Owning One: the Market and the Law

8.1 Not legal advice

This volume sets out the federal and Michigan texts and applies them to the pistols. The application is this dive’s reading, not a ruling, and where the text runs out it says so. The law of the stocked pistol in particular should be confirmed with ATF in writing before a stock is fitted.

8.2 The market in one paragraph

Two markets. The blowback pistols, chiefly Argentine surplus M1905s with their arms ground off, are collector pistols in the low thousands of dollars, with intact Argentine, commercial and early pistols above them. The locked-breech pistols and carbines are rarities that sell for five figures, and the holster-stocked long pistol most of all. Realised prices at Rock Island Auction are login-walled and were not read; James D. Julia’s (now Morphy’s) are public and are most of the record below.

8.3 Prices on record

All prices in US dollars, as published; Julia’s include the buyer’s premium and are described by the house as “unofficial … until after the 46th day”.

Table 1 — Prices on record

Date	House, lot	Item	Estimate	Result
Dec 2024	Rock Island, 4093/1430	Early Sömmerda-made M1901, “PATENT MANNLICHER”, with Wille’s 1902 manual	5,000–7,500	Not read (login)
c. 2024	Collectors Firearms, Houston, PR55135	M1905 commercial, 99% blue, “not an Argentine 1905”	asking 2,950	”Previously sold”
Oct 2015	Julia, 3711	M1901/04 carbine prototype, fixed fore-end	10,000–15,000	11,500
Oct 2014	Julia, 1292	M1901 Dutch trial pistol, safety on the left	4,500–7,500	11,500
Oct 2014	Julia, 1293	M1905 commercial, late, 98% rust blue	1,750–2,500	2,357.50
Oct 2014	Julia, 1289	M1901/04 carbine, fixed fore-end	15,000–25,000	Not recorded on the page
Oct 2013	Julia, 3192	M1896/03 long pistol with matching leather stock, refinished	15,000–30,000	17,250
Mar 2009	Julia, 1156	M1903 pistol-carbine, 96–98% finish	7,000–10,000	10,925
Dec 2010	Rock Island, 51/312	M1905 commercial, 70% blue	950–1,600	Not read (login)

Sources: the lot pages cited.^123456789 The Collectors Firearms listing is undated; an image on the page sits in a folder dated August 2024, which is this dive’s only evidence of its date.

The record is thin and old. No realised price for an ordinary ground-crest Argentine M1905 was read from a primary page, and there is no recent five-figure sale of a locked-breech pistol on the record consulted.

8.4 What drives the price

From the descriptions the auction houses chose to write, which is what they believe buyers pay for:

• Family. A locked-breech pistol or carbine is several times the price of any blowback pistol.
• The stock. The one stocked long pistol on record brought the highest price, despite being refinished.⁷
• Provenance and trial use. Three of the Julia lots came from the Geoffrey Sturgess collection, and a Dutch trial pistol brought more than four times a fine commercial M1905 in the same sale.⁴⁵
• Early markings. Rock Island’s high estimate for the Sömmerda M1901 rests on its “PATENT MANNLICHER” marking, “only seen on the first few hundred produced”.¹
• Argentine arms intact or ground. Collectors and dealers treat a ground and reblued Argentine pistol as the bottom of the market; Collectors Firearms advertised its pistol as “not an Argentine 1905”.²
• Finish and numbers. Original rust blue with bright small parts, matching serials on barrel, chamber, frame and side plate, and factory-matched grips.⁵

8.5 Federal law: antique, or curio and relic?

The Gun Control Act excludes antiques from its definition of “firearm” (18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(3): “Such term does not include an antique firearm”), and defines an antique, for a cartridge gun, by date: “(A) any firearm (including any firearm with a matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap, or similar type of ignition system) manufactured in or before 1898”.¹⁰ The Borchardt C-93 dive’s Vol 8 quotes the whole definition and works through it for a pistol that straddles 1898.

The Mannlicher pistols mostly do not straddle it. Applying the date test to the dates in Vols 1 to 3:

Table 2 — The Mannlicher pistols mostly do not straddle it. Applying the date test to the dates in Vols 1 to 3

Model	Made	GCA antique?
M1894 blow-forward	1894–1897	Yes, by date, if the individual pistol was made in or before 1898
M1896, M1897 locked-breech; M1898, M1899 blowback	1896–1899	Some, if the individual pistol was made in or before 1898; no serial-to-date table found
M1900 blowback	From 1900	No
M1901, M1905 blowback	1901 to about 1910	No
Karabiner-Pistole and carbine m/1901 (“M1903”)	Described 1902	No, on the dates found

Almost every Mannlicher pistol a collector will meet is therefore a “firearm” under federal law, subject to the Gun Control Act like any modern pistol: transfer through a licensee, the Form 4473, the interstate rules.

They are also curios or relics, twice over. 27 CFR 478.11 makes a curio or relic of “Firearms which were manufactured at least 50 years prior to the current date, but not including replicas thereof”, and every pistol in this dive qualifies by age.¹¹ And ATF’s Curios or Relics List names them in Section II, “Firearms classified as curios or relics, still subject to the provisions of 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44”: “Mannlicher, pistol, M1900, M1901, M1903 and M1905, cal. 7.63mm Mannlicher.”¹² (The calibre is wrong for the M1903; Vol 7.) Curio and relic status does not remove a pistol from the Gun Control Act. It lets a holder of a federal collector’s licence acquire it across state lines.

8.6 Federal law: stocks and carbines

The National Firearms Act is where the locked-breech family gets difficult. A rifle “having a barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length” is an NFA firearm, and a rifle is “a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder”.¹³ A pistol with a shoulder stock attached and a barrel under 16 inches is, on its face, a short-barrelled rifle. The NFA’s own antique exclusion is narrower than the Gun Control Act’s for cartridge guns, as the Borchardt dive explains; for a post-1898 pistol it is irrelevant anyway.¹³

The escape route is § 5845(a)‘s exclusion of any device that “the Secretary finds by reason of the date of its manufacture, value, design, and other characteristics is primarily a collector’s item and is not likely to be used as a weapon”, recorded in ATF’s list.¹³¹² The list’s three Mannlicher entries in the relevant sections:

• Section III (removed from the NFA; still curios or relics under the Gun Control Act): “Mannlicher, m/01, m/02, and m/06 pistol-carbines with factory-produced, fixed rifle-type shoulder stock and forearm and 11 ¾ long barrels, cal.’s 7.65mm Mannlicher, 9mm Parabellum, and 7.63mm Mauser.”¹²
• Section IIIA (made in or before 1898; removed from the NFA and treated as antiques): “Mannlicher, Model 1896, cal. 7.63mm Mannlicher, pistol-carbine, utilizing a pistol frame and lockwork and a regular type rifle butt stock and forearm and 11-3/4” barrel.”¹²
• Section IIIA, generic: “Any pistol or revolver, mfd. in or before 1898, originally designed to accept a shoulder stock, and accompanied by an original shoulder stock.”¹²

Read against Vol 3, those entries cover the carbines: Wille’s carbine has a 300 mm (11.8 in) barrel, a fixed wooden butt and a fore-end, which is the “m/01 pistol-carbine” of Section III, and the pre-1898 M1896 equivalent is in Section IIIA. They do not cover the long pistol with its leather holster-stock, which is not a fixed rifle-type stock with a forearm, and which was made after 1898. No entry for it was found anywhere in the list.

The 19-inch-barrelled M1901/04 carbines Julia sold have barrels over 16 inches and are ordinary rifles under the NFA, needing no listing.³

The making tax. For anyone who must register a stocked Mannlicher as a short-barrelled rifle, Public Law 119-21 set the making tax at $0 from 2026, and did not abolish the application and approval: an approved ATF Form 1 before the stock is fitted. The Borchardt dive’s Vol 8 quotes 26 U.S.C. §§ 5821 and 5822 as amended, and the hub’s suppressor law dive covers Public Law 119-21 generally.

8.7 Six cases

The analysis is this dive’s.

1. A blowback pistol (M1900, M1901, M1905). A Gun Control Act firearm and a listed curio or relic. No NFA question: no stock for it is known.
2. A locked-breech pistol (M1903 family), no stock. The same: a firearm and a listed curio or relic.
3. A post-1898 long pistol with its original leather holster-stock attached. On no list. On the text, a short-barrelled rifle (152 mm barrel) unless it is on the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record or ATF classifies it otherwise. No ruling was found. Julia’s 2013 catalogue does not say whether the stocked pistol it sold was registered.⁷ An owner should obtain a written classification from ATF’s Firearms and Ammunition Technology Division before the stock is ever fitted.
4. The same pistol with the stock owned but not attached. The Supreme Court’s Thompson/Center decision (1992) held that a pistol and conversion kit packaged together had not been “made” into a short-barrelled rifle, because the kit had lawful configurations; the Borchardt dive’s Vol 8 sets out why that protection is uncertain for a stock whose only use is to make a short-barrelled rifle. The same doubt applies here.
5. A factory carbine with its fixed butt and 300 mm (11¾ in) barrel. Listed in Section III (post-1898) or Section IIIA (the 1896 model): removed from the NFA; a Gun Control Act curio or relic, or for the IIIA gun an antique.
6. A reproduction stock, or any stock on a newly made pistol of this pattern. Making a short-barrelled rifle: Form 1 first (Vol 9).

8.8 Michigan

Michigan’s law is simpler for these pistols than for the C-93, because the antique question does not arise. A Mannlicher M1901 or M1905 was made after 1898 and is not an antique under either federal definition or under Michigan’s, which copies the NFA’s (MCL 750.231a(2), quoted in full in the Borchardt C-93 dive’s Vol 8). It is a pistol under MCL 28.421, “a loaded or unloaded firearm that is 26 inches or less in length”, and the ordinary Michigan pistol rules apply: the licence to purchase under MCL 28.422 or the concealed pistol licence exemption under MCL 28.422a, with the seller’s sales record. The Borchardt dive quotes those sections and is not repeated here.

The M1894 is the exception worth noting. It is a pre-1899 cartridge pistol, so under Michigan’s NFA-style definition it is an antique only if its ammunition “is no longer manufactured in the United States and is not readily available in the ordinary channels of commercial trade”. Unlike the C-93, whose 7.65 Borchardt chamber takes the 7.63 Mauser on sale today, the M1894’s 6.5 mm and 7.6 mm rimmed cartridges have no current equivalent found in this research. On the text the M1894 may therefore be a Michigan antique where the C-93 is not. That is this dive’s reading, untested, and the Michigan State Police are the authority to ask.

A stocked long pistol or a short carbine in Michigan adds MCL 750.224b, Michigan’s short-barrelled rifle statute, which the hub’s AR Pistol .300 BLK dive quotes in full: it permits a short-barrelled rifle only if “lawfully made, manufactured, transferred, or possessed under federal law”. A carbine removed from the NFA by ATF’s listing is not a federal short-barrelled rifle; a stocked long pistol that is one on the federal text would be an unregistered one under Michigan law too. The stakes are a felony, and the remedy is the ATF classification in case 3.

8.9 Other states, and import

State definitions differ; a buyer outside Michigan should check his own. The Borchardt dive notes Rock Island’s warning that some early pistols cannot be sold to residents of certain states under their assault-weapons laws; no such note was found for a Mannlicher. Argentine surplus was imported in the 1960s (Vol 2); the import marks such pistols may carry were not researched.

8.10 A checklist before buying

1. Identify the family and model (Vol 5), and whether a stock or a slot for one comes with it.
2. Ask for the chamber to be cast or measured, and do not buy ammunition with the pistol on the strength of its box (Vol 7).
3. For a stocked long pistol: ask whether it is registered, and if not, do not attach the stock until ATF has classified it.
4. For a carbine: confirm the barrel length and the fixed butt against the Section III description.
5. In Michigan: the purchase licence or CPL route and the sales record, as for any pistol.
6. Ask for the Vienna proof year (under the slide) and the matching numbers (Vol 5).

8.11 What could not be established

• Any ATF classification of a post-1898 Mannlicher long pistol with its holster-stock.
• Whether the stocked pistol sold in 2013 was on the NFA registry.
• Rock Island’s realised prices (login-walled) and any recent sale of an ordinary Argentine M1905 from a primary page.
• ATF’s basis for the 9 mm Parabellum and 7.63 Mauser calibres in its m/01, m/02, m/06 entry.
• The Michigan State Police position on the M1894 as an antique.

References

Footnotes

1. Rock Island Auction Company, sale 4093, 7 December 2024, lot 1430, https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4093/1430/rare-steyr-mannlicher-patent-model-1901-semiautomatic-pistol, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩ ↩²

2. Collectors Firearms, “Steyr Mannlicher 1905 7.63 Mann (PR55135)”, https://www.collectorsfirearms.com/products/156056-steyr-mannlicher-1905-763-mann-pr55135.html, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩ ↩²

3. James D. Julia, October 2015 firearms auction, lot 3711, https://jamesdjulia.com/?p=535743, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩ ↩²

4. James D. Julia, October 2014 firearms auction, lot 1292, https://jamesdjulia.com/?p=522445, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩ ↩²

5. James D. Julia, October 2014 firearms auction, lot 1293, https://jamesdjulia.com/?p=522446, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. James D. Julia, October 2014 firearms auction, lot 1289, https://jamesdjulia.com/?p=522442, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩

7. James D. Julia, October 2013 firearms auction, lot 3192, https://jamesdjulia.com/?p=484812, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. James D. Julia, Spring 2009 firearms auction, lot 1156, https://jamesdjulia.com/?p=463137, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩

9. Rock Island Auction Company, sale 51, 3 December 2010, lot 312, https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/51/312/steyr-mannlicher-model-1905-semiautomatic-pistol, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩

10. 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(3), (a)(16), Cornell Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/921, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩

11. 27 CFR 478.11, “Curios or relics”, eCFR, https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-27/chapter-II/subchapter-B/part-478/subpart-B/section-478.11, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩

12. ATF, Firearms Curios or Relics List — January 1972 through April 2025 (ATF P 5300.11), Sections II, III and IIIA. Read from the Internet Archive copy https://web.archive.org/web/20260426215034if_/https://www.atf.gov/media/19856/download (atf.gov refuses automated retrieval), consulted 2026-10-19. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

13. 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a), (c), (g), Cornell Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/5845, consulted 2026-10-19. ↩ ↩² ↩³