The rifle was quickly made obsolete by the introduction of the Lebel Model 1886 rifle with its new smokeless cartridge. As such it was quickly replaced in Austrian service by its successor the M1888. The rifle still had a long life, however, and turned up in Spain in the hands of republican troops during the Spanish Civil War in the hands of members of the British Battalion at Madrigueras where they were used for training before being replaced on the eve of the Battle of Jarama by more modern rifles such as the Mosin-Nagant.