Ritchie Mars's video: Firing the Steyr Mannlicher 1905 pistol - 7 63 7 65mm Mannlicher

At long last, finally got around to actually making an attempt to fire my Model 1905. As expected, the original factory rounds had hard primers and most rounds took several attempts to actually get them to go off. This could be cured with modern custom-loaded ammunition. Unfortunately, the mainspring did break just as I feared might happen, in this case on the last shot. I believe the design would be reliable if I could locate someone willing to create a custom-made mainspring for the pistol based on the original, but with improved metallurgy. Modern technology with things like CNC machining and better materials would lend themselves well to solving a century-old design flaw.