Swedish mauser

M

Micro man

New member
Been looking lately for a Swedish Mauser in my area. I have heard good things about the 6.5 x 55 round and how well the Swedish Mauser shoots. I found a couple today at a local gun shop, one looks like a put together as not all the serial numbers matched and was missing the cleaning rod.
The other one all the numbers matched but I noticed the muzzle was threaded and exposed.
I don't know enough about them to know if this is common or if it's missing a part. Both guns were the same price.
I would appreciate feed back from any members with information about the threaded muzzle and if its better to go with the all matching number gun.
Micro man
 
I have a Swedish Mauser with all matching parts. Problem is, stock was cut and the front metal is missing. The barrel is shot. I've been looking for parts and pretty much gave up..

I'm gonna make a shooter out of it, new stock, new barrel, the works.

The Swedish Mauser isn't designed to take high pressure, I think you need to limit it to about 45K PSI.

Still with a high BC bullet (where there are several now days) you can have a long range shooter.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy any that is have way close to being original

Some Day
 
if I recall correctly, the threaded barrel is normal, it was to allow a shredder to be screwed onto the barrel. swedish blanks actually are fully loaded ammo that shoots wood projectiles so there was actually a shredder that screwed to the barrel to break up the wood projectiles as the left the barrel and diminish any chance of a training mishap.
 
swedish blanks actually are fully loaded ammo that shoots wood projectiles so there was actually a shredder that screwed to the barrel to break up the wood projectiles as the left the barrel and diminish any chance of a training mishap.
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Correct, as long as by "fully loaded" ammo you mean loaded with a wood bullet, and not loaded to the same power/pressure as the standard round.

There should have been a ring (usually knurled) covering the threads, to protect them. I think you can get replacements from Gun Parts Inc.

Be aware that with the issue sights, Swedes will invariably shoot high at 100yds. Zero for these rifles was something like 300 meters, and also followed the usual European practice of having troops aim "at the belt buckle" of the enemy, so that a mis estimation of range would still result in a torso hit.

Different height front sight blades are available if you so desire.
 
Be aware that with the issue sights, Swedes will invariably shoot high at 100yds. Zero for these rifles was something like 300 meters,
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Battle zero IS 300 meters and the sights were calibrated for the 160 gr. RN projectile. With the 139 gr Spitzer, zero becomes 350- 400 meters; so says the conversion plate on my 1918 made one. This plate tells you the correction starting @ 50m.
 
"...better to go with the all matching number gun..." It is if the thing(M96) is in full military configuration and collecting is the idea. Otherwise, a check of the headspace and overall condition is more important.
Mind you, M96 was being taken out of service in the 1950's. The really primo examples are gone.
Here's an entertaining story by the lads at Box O' Truth.
http://www.theboxotruth.com/educational-zone-95-interesting-firearms-the-model-96-swedish-mauser/
"...limit it to about 45K PSI..." Ball milsurp ran at ~ 55,114 psi as per CIP. SAAMI MAP spec is 51,000 psi. All Swedish Mauser bolt actions were proof tested with a single 6.5×55mm proof round developing approximately 65,992 psi.
Manual is here. http://stevespages.com/pdf/swede_m38-m41b-m96.pdf
 
One of the reasons for limiting pressure on an M96 Swede to around 45k is that you are reloading the brass. The M96 just doesn't have all the gas handling safety features of the M98 action, so as brass ages with reloads, keeping the pressures on the more modest end of things is a prudent safety precaution. New brass is one thing to go to SAAMI or CIP max, especially since the Swede military didn't reload ammunition.

Plenty of M96 actions have been commercially proofed to shoot 308 Win in Sweden and by Kimber, but I don't recommend it myself. The 6.5x55 shoots beautifully without being hot rodded, and reliably takes game even with sedate loads (which are still quite a bit hotter than most 30-30 loads).

If you want to hot rod a 6.5x55, build a Savage, it's an excellent platform for that. Mauser 98s and Rem700s are just a tad more work.

Jimro
 
Years ago a fellow gunsmith brought me a Swedish Mauser receiver to cut apart (I had access to radic cookie wheels). He had rebarreled to a .264 Winchester Magnum and a few rounds down the road it had a failure. The bolt was somewhat fused into the receiver. There was tremendous setback in the receiver lugs, but it did stay together. He concluded that the shooter had underloaded the cartridge, but I was never convinced that was what caused it. Not downgrading the Swedish Mauser, but it is smart to stay in the parameters.
 
Great rifles. I wish I had bought a couple more back when you could get them for $99 from Big 5.

Battle zero IS 300 meters and the sights were calibrated for the 160 gr. RN projectile. With the 139 gr Spitzer, zero becomes 350- 400 meters; so says the conversion plate on my 1918 made one. This plate tells you the correction starting @ 50m.
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Depends if it is a M96 rifle or M38 carbine. The purpose built M38 carbines were built later (1938-) and had sights for the Spitzer (Torped) bullet. M96 rifles converted to carbines could either have the old sights for the round nose, or two different variants of sights for the spitzer load. These were set for 100 or 150 M depending on version.

Sorry, don't know about the M94 carbines, other than I want one, and will probably never see one at a price I would be willing to pay.

Years ago a fellow gunsmith brought me a Swedish Mauser receiver to cut apart (I had access to radic cookie wheels). He had rebarreled to a .264 Winchester Magnum
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This was a M96 action? If so, that wasn't very smart. .264WM has a max pressure of about 64K PSI, compared to ~55K PSI for the Swede. Every round would be a proof load, in a small ring Mauser action. Doesn't seem like a very smart thing to do, no matter how good Swedish Steel is reported to have been.
 
M96 rifles converted to carbines could either have the old sights for the round nose, or two different variants of sights for the spitzer load. These were set for 100 or 150 M depending on version.
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You are correct about the M38's. But converted sight M96's were set for 300M even when converted to 139gr torped. To know if you have a torped sight, look at the sides of the front sight and look for a T stamp. There are also some "specific sights" for M96 and M38 that are zero for 100M. These are 'uncommon'. Typical sights are 300M battle zero. M94's are virtually always calibrated for 160 gr.
 
Thanks to all for the helpful information. I do plan on reloading for it down the road. I do have another question has anyone tried to mount a scope on their Swedish Mauser, I don't want to drill and tapp, just something that may attach where the sight is or something that is offset left or right'of the bolt.
 
You might just want to consider buying a Savage long action and getting a barrel for it.

Easy for a gunsmith, easy at home if you are ok with about $150 in tools.

Any long action will do, bolt head may have to be changed (also easy)

Get a new, scoped, very good shooting rifle in an interesting caliber.

The harder one for me is going to be the 7.5 Swiss, but I think I have a barrel maker who has the reamer for it.
 
If you want one as a deer rifle, raise the front sight as recommended above to a 100yd zero. Usually these rifles are very accurate. I am a reloader and have developed a recipe using Nosler Partitions. I shot a deer straight on and it went through the deer completely stem to stern. The Europeans, particularily the Seweds hunt large game like moose, elk with them because the rounds have such great penetration.
 
just like to point out that the 6.5 swede is used a lot because a lot of those european countries don't allow anything smaller for hunting elk, which is an animal that we call moose.
 
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