Short Swiss Schmidt Rubins: M1900 Short Rifle & M1905 Cavalry Carbine

When the Swiss military went to make a short version of its M1896 rifle for cavalry, it realized that the early Schmidt-Rubin action had a problem: it was really, really long. With locking lugs all the way to the rear of the receiver, the system was just not an efficient use of space for a carbine with a limited overall length…something else was needed. The stopgap solution was to purchase a carbine from the Austrians; the Steyr-Mannlicher M1897. This was a straight-pull Mannlicher system chambered for the Swiss 7.5mm cartridge.

At the same time, work progressed on an improved Schmidt-Rubin, by redesigning the bolt to shorten the action. The result was the `1896 action, which used for a new infantry rifle and also the M1900 Short Rifle and the M1900 Cavalry Carbine. The short rifles were made for auxiliary troops like engineers, balloonists, messengers, and the like. It was essentially an 1896 rifle with a shorter barrel, as it included a bayonet lug. A total of 18,650 of these were made. The cavalry carbine was not set up for a bayonet as the cavalry had sabres instead, and 7,900 of these were made.

In 1911 a unified carbine was introduced, and virtually all the 1900s and 1905s in service were updated to the new pattern. The 1905s has their serial numbers modified with a “2” prefix, turning them into a 20,000 serial number range. The new K11 carbine production began at 30,001, and thus there were no duplicated serial numbers between the new carbines and the converted old ones.

Many thanks to the Swiss Shooting Museum in Bern for giving me access to these two very rare rifles to film for you! The museum is free to the public, and definitely worth visiting if you are in Bern – although it is closed for renovation until autumn 2025:
https://www.schuetzenmuseum.ch/en/