The rifle, referred to as model M1893, was of a straight-pull, bolt action design, chambered in the 6.5x48mm cartridge (also developed by Mondragón), with a fixed magazine which held an 8-round en-bloc clip. The rifle operated with three settings: "A" (safe), "L" (normal operation), and "R" (rapid). The "automatic" fire setting allowed the rifle to fire a cartridge each time the bolt was manually cycled to closed position, in similar fashion to Winchester M1897 pump action shotgun. The rifle could be equipped with a knife bayonet, measuring and , or a blade-type bayonet of length.