inside the barrel extension on a new barrel. Very time consuming job. Bolt handle can be done ok. Keep it with iron sights. Restocking is also difficult with the recoil shoulder at the rear of the magazine box area. Just my 2 cent worth.

About five years ago I picked up a Greek action at a show. Missing the bottom screws but complete although a little rough. Winter project followed. My winter projects were generally something to keep me busy with minimum dollar expense and maximum time expenditure.
Bolt handle out of old wood lathe tool welded on and lots of filing and polishing. Jewel bolt to cover some of the pitting (ended up blued)
Using Frank de Haas information I decided to change the caliber (his recommendations were either 7/57 or .257 Roberts. Went with 7x57 Mauser. First reason, I had a 7mm barrel in hand without a home, second I didn't want another 6.5 and third, had 7x57 brass/dies from a prior project.
Regarding the action: The 7x57 rounds would fit in the spool. With more than one round however there was not sufficient clearance with the magazine wall. The straight portion of the wall was relieved by draw filing front to rear. The rounded portions were done with a short piece of round file drawn along the radius. Lots of time spent filing and fitting then more with eraser/wet-dry paper to get everything looking like it should. Very time intensive.
I don't recall that the barrel installation was that terrible. I work very slowly--hobby not profession-- time is not an issue. I recall that the image of the Greek M/S shown in the de Haas book was incorrect. The cut shown is straight across. The actual cut needs to angle down on the right side. The cut with the angle is also the same as my 1905 M/S rifle (9x56). Since you have a barrel you will be able to see what the cut and the shoulder looks like.
All that being said, if the action is nice enough to build something really nice I would stay with the 6.5x54. 6.5's are great. Since you are planning on a slim, lightweight rifle you may be able to clean up the original barrel while going to a small diameter. If this is even a consideration and the bore is good, see how it shoots before making your decisions.
I'll look forward to pictures down the road.

I converted one to .257 Roberts (actually, 2-- the first AND last.) It took many hours on the magazine to get it to feed. It's not too difficult to rebarrel but stick with the origional caliber. Makeing a stock is pretty straight forward if you have experience. The finished rifle looked pretty nice. Bill

M1Tanker,
I picked one up that had already been restocked, shortened and crowned etc. in the original 6.5X54MS. It is one of the two rifles that I can actually shoot and hit something with at 100yds without a scope. This is saying alot for a blind man in bifocals. It will shoot less than 1 1/4" groups with open sights and that is better than my eyes can see. Try your rifle out before you go with changing anything!! JM2C. Take care and God bless. cordell

Thanks for the great suggestions and information. It looks like I will be keeping it in 6.5x54MS. Now I need to find a stock for it.

I just picked one up at a pawn shop for $100 too. Same condition, stock cut, but the barrel and sight left alone. The rifling and bore is good, BUT the chamber is badly rusted. No chance of steel wool cleaning it up as it has deep large pits. I pulled the barrel and decided to set the shoulder back and rechamber in same caliber as this will clean up those pits. As for the way the breech face is made it's simply a slot cut across it for the ejector and extractor to fit into. But if you look at the bolt face you will notice the extractor has a little tit on the bottom edge. The ejector doesn't. This is the reason for the sort of ramp on the bottom part of the barrel that is left after the slot cut. This configuration of the rear of the barrel is definitely not a camming mechanism. Also the bottom and top of the chamber opening is slightly ramped or radiused to guide the cartridge in.