Have been following this just because the bullet diameter thing is interesting. Based on the information provided on the other forum about using .323 bullets and employing the hollow base to expand and catch the rifling of a .329-ish bore, it sounds like Mannlicher was using throwback technology, re: Minie balls and proprietary Enfield rounds were often manufactured slightly under bore size with the idea that the "wings" at the base would fan out and catch the rifling (and partly because Civil War barrels were filthy and hard to load even with lubricated lead).
So my question is... why were they even fooling with a bullet/bore situation like this so late in the 19th century?
