The Mannlicher M1894 was an early blow-forward semi-automatic pistol.

The earliest Ferdinand Mannlicher pistol, manufactured by Fabrique D'Armes de Neuhausen, Switzerland, was designed to be self-loading and to use a special rimmed cartridge in 6.5 mm caliber. The design represented an entirely new utilization of mechanical principles in automatic action called "blow-forward action". In the standard type of automatic action for low-powered cartridges, the recoil (or blow-back) is utilized to drive back a movable breech face or block, but Mannlicher utilized the principle of a rigid standing breech with the barrel blowing forward to extract, eject, and prepare for reloading.

A special barrel housing which carries the sight covers the entire length of the barrel (6.49 in/165 mm) when the arm is closed. A heavy recoil spring is mounted concentrically around the barrel within this housing and is compressed between a shoulder at the forward end of the casing and a shoulder at the rear of the barrel.

An unusual element in this design is a three-armed "barrel-holding lever". It is pivoted above the trigger as shown in the drawing from page 188, Mannlicher Rifles and Pistols, Smith, 1947. Its bottom arm engages with the trigger. The forward arm holds the barrel forward for loading. The rear arm serves as a hammer catch.

To load this weapon the hammer is cocked. As the hammer rotates on its axis pin, it acts upon the trigger, and the sear snaps into the cocking notch, holding the hammer. The hammer axis pin also supports the center arm of the barrel holding lever, which arm emerges and is raised high enough by its spring to press into a slot under the barrel. The rising thumbpiece on top of the barrel over the breech is then pushed forward. The barrel moves forward until its muzzle emerges from the barrel housing, compressing the recoil spring. The barrel holding lever is snapped into the locking notch in the underside of the barrel, thereby holding it in forward position for charging.

The stripper clip (capacity five rounds) is inserted in the clip guide of the receiver and the cartridges are pressed into the magazine. The cartridges are stripped off the clip and pressed into the magazine-well in the body of the pistol, compressing the spiral magazine-spring. A lip at the top prevents the cartridges from emerging.

The preferred direction for holding this pistol requires that the index finger be positioned around the frame above the trigger guard, with the middle finger through the trigger guard and pressed against the trigger.

As the trigger is pulled, the sear is released of engagement to allow the mainspring to drive the hammer forward slightly, but the rear arm on the barrel holding lever catches in a notch in the hammer to hold the hammer in firing position. The lowering of the forward arm of the barrel holding lever frees the barrel, allowing the compressed recoil spring to drive the barrel back, stripping the top cartridge from the magazine, chambering the round, and pressing the cartridge head against the standing breech. The M1894 is a double action firearm; the hammer can either be cocked manually for each shot, with the trigger performing the single action of releasing the sear, or it can be fired double-action, in which the trigger pull both cocks the hammer and releases the sear, at the expense of a heavier trigger pull.^{[citation needed]}