If you were to compare Surplus Military Rifles with athletes - the Swedish Mauser m96 would be a Ballet Dancer or maybe an Olympic Swimmer. Pure muscle - but just enough to accomplish the task and not one single ounce of fat - anywhere! Everything about the m96 screams elegance. From its long sleek form to the way the bolt fits with the receiver, nothing wasted. Even the 6.5x55mm round is one of the most accurate Military cartridges ever devised.

Note: The Swedes were way ahead of the curve on using smaller caliber cartridges for military rounds, adopting the 6.5x55mm round in 1893, way before the introduction of the 5.56 NATO and other small caliber rounds around 70 years later.

The m96 used for this article was manufactured in 1921 at the Carl Gustafs Stads Gevarsfaktoriet (Carl Gustaf's City Rifle Factory), or at least the receiver was (as shown in figure 3).  The rifle may have been actually assembled some time in the 1930s from stockpiled parts.

This rifle has what is referred to as a Type 2, 2nd variation style disk (as shown in figure 5). These brass disks were installed on the right side of the rifle's stock after the adoption of the m/94/41, 6.5x55mm cartridge in 1941. The disk is divided into three sections. The largest wedge represents the level of bore erosion. The second largest wedge, with words, told the shooter how much to adjust hold over for the new m/94/41 cartridge. The rifles were originally sighted for the m/94 cartridge. Notice the smallest wedge on the disk with a number 1 in the narrowest part of the wedge and the numbers 2 and 3 in the widest part of the wedge.

The number in the smallest part of the wedge is the condition of the bore.

• 0 means the bore is almost new.
• 1 means the bore is only slightly worn (this rifle).
• 2 means the bore is moderately worn.
• 3 means the rifle bore is serviceable.
• 4 means the barrel should be replaced.

Figure 6 shows my grouping next to a U.S. Quarter. The Swede is a very accurate rifle, made for long distance shooting. When watching the Military Silhouette Matches, there are quite a few shooters shooting m96 rifles. The only problem I can see with the Swede is that the 6.5mm round is not a very large caliber round (a problem at least for Silhouette Shooting). A heavy bullet at a high velocity is what is needed to knock down a large steel silhouette at such long distances. To compensate for the size of the 6.5x55mm cartridge, everyone I have spoken with uses fairly hot loads to accomplish consistent knock downs.

I paid around $269 (a little more than I normally spend for a surplus rifle) for my Swedish Mauser and I think it was money well spent. The m/96 is definitely a must have military surplus rifle for any collection.

jlm

Bibliography

Steve Kehaya and Joe Poyer, "For Collectors Only: The Swedish Mauser Rifles", North Cape Publications.