There was also a take-down version of the rifle. Rifles were supplied with half stocks and 23.5' barrels. The Model 1903 was the first of the famous M-S Rifles and Carbines and it established the basic design of all the models that were to follow.

30-06 Springfield, the history of the M-S Carbine in inexorably linked to the 6.5x54mm cartridge.

Although M-S rifles and carbines were chambered for many other calibers, including such popular numbers as the. 30-30 cartridge and the Winchester Model 94 carbine, the 6.5x54 and Mannlicher-Schoenauer Carbine are a classic combination. This was no doubt due as much to the excellence of the Mannlicher-Schoenauer rifles in which it was chambered as to the low recoil, excellent accuracy and adequate killing power of the 6.5x54 cartridge itself. Within a very short time the 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Schoenauer became a popular sporting cartridge in Europe and Africa. Mannlicher-Schoenauer rifles and carbines were exclusively manufactured at Oesterreich Waffenfabrik Gesellschaft Steyr in Steyr, Austria. The 1903 Mannlicher rifles and carbines were the last designs of Ferdinand Ritter Von Mannlicher, who died the next year, and his friend Otto Schönauer who designed the exceptional rotary drum magazine intrinsic to all Mannlicher-Schoenauer rifles. Austria and Greece adopted the 1903 military rifle and the 6.5x54 cartridge that same year.

The Mannlicher-Schoenauer rifle dates to 1903 when the 6.5x54mm cartridge and both military and civilian rifles to shoot it were introduced. A Brief History of Mannlicher-Schoenauer Rifles,

1903 mannlicher schoenauer 6.5x54