The rifle came with EAW quick detachable pivot mounts. Sling swivels were of the push button type and I fitted a plain leather Military Sling as that is the type of sling I have long preferred. The M72 could be had with either oil or lacquer stock finish. The stock on my rifle was a plain oil finish as per my preference and what I’d ordered. Note there are markings on the left of the receiver for “S” Safe and “F” Fire. It was a very safe rifle designed to be just as “idiot proof” as one could possibly make it. Cocked/uncocked, safety on/off were all both visually clear and also tactile clear in the dark. This particular set of features I learned to really appreciate. This was still convenient, just not quite as fast, but it was another feature that I grew to like and ultimately to prefer. To make it silent however needed a finger and thumb to rock it from safe to fire. The safety catch was not silent if operated with one thumb, but was easy and very fast, just as easy as a tang safety. The safety blocked the firing pin and that block was visible from the rear of the bolt which was a safety feature I liked also. I came to really like it once I got used to it. The safety catch was a convenient wing type rock to the left to disengage and rock to the right to engage. I’ve seen some M72 rifles with this fluting and others, my own 6.5×68 as an example, without the fluting. The safety catch was a two position wing type rock to the left to disengage, rock to the right to engage.
In fact later at the rifle club it became christened “The licorice stick”. One of the first things I noticed about it was the hammer forged barrel with its characteristic “licorice twist” pattern on the outside. It had been shipped partly disassembled so I had a pleasant time getting to know it as I put it together. Taking the rifle out of the box at the gun shop it was an impressive rifle. I ordered one in 6.5×68 Schuler fitted with quick detachable rifle-scope mounts and in due course it arrived. The decision was made, I bought the magazine just for the ad, wrote to Hilton Gun Wholesale and commenced the process of getting my Mannlicher. Browsing through it my eyeballs widened as I came across an advertisement by the Hilton Gun Wholesale Company what was pictured in the ad was a Mannlicher Schönauer M72 and it looked just as gorgeous as the rifles I’d seen in London. One day as I was heading home from work in the city I happened to stop in at a newsagent and noticed a British shooting magazine on the rack. The The Mannlicher Schönauer M72 as you can see is a graceful blending of blued steel and walnut: the Steyr Mannlicher is a blend of blued steel, walnut and plastic that becomes one of the ugliest sporting rifles in existence. Top rifle is a The Mannlicher Schönauer M72, lower rifle is a Steyr-Mannlicher of the seventies with its plastic fittings. So I assumed my only chance of getting a real Mannlicher-Schönauer would be to find a second hand one. They had a plastic magazine, plastic trigger guard and were just about as plain ugly as you could make a rifle. I’d seen the new model Steyr-Mannlicher a few years earlier when I was in a gun shop in Jakarta in 1975. Mind you, at that stage I didn’t even know if one could still buy a Mannlicher-Schönauer like the ones I’d seen in Bland’s shop in London. But there came a moment when I thought “I haven’t bought my Mannlicher-Schönauer yet.” and I decided that, if I didn’t get one before our first child was born then just maybe the responsibilities of children and a mortgage might put paid to any chances I might have had of getting one. This was fantastic news and we were both blissfully happy.
I got involved in the shooting sports seriously, then I got married, and a couple of years after my lovely wife and I tied the knot she told me she was expecting. The family moved away from Britain to Australia and that Bland’s catalog came with me and stayed with me for another decade or so.
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