Swiss Mauser

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but I am wanting to get a Swedish Mauser as well. I've seen several on Gunbroker, and looked at the Allans-Armory site also. Which would you guys recommend? Also, what ammo is best to shoot in these and where can it be had?

Thanks
 
Thanks everyone. I will enjoy this new rifle. It has a permanent home, I plan to pass it down to my son after I have died. This is the first Swedish Mauser I have ever seen and was amazed by its beauty. Can someone recommend a good book on the history of this rifle and how to read the brass disk?
 
I'll try to answer the above questions. Ammunition- you have missed the boat ( sort of ), as the Swedish military surplus is all gone. It does show up at gunshows or auction boards. As far as commercial, most of the major manufacturers produce 6.5x55. Lapua and Norma make great stuff. U.S. commercial gets mixed reviews due to being loaded very light and some has problems with rim sizes. Read up. 140 grain is most common, the 160 grains can be more accurate in a M96. Reloading is magical with the right brass. Bullets in .264 are abundant. Do not shoot RWS in a M96, slightly too hot for comfort.
Best book on Swedes is " Crown Jewels ", it is revered for it's thoroughness among collectors. The stock disk means very little, as it was a statement of what the rifles bore graded on one day, long ago. A M96 may have been through quite a bit since, or may have been re-barreled entirely as part of a rearsenal pass. The authority on the internet is a guy called " Dutchman " , his site will give great info. One of the best games to play with an M96 is " what wood is this ", there were many woods used. Some, like Mahogany, are very rare.

http://dutchman.rebooty.com/
 
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For insurance purposes, you might have someone that knows Mausers to look it over. If it has been refinished, the value basically gets cut in half. Mind you, that rifle is in really nice condition and if it's staying in the family there's really no harm done if you come to terms on what you paid for it.

If you're patient, I can get all the information you can possibly handle on the Swedish Mauser when I return home. It's filed away. Just let me know....
 
You can probably find out exactly how to read the disk by googling it. My somewhat cloudy memory says that the sections of the disk tell you what the bore diameter is... I believe it is .265XXXX with the number marked as being the next number after .265. For yours that would appear to say that your bore is .2650.
The section with the 1,2,3 in it refer to the overall condtion of the bore, with the lower number being the best. Yours is marked as being the best.
The word torpedam has something to do with saying it was ok to use tapered bullets in it.. I think.. fuzzy memory again.
Overslag had something to do with the sighting in that the armory did.. IIRC.

Anyway, your Swedish mauser is a precursor to the M98 mauser, and has some notable differences. It is similar to the Spanish 7mm mausers in these characteristics. The most notable difference is that it is a "cock on closing" action. M98's will cock as you rotate the bolt handle upward. The M96's open very easily, but then show some resistance as you push the bolt forward to chamber a round.. this is when it cocks the bolt.
Either method works well.. there are pros and cons for both styles. If you wish, you can buy the bolt parts to convert the M96 to a "cock on opening" style. Personally, I prefer mine the way it is.
The M96's are mostly "small ring" mausers... meaning the receiver is slightly smaller in diameter than most of the M98's. The small ring actions will not handle quite as much chamber pressure as the large rings.
The Swede 6.5 has a very tight pitch rifling, which makes it great for stabilizing bullets out to 160-170 gr. These long bullets have an off the charts sectional density, and give phenomenal penetration. Even the 140gr bullets are excellent, with high sectional densities and ballistic coefficients.
This just means they are inherently accurate, and they kill deer sized animals like a lightning bolt. They are regularly used in Scandanavia on moose-sized animals, with excellent results.
I load mine with Hornady 140gr interlocks at around 2600-2650 fps, and shoot 1" groups at 100yds with boring regularity. I've never had to take a second shot at an animal with it. It's difficult to find a better rifle for most north american hunting.
 
Please let me know what the marks on the brass disk means about my rifle.
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The 1,2, and 3 refer to barrel condition...but there's really 5 ratings, only 3 need to appear to the disk though:
0: New
1: Like new, very little use
2: Very good to good condition
3: Good to Average
4: This rating would cause the rifle to be rebarreled or removed from service
The Swedes, like the Swiss, were very picky about the condition of their troops firearms, so even a '3' rating is likely to be a very good barrel by surplus standards.

The other numbers refer to bore diameter. Yours appears to be 6.50

The marking "Torped Overslag" refers to where the round will hit at 100m using the m41 ammo. The original rounds had a round nose, they changed in '41. If there was a .5, 1, etc. It would mean the round would hit .5m, 1m high at 100m. The "0" means yours should hit dead on.

I recently picked up an '02 M96 and a '41 M38. These are some of the nicest Mausers ever made, and the 6.5x55 round is a lot of fun.
 
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I have one of those Swedish long rifles, mine is dated 1917. Very accurate, mild recoiling, and flat trajectory. More than adequate power for North American game, with the right bullet and careful placement.

A couple of things you need to be aware of. The Swede 96 is basically a model 95 Mauser action design. This gun is intended to handle pressures in the 40k psi range (which is where the 6.5x55mm Swede cartridge is loaded). You can, with handloads get higher pressures. DON'T!

The 95 Mauser is considered weaker than the later model 98 design, and lack the "safety lug" on the 98 Mauser bolt. This safety lug on the 98 actually does nothing unless the main lugs fail, but the 95 design doesn't have one, so, pushing the evelope with handloads is a really bad idea!

Swede rifles got well deserved reputations, because they were well made, and made of Swedish steel, which was considered the best in the world through the early decades of the 20th century.

Also, this gun (with the original sights) will shoot high at 100yds. These rifles were zeroed at much greater range (300m), and in those days soldiers were taught to aim at the enemy belt buckle, giving a good chance of a torso hit if their range estimation was off a bit.

If it is important to you to have the rifle hit point of aim at 100yds, a different (higher) front sight blade in needed. They are available from a couple places, and don't cost much.

My last trip to the range with my totally "as issued" M96, and 140gr loads, it was easy to ring the 400yd gong with the sight set at its lowest position!
 
Is Allans-Armory the best place to go for one of these rifles? Also, will these rifles handle the loads from Lapua and Norma OK, or is it too hot?
 
Check out Simpson Ltd.. They have a lot of them, most have stock disks and I think are in better shape. I've ordered an FN Mauser and my '02 M96 from them and they were both in great shape.
I'd check with Lapua and Norma...I think their ammo may be geared towards mordern rifles because they're higher pressure rounds. Someone here may know for sure, but I seem to remember seeing somewhere Norma runs about 50Kpsi.
 
Where is a good website for purchasing amno for my 6.55x55? If I understand correctly I need 140 grain amno for my rifle. The sites I visit just has for example 140 grain. I see nothing about fps. What do I need to buy? I don't wont to mess my rifle up with the wrong amno.
 
Norma and Lapua are just fine in Swedish mausers. The only ammo that would be over pressured is RWS. European ammo tends to be faster than American.
 
benogil said:
Norma and Lapua are just fine in Swedish mausers. The only ammo that would be over pressured is RWS. European ammo tends to be faster than American.
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Dude where do you think Lapua and Norma are made? They are not american companies, there European like RWS. Lapua is Finnish and Norma is Swedish

Michael - Any factory 6.5x55 ammo should be good to go in your Swed, unless its stated.
 
I've always read that the weak link in the 6.5x55 family was the Norwegian Krag, which are still around (I gather, never seen one myself) and have even more issues than the early Mausers in regards to pressure and bolt lugs and such.

Years ago (late 80s?) I purchased some PMC 6.5 that got kinda sticky in the chamber extraction wise and had some primer flow issues so we quit shooting that stuff in the old Swedes we'd bought.
 
Beautiful Swede. I've owned 4 Swedish Mausers (2 96s, 1 M38, and a sporter M96) I'm currently down to just one 96 and my deer rifle.)

I saw 2 M1894s at a local gunshow last weekend. one was a rough specimen for $750, and the other a fairly nice example for $900.

I have about 6 boxes of surplus stuff left. I bought 400 rounds many years ago. (price tag on box of 20 is $8.00)
I've also purchased and shot 2 boxes of Privi Partizan 139gr FMJ, which seems about the same as the surplus stuff. POI @ 100yds was nearly identical. Think it was about ~$16-18/box
 
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