Collecting and Shooting the Military Surplus Rifle

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Q: What military issue bolt action rifle has a 1" rubber butt pad, windage and elevation adjustable aperture rear sight, integral muzzle brake, pistol grip (semi-Monte Carlo) style sporter stock, refined crafted features in the styling of a Spanish or Swedish Mauser, and is chambered in 30'06 caliber?

A: The Madsen M47/Colombian M1958 Rifle Caliber .30.

There is not a lot available on this lady! She was made in 1947 by Danish arms manufacturer Madsen (famous for machine guns) for the Colombian Military. Some say around 40,000, while others say 5000 total were manufactured - this figure is difficult to substantiate.

Reader Submission:

Thanks for the inclusion of the Model 47 rifle on your webpage. I think that you might need to revise your production figures, though. Initial thoughts were 5000 rifles.

I have been keeping a database on serial numbers from the different boards and have serial numbers only up to 6500.....I have representative s/n's from every 100 increment up to # 6449. So, far, rifles with a serial number below 5000 do not have a stock disk included whereas those above that number have the disk with a 3% variance...probably due to stock replacement.

Dansk Industri Syndikat A.S. produced the rifles in 1947, but could not find a buyer due to the proliferation of semi-auto rifles following the Second World War. The Colombian Navy purchased an order, however, it is not conclusive if they even took possession of the order before it was sold off to Surplus Vendors. Colombian nomenclature of the rifle is the Model 1958 and not necessarily that year as attempts to research this thru DISA have been unfruitful as all the people involved in the rifle have died according to the folks at DISA in Copenhagen. I tried thru archival information thru the Danish Library system, but, they had no info on the rifle.

So, far I'm up to 104 rifle s/n's from all over the world and have found 15 bayonets, some matching the rifles and others, unnumbered.

I hope this small amount of information would be helpful for your site.

Regards,

Warren Ball
aka Ol'Duke

The receiver is marked "Fuerzas Armadas De Colombia" which translates to "Armed Forces Of Colombia".

The Madsen was the culmination (to reach the highest point or degree) of factory produced military bolt action rifles.

Most were not even issued to troops before they were obsolete. Today if you find a Madsen, they are generally in good to unissued condition. Key word being "if" you find a Madsen. This is only the second specimen I have seen in the flesh - so I purchased it.

Imagine taking a fine sporting arm, add in a pinch of a Swedish Mauser m96, a smidgen of a Mosin-Nagant and you have the Madsen. At first when I inspected the bolt, without removing it, I noticed no locking lugs at the front. I was concerned that the only way the bolt locked was the side of the bolt body between the receiver. After removing the bolt I discovered that the lugs were at the rear of the bolt.

The rear of the receiver is split at top, similar to the Mosin-Nagant rifles and carbines. This would make it a little difficult to mount a scope, if you had the inclination to deface such a rifle. I am not a puritan to the milsurp collector religion, I have mangled and sporterized my share. I just think it would be a shame to change this rifle as it has almost all of the features you would ever desire in a sporter.

Figure 7 shows the front and rear sights. The rear sight is an easy to use aperture type and the front is very similar to the Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 hooded sight with a small post.

The only thing I found that somewhat left me wanting was the safety. It is very easy to engage, but it is also way too easy to disengage! I learned this by accidentally brushing it with the side of my hand. Figure 8 shows that when placed in the "Safe" position that it obscures the sight picture when compared to figure 7. I would really think twice about carrying this rifle loaded with a round in the chamber.

Any rifle can be a pretty rifle. The one thing that makes a rifle really pretty is how it shoots and the Madsen was not disappointing. Figure 9 is a common representation of my shooting at 100 yards. Figures 10 and 11 represent my best of 10 - 5 shot groups. The recoil was very mild and actually considerably less than an M1 Garand. The very substantial butt pad and muzzle brake probably contribute to this as factors.

Overall I was very pleased with my groupings. I tried two commercial brands of 30'06 ammo, but achieved the best results with ammo that I had hand loaded for my Garands. It was really nice to be able to easily see and use the sights and adjust the windage without a drift and hammer. The trigger pull was military, but smooth and the cycling of the bolt was similar to my 03A3 (smooth and easy).

If you have an opportunity to pick a Madsen, I would not pass it up. Other than the awkward safety, I could not find anything I disliked about her. On the contrary I found her to be an excellent military/sporter grade rifle chambered in the universal 30'06 cartridge. How could you go wrong?

jlm;)