I own both a PII and a standard SSG69, both have doubleset triggers, and once served as sniper rifles for a large city police dept. I know of one gunsmith who tried to rebarrel one of these, it was a major fail, and he ruined the action.

It is my understanding that the barrel is supercooled in nitrogen, and then pressfitted into the action. The police dept.

Got rid of these rifles because they weren’t winning enough police competition matches, and wanted Remington 700’s custom built. ( I got them for a steal) I figured they were idiots. By the way, they both came with 10 rd mags, which proved to break easily. I have never regretted my purchase.

Steyrs are beautiful weapons, in my opinion, and I own both the modern ones and the older ones. I inherited my P1 when my best friend died in an accident. I would rather have my friend back, but I think of him whenever I take that marvelous rifle out to the range.

I’m pretty unschooled in marksmanship yet sub-moa shooting is a breeze. I plan to attend an NRA workshop or Appleseed course or something to see the true potential of this rifle. I’m taking my trigger guard to the machine shop where I work to see how costly it would be to duplicate it in aluminum or steel. These rifles may be dated, but are still worth it if you can get your hands on one.

I’ve never seen another one at the gunshows around here. Best review I’ve encountered on the SSG 69.

I have a pristine version without the accessory rail, vintage is 1982, green stock, Steyr mounts. It’s very accurate with Federal Match ammo. I plan to replace the Zeiss 3×9 with a Leupold tactical version, 30 mm, so I’m shopping for mounting solutions to avoid paying Steyr $275!

I’ve actually spent a little time online regarding a replacement trigger guard. Some b/s about the company not being permitted by the feds to manufacture gun parts. Guess I’ll keep looking. I think just about everyone who owns one would spend $150 for a new trigger guard! I just acquired some Lapua D46 bullets in both the 170 grn and 185 grn so I’m anxious to see how they do compared to the Federal Match.

“As a result, Steyr began producing Mauser K98s and MG- 34s for that fat-ass, toenail-painting, cross-dressing, morphine addict in 1939.” You forgot fighter ace.

The 1:12 twist may or may not prove slow for the 185s. Just have to see. These bullets supposedly were some of the best available. What else would you expect! FMJ with a rebated boat tail design. I have had to open the barrel channel slightly. Apparently the stock isn’t as stiff as new composite material so it flexed just enough to open a group.

The double set trigger is about as good as you can get. Unset it breaks clean at 2.5#s Set it breaks at probably 2-3 oz! Basically you just touch it. Sometimes you’ll see an SSG 69 sold by an auction house that is liquidating an estate. One with the rare wood stock in about 98% condition sold for under $1000 about 6 months ago. These places usually specialize selling collectible firearms and the Steyr SSG 69s from the collector’s estate just did not have the right crowd bidding. I think the other version with the composite stock went for $1200!

In your comment you mentioned the Lapua D46 170 and 185gr bullets. Every gun has it’s sweet spot and reloading will allow you to find this and fine tune it. When you do, the gun will settle down, the barrel whip will be resonant and the gun will shoot tight groups like you have never seen before. I used to own an SSG-04 and the sweet spot round was a Berger 155.5gr. BT Fullbore with 45.0grs.

Of Vihtavuori N540 at 53794psi pushing 2705fps seated.010″ off the lands. This round consistently put 10 rounds in a group.750″ at 300yds. All day long. It took almost 2 years to develop that load. The SSG-69 that I have now likes the D46 185gr. Bullet even with a 1:12 ratio.

This sweet spot load still needs further developing though to refine it. Right now I can consistently put 5 rounds in a 3/8″ group at 200 yards all day long. The load is as follows:.308 Win Lapua D46 185gr., Lapua Palma.308 win brass with 40.0grs.

Of IMR4895, Federal 205 Small Rifle Match primer, at 46088psi pushing 2447fps. Seated touching lands. Gun headspaces at 1.630″ Extremely tight chamber dimensions. If you would like more load data, I have 5 years worth of load development for.243 Win,.308 Win, 45 ACP, 45 LC, and 44 Mag. Send me your email address and I will send you everything that I have so you do not have to re-invent the wheel.

The Steyr SSG 69 PII is a wonderful rifle. I’ve shot several dozens of 1000 yard NRA F-Class Tactical Rifle matches with her. Using a Nightforce NXS 5×22, she gives me consistently 92% accuracy using 175 gr.

Sierra BTHP using 45 gr. Of Varget, 2645 fps. She is a standard rifle besides using a McMillan stock and a Picatinny rail mount. On the plastic issue, it states clearly on the operating manual that any exposure of solvents will make the plastic brittle. Avoid splashing around the Hoppes #9 you will be just fine. When Styria Arms exports their new trigger guard I will be happy to give it a try. Usings Frog lube will make your bolt as smooth as silk.

The SSG 69 is far superior to any factory Rem 700, but it is on par with a high quality custom Rem 700 that has been well tweaked. If you require greater than 92% accuracy at 1000 yards (which is Sharp Shooter and not an Expert). If you want to make Expert (better than 92% accuracy) it is better to get a custom Rem 700 where you can get change out to a custom match barrels. It is virtually impossible to change the barrel on the SSG. Besides that I love my SSG.

Update on the accuracy. I had the rifle glass bedded and the accuracy improved markedly.

Using Federal GM Match with the Sierra MK 168 gr bullets 4 consecutive three shot groups at 100 yards measured.442″,.372″,.195″ and.129″ Went to 200 yards and was getting consistent groups of.75″ I haven’t yet tried to improve on this with handloads. I have many, many Lapua D46 bullets both in 170 gr and 185 gr and a decent number of Lapua Palma brass (small rifle primer used with these). I’m not sure if the rifle will do well with the heavier bullets but I’ll try.

I also have some Sierra MK’s 190 gr that I’d love to try. If anyone has experience using heavier bullets with the SSG 69 I’d love to hear about how they did. I have a 95 short rifle,with Hungarian crest,shoots really good from a rest,love that straight pull.Got lucky a few years ago,when a friend of mine had found two crates of ammo at a gun store,Nazi markings,approximately 2200 rounds in cardboard boxes like I said with Nazi markings year 1938,the wooden crates have German writing,and painted stencil eagle,with leather handles on both ends.Only paid $65.00 for both,now you have a very hard time finding it.Oh by the way only paid $25.00 for the rifle in 2000,in very good condition.Would like to install a rail and scope on it.Keep your powder dry. I have had a Steyr SSG P1 for a nunber of years now, It came as issued with the Kahles Helios 69 6×42 scope calibrated for the standard Nato 7.62×51 round which uses a 143grain fmj head. The bdc turret has double alignment marks which allow you to use a heavier bullet instead of the standard head, although this scope is calibrated to 800 metres I find that it will adjust beyond that and I regularly use it competitively at 1000yds with a 155gn Lapua Scenar vld, it shoots easily to within 1 minute of angle off a front bag or wrist rest. It has a shotgun style single set trigger which pushes forward to set or can be used as normal, there is no uit style rail under the forend so I’ve fitted it with a qd stud to accommodate a bipod. Drawbacks – I find that the issued scope while spot on for elevation with the right round has limited adjustment for windage being calibrated to 1 centimetre at 100 metres with no click stops, however you can zero this thing very easily by spotting the bullet strike and bringing the German reticule onto it, with practice it can be done in two shots.

Some of the ranges in Scotland can have sidewinds which are very tricky, the Kahles isn’t always ideal so I adapted a BRNO one piece mount to fit the SSG it’s not hard to do and it means I have a choice of scope depending on conditions both of them on qd mounts that keep their zero. I could go on about how good the SSG is but I won’t; suffice to say that I’ve won my share with it. Btw it came with the manual (in German) and with a little suprise bonus hidden inside the buttplates this was an Austrian army knife something like the Swiss multi-tool thing but with sideplates in the same Green plastic as the stock and bearing the Austrian two headed eagle insignia (nice).

Good article Joe; just one thing though, you missed the Enfield L42 issued to the Brits in 1970 – Enfield action, box mag; heavy barrelled tack driver in 7.62 nato easily capable of sub moa accuracy. Oh and I’m a fan of the 700 I would give my eyeteeth to get hold of an m40.Cheers. Regarding your comment on the accuracy potential of hammer forged barrels vs button rifling, I could not agree more! There are so many factors that affect the accuracy of any rifle that finding perfection is a constant challenge. Perhaps the barrels used by benchrest shooters simply are button rifled and there is no way to compare that method to a hammer forged benchrest barrel! We’ll never really know but one thing is for sure, the SSG 69 is one package that is tough to beat on a regular basis unless you’re willing to up the ante considerably and even then external factors could influence any testing.

I own a PIIK with a 1k round count thus far (yes, I keep a log). It has the 6×40 Kahles fixed power, post and horizontal line scope. I have zeroed it so that the exact top of the post is for 100m, the point where the post would connect (if it were longer) with the horizontal line is 200m. I have used the BDC function and it works perfectly for me. This is my only.308.

I have used this gun for 20 years after purchasing it new. It resides in a Pelican gun case along with a bore guide and solid cleaning rod, spare 20 round box of ammo, three mags and a small pair of Nikon binos. It is the perfect gun for me – I use it for coyotes (out to 600 yards) and it works perfect with Federal 168gr BTHP Match rounds.

(I don’t save the hides). I have three 5 round mags for it (the legal limit for center fire rifles used for hunting in Oregon). One in rifle, two in my vest. Love the balance, have the trigger adjusted perfectly for me. This gun shoots.5 inch groups at 100 meters all day long. Had to switch my Leopold 1000 range finder to “meters” from yards for hunting. Love it, love it, love it.

Its one of these models: MODEL L 5.6x50mm, 5.6x57mm,.22-250,.243 WCF, 6mm Rem., or.308 Win. Cal., available in carbine (20 in. Barrel), rifle (23.6 in. Barrel), and heavy barrel (25.6 in.

Barrel) varmint rifle, double set and single trigger, 5 shot rotary mag., 6.38 lbs. Model L Carbine same calibers as L rifle, 20 in. Barrel with full stock, early models possess a slimmer stock design, 38 1/2 inches overall, approx. Model L Varmint Rifle same calibers as L rifle, 25.6 in. Barrel, two heavy barrel varmint versions with either traditional stock and heavy barrel square forearm vented stock, double set or single trigger, no sights, 7.92 lbs. Model L Luxus same calibers as L, stock design, magazine, and safety are different from other Steyr-Mannlichers, full or half stock with better checkering, rotary thumb safety, single set trigger, and in-line, non-rotary 3 shot steel magazine, open sights, available in full stock and half-stock versions.

Model L Luxus Carbine (Full Stock) similar to L Luxus rifle, except has full stock and 20 in. Not sure about the twist rate. It’s either 1 in 12 or 1 in 14. With a 1 in 12 you could use bullets like the Barnes TSX 53 grain for small antelope if the law allows. I AM VERY INTERESTED IN BUYING A STEYR SSG P11 WITH 26IN BARREL OR A SSG P11K WITH 20 IN THREADED BARREL AND EITHER WITH A SINGLE TRIGGER OR DOUBLE SET TRIGGER. MY QUESTIONS ARE THESE: WHICH IS BETTER OR MORE WANTED THE SINGLE TRIGGER OR THE DOUBLE SET TRIGGER?

ALSO WHICH IS MORE ACCURATE AT 1,000 YARDS THE 20 IN OR THE 26IN? IM SURE THE 26 IN BARREL IS BUT I GUESS WHAT IM REALLY ASKING IS THIER REALLY THAT MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE AT THE 1,000 YARD MARK. IS THE 26IN REALLY ALOT BETTER OR JUST ALITTLE BETTER? BUT MY MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION IS THE DOUBLE SET TRIGGER BETTER OR MORE SAULT AFTER THAN THE SINGLE TRIGGER? I THINK AS A TARGET RIFLE THE DOUBLE SET TRIGGER IS BETTER BUT IF YOU WHERE A SNIPER THE FASTER SINGLE TRIGGER IS BETTER.

ON THE SINGLE TRIGGER WHAT IS THE CREEP OR TRAVEL BEFORE IT FIRES AND PRESSURE IN POUNDS WHEN IT FIRES. ALSO WHEN IT COMES TO RESALE WHICH IS BETTER OR MORE SAULT AFTER? Download Facebook Brute Force Hack on this page.

I HOPE YOU ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE I CAN GET WHAT I THINK IS A GOOD DEAL FOR EITHER ONE AT $1,600 NEW IN BOX BEFORE THEY ARE SOLD. RANDAL F: I can’t answer most of your questions, but if you are going to ‘hunt’ with your SSG I’d suggest a single trigger unless you have a VERY long range shot — I have a P-II full length bbl, and double trigger. I find it as accurate as described – for plain ‘hunting’ I’d spend my $$ on a Rem 700 + very good glass, INSIDE of 300 yards there’s no difference, if I stick with ANY high grade 130 grain bullet (HPBT — that’s what she loves, 120 flys everywhere 140 flies everywhere, 130 she’s too happy to move). At 400-500 yards I begin to see a difference, my 1″-2″ groups open up to about 3″-4″ or so. And I attribute that to a standard out of the box trigger set. After about 100 rounds the 700 settled down to a solid rifle with a good point of aim hit group.

Beyond 500 yards she’s pretty much of OK for deer if you aim for that ‘sweet spot’ by the front shoulder, you’ll hit it, with enough energy to bring down the deer, but it won’t drop in it’s tracks like it does at say 300 yards, but no good for smaller game like Antelope which tend to stand off farther (one reason they’ve been around since the Mammoth). The SSG, on the other hand, will place the bullet nearly exactly where I aim when I take my time, and still inside what the 700 will shoot ‘standard’. (see below) I work a lot in and out in the ‘Great Basins and Ranges’ – so for example deer are good with my 700 in 130 gr.270 off the shelf ‘good’ ammo.

But for Antelope or when I’m needing a shot across a couple of gullies – I use a Mark 4 Leopold on my SSG (yeah, costs about as much as the rifle, mounts/rings can be had through asking a couple of gun shops – I found mine through a local, small town shop) — The first (‘set’) trigger you pull when you are ranged and scoped in – the second trigger goes off on the ‘Seee... ‘ part of ‘send’. THINK ‘send’ and the bullet has cleared the muzzle – for my SSG I use Horniday match HPBT 168 grain (.308).

I can shoot a group that covers an area the size of my thumb at 500 yards consistently, at 800 yards the fault is MINE not the rifle, and the groups are about the size of a 50 cent piece. I can’t group worth crap beyond 850 yards for some reason – groups are in what looks like 6-8-9 inch groups and I want a 1″ at 1K yards so I’m good at 500, and barely OK at 800 yards – like I say it’s ME not the glass or rifle. I did get amazing groups when I shot a few boxes of hand-loads 800 yards shrunk to width of palm, so call that about 5 inches I’d guess. The second trigger is the trick (for me). I love my set trigger. Like you say just think “send” and boom!

It’s almost like cheating because it kinda takes the trigger pull aspect of good marksmanship out of the equation. Unset mine breaks at 2#s As far as accuracy past 800 yards a book by Anthony Ciricione, Long Range Precision Rifle. I have the 2013 book and just received the newer one, Expanded Edition, 2015. Tons of info especially on shooting at 800 yards and even beyond 2000.not with the 308 however LOL He does F Class with a 308 and mentioned that the 190 gr SMK is the bullet of choice for many shooters.

However the Steyr SSG 69 has a barrel twist of 1 in 12 which may or may not properly stabilize it. Using the Berger twist rate calculator it’s marginally stable at 2600 fps mv but on their scale it’s close to being “comfortably stable” My SSG has the longer barrel so I should be able to coax out that mv. It’s under the ballistics heading on the Berger website. You enter bullet length, weight, BC, etc and push “calculate” EZ to use Anyway I’d suggest that book.

About $25 from Amazon. RANDALL F: — for what it’s worth – a few years ago I was doing some reading on the SSG-69 PII (like mine) — didn’t say single or double trigger set – but the article DID mention two things worth repeating with the proviso that this WAS from the Web, and while the article and web site are no longer in memory – but did have a credible source (I’m an academic so I kind of pay attention to that, but can be wrong) – this MAY be just ‘internet lore’ – but it was talking about rifles used by ‘insurgent ‘ groups in Latin America (maybe S. America, Bolivia/Peru?) or perhaps in SE Asia (eg Burma/Miramar) — but it mentioned two things you might be interested in since you seem to be into ‘sniper stuff’ — the SSG-69 P-II (over the P-1, though no reason was given that I recall) –.308 (7.62) cal. Was trading on the ‘black market’ at 1 SSG-69 for 5-8 depending on condition and what-evers USMC M40’s. So for some reason the older SSG had the higher value in areas where you know there was rough treatment of the rifle.

Also it mentioned that one sniper on a hill top over looking a village square (in what ever country) shot beyond it’s ‘kill’ range. I want to say that the line of sight range was stated as being ‘close to 1.5 miles’, but can’t confirm that even from my memory – the one thing that sticks out in my mind is that ‘several’ people had head shots where the bullet was stopped by the bone – so only part of the bullet was inside the brain. Thus some were ‘kills’ others were just brain-damaged at best – but that is a testimony to what a good shooter with good glass can do with a.308 at a VERY long range where the foot-pounds of energy delivered to the target was SO low that the bullet would not penetrate the bone – and “many people suffered from ‘low to moderate’ gun shot wounds to various parts of the body.” (paraphrase from memory, not a quote).

Being a Corpsman in ‘Nam, that can mean nearly anything – from a bullet barely grazing someone, to a ‘pull the bullet out because if you dab the blood you can see it’. Don’t forget that over half of that ‘equation’ is the person using the firearm – AND the ‘glass’ that the person is using to pick the point of impact’ – but the rifle did trade 1 SSG for 5-8 M40’s — and that, by itself, should tell you something. But remember, IN GENERAL – a ‘Tactical’ rifle is more accurate than a ‘sniper’ rifle because the ‘sniper rifle’ has to be able to take the abuse of a battlefield – and a ‘Tactical’ rifle can be built with VERY fine tolerances (read: accuracy) because it doesn’t need to be protected from being thrown around, beat upon (think close-quarters combat) or subjected to weeks of dirt, dust, mud, water, heat, etc. Slap a 1903-A3 around and hear it rattle. Yet that rifle sure can be accurate, and a.303 is THE longest used battle rifle EVER made – it still finds use (I am told) in ‘close range’ ‘sniper’ roles in Iraqistan. I heard that as a rumor from an Afgahan Vet so it’s just a rumor. Though he swears he’s seen it used in such a role.

And the.303 rattles like a snake all the time. Tighten up the parts so they fit well, and you have a better rifle (in general) – So there you have it – but remember you can buy a couple of VERY good ‘Tactical’ rifles for the cost of a SINGLE SSG — WITHOUT GLASS – and Glass can cost the price of the rifle or more. You can’t shoot what you can’t see. I was a municipal LE sniper in a moderately-sized major university city and I utilized a 69 Match, which had a much faster twist rate, being made for UIT long-range shooting. I still have not seen another one out there.

If anyone can bring me up-to-speed about the Match, please contact me. My duty rifle had been seized from a citizen who lost mental control and it sat in a SWAT (SRT) locker for years. Upon getting onto SRT, I was told to go dig out a rifle. The team had two new PSS packages that had full-length barrels, but they were spoken for. When I went to retrieve one of the older, wooden stock.223 PSS’s I saw the muzzle of the 69 sticking up out of a sock. I immediately knew that it was a 69.

It was Magnum’s rifle (remember that episode?). I asked and learned about it and I was able to send it off to GSI in Georgia, the firm that did Steyr repairs at the time.

They rebuilt it and performed a few recall actions on it. It came back essentially new and they said that the barrel was 99%, so I had a new 69 essentially.

I got it back and took that gun to five sniper schools and it always got attention from snipers and instructors who knew rifles. It was balls accurate with 168g GMM. Then, one day at a school in ’99, it wouldn’t hold anything less than 2-MOA. The instructor blamed me.

Having shot a whole hell of a lot of rounds in my lifetime up to then, I felt it wasn’t me and we inspected it closely. The magazine/trigger assembly had more than ten cracks in it and it adversely affected the accuracy, as you could see the plastic flexing as you bolted the gun. The cracks would open up as the stock flexed under the action of bolting the gun into battery. GSI rebuilt it, for free, but it was too late. I had used very aggressive action cleaners on it and destroyed the plastic components. Ignorance on my part killed the parts. The bosses learned of the issues and I was forced to retire that gun, in favor of a new-then LTR.

With burned-in barrels the LTR shot like a champ too, but it just didn’t have the sexy feel of the 69. If I could find that rifle now, I’d pay a fortune for it. Instead, CDNN has threaded models, but not in my baby’s green stock, so I will pull out the airbrush and Duracoat. That was my favorite firearm of all during my LE career. It just kicked ass and I felt like a sniper when I carried it. These rifles are incredible.

Get one if you can and you will be amazed what they can do. Stay safe and happy. Jim in Florida.

Select Category MANNLICHER SCHOENAUER SPORTING RIFLES Originally manufactured by Oesterreich Waffenfabrik-Gesellschaft in Steyr, Austria from 1900 until the occupation of Austria by Germany in 1938. The current manufacturer is Steyr-Mannlicher, also of Steyr, Austria. Products made from 1972 to date are listed under Steyr-Mannlicher current production. Please refer to the Steyr Arms (Steyr-Mannlicher) section. Only a few sporting rifles were produced during the war period and were marked 'Made in Germany'. Production started again in 1950 with serial number 1 until 1973 with serial number 61154.

The last rifle was manufactured in 7x64 cal. From Blue Book Publications.