About Steyr

Millenia of Manufacturing

The Austrian city of Steyr traces its weaponry lineage back hundreds—if not thousands—of years. The Holy Roman Empire discovered iron in the nearby Erzberg Mountain sometime in the Early Middle Ages, leading to the development of blacksmithing in local industry. Famed for its knives and armor, this town at the confluence of the Steyr and Danube rivers rose and fell under succeeding rulers and dynasties but remained an icon of the iron trade and smithing. By the end of the 16^th Century, Steyr was manufacturing muskets for the Habsburg Imperial Army, soon to be used in the Thirty Years War.

An Empire is Born

Blacksmith Leopold Werndl was born in 1797 and began manufacturing parts for firearms in Steyr in 1821. His son Josef, second of 16 children, was born in 1831. Josef began journeyman gunmaker training in 1849, first in Vienna, Prague, and Bavaria then at the Remington and Colt factories in the United States. When his father died of cholera in 1855, he returned home at 24 to run the family business with the lessons he’d learned abroad.

Josef and his brother Franz built a new firearms factory and sawmill in 1864. Their novel breech-loading Tabernacle Rifle with a turning block designed with longtime collaborator Karl Holub soon became the standard issue for the Austrian Army. By 1872, their 45,000 factory workers were turning out 622,000 per year.

As weapons demand decreased in the 1880s, the ever-inventive Josef Werndl turned to the newly harnessed phenomenon known as electricity. He electrified his factory and the streetlights in Steyr, the first European city to do so. After Josef’s death in 1889, the town of Steyr built a towering statue in his honor.

The Mastermind

Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher, was born to a prominent German family in 1848. He studied mechanical engineering in Vienna before beginning his professional career with the Northern Railway Company. But his fascination and tinkering with firearms design led in 1887 to joining the gunmaking company he would change forever.

Along with his protégée Otto Schoenauer, Mannlicher designed a straight-pull, turn-bolt repeating rifle that found immediate popularity with military regiments across Europe. The pair refined it into the iconic 1903 Mannlicher-Schoenauer Rifle used by hunters around the world and in many armed conflicts until the 1970s. He also pioneered technologies for semi-automatic pistols, automatic rifles, detachable magazines, and countless elements of the firearms still in use today.

Mannlicher’s creations grew Steyr into the largest weapons manufacturer in Europe, that brand name becoming synonymous and often inextricable with his. He was knighted by the Austrian Emperor in 1892 and died in 1904, forever remembered among the most important inventors in the history of firearms technology.

World-Wide Recognition

The vast commercial success of Mannlicher’s designs led to their adoption and importation by militaries around the globe. At the onset of World War I, the Steyr factory was producing 4,000 guns per day. Soon after they produced the first-ever fully automatic pistol. Following surrender by the German and Austro-Hungarian forces in 1918 and subsequent weapons production ban, the Steyr business pivoted into automobile and bicycle production led by designers Hans Ledwinka and Ferdinand Porsche.

Weapons manufacturing briefly restarted after the Nazis forcibly took the manufacturing facilities in 1938. Bombed by the United States’ Fifteenth Air Force in 1944, the city was badly damaged but managed to continue producing firearms until the end of the war. American airborne and tank battalions contacted the Russian Red Army at Steyr in 1945, and U.S. forces occupied the city until 1955. Some of those officers and generals, fond of the Mannlicher-Schoenauer Rifle increasingly popularized by hunters and novelists Ernest Hemingway and Robert Ruark, helped the town restart production in 1950.

Birth of a Bullpup

Steyr produced its first assault rifle, the StG, in 1958, followed by the AUG in 1977. This “Universal Army Rifle” was quickly adopted by the Austrian Army and dozens of military and police forces around the world. The unmistakable bullpup profile gained prominence for its light, simple, and reliable design, becoming a favorite of special forces commanders and Hollywood directors alike.

The latter half of the 20^th century also saw major development’s in Steyr’s sporting and sniper rifles including the SSG 69, which quickly produced world-record target shooting distances. The company was among the first to commercially employ compound stocks in precision rifles and pioneered locking bolt technology that made guns safer and more rugged. The acclaim given the Mannlicher-Schoenauer rifle, which finally sunset in 1973 after 70 years in production, continued onward as Steyr increasingly leaned into high-end hunting tools.

A Monolithic Future

Steyr introduced the revolutionary Monobloc in 2018, the first-ever hunting rifle with its barrel and action housing tooled from one contiguous block of steel. This monolithic design allows zero variance through the entire package, setting a new standard for precision, accuracy, and durability.

The modular design also permits easy interchange of integrated barrels, a break-down design allowing the operation of six different calibers off one stock and bolt—obvious boons for the traveling hunter. The handsome ergonomic stock with leather inlays, exchangeable trigger unit, and adjustable butt spacer creates the most versatile high-end hunting rifle on the market, yet another notable advancement in Steyr’s storied legacy.

A century and a half in business, millennia in the weapons trade. This town and its eponymous gunmaker advanced firearms technology from the medieval to the modern through a lineage no other can claim. Steyr continues to lead in a manner no other will.