John-
I too have heard that Bell owned and had used and early .256 'Dutch' mannlicher like the one my Jeffery (pictured above in the thread) is based on. Also I have heard that he also later had obtained a rotary styer-mannlicher rifle which remained in his collection for quite some time after he 'made the switch' to the .275 Rigby
I've been in the know on a recent effort to develop 'replicas' of these nice old rifles. As it goes, it seems there is a lack of enough 'real money' interest in funding such projects on a production level.
True vintage examples of safari-grade 256 mannlicher carbines and rifles tend to get snatched up quickly.
I don't know of one that's sat on the market for long which was priced realistically.
And it's true, they're an absolute hoot to shoot.
--Tinker
