The Swedish Mauser Rifles (For Collectors Only)

The Swedish Mauser is considered by many collectors to be the finest of the pre-World War I designs for military rifles. Resembling a fine sporting arm, it was extremely accurate due in part to its 6.5 x 55 mm cartridge but also to the skill and precision with which it was manufactured. The Swedish Mauser Rifles provides North Cape Publications famous part-by-part description of these fine rifles complete with all markings, codes and inspection markings, plus translated lists of unit and regimental markings. A complete history of the rifle's development is included, as are detailed descriptions sniper and target rifles. The bolt action rifle adopted by Sweden in the mid-1890s was based on the Mauser design for Spain with significant changes to make it suitable for use by Swedish forces. While Sweden has not fought a war since Napoleonic times, they have maintained a strong military defense force based on universal conscription for over 150 years. They key to that defense system's effectiveness against German expansionism and Warsaw Pact-NATO competition has lain both in the willingness of the nation's citizens to defend their territory and in the quality and precision manufacture of their weapons. Sweden has long been known as a center for the manufacture of fine firearms. As early as the 16th century, individual gunsmiths began to group together to provide firearms for Swedish armies. Nine great state-operated armories were constructed and operated in Sweden between 1560 and 1812 of which the greatest and longest-lived was the Carl Gustaf's stad Gev„rsfaktoriet of Eskilstuna (Carl Gustav's City Factory) which was responsible for the design and the major production of the famous m/94 carbine and m/96 series of rifles between 1896 and 1925. The contract for an initial 52 carbines based on the Spanish Mauser carbine was awarded to the Mauser factory at Oberndorf, Germany and after short trials were completed, a second and third contract for additional carbines with the new changes were awarded for a total of 12,185 additional m/94 carbines. Meanwhile, design engineers and tool makers in Sweden were busy completing the design of what would become the m/96 rifle. This new rifle with a 29.1 inch entered production at the Carl Gustaf factory in early 1896. Before rifle production was completed at that factory in 1925, more than 517,000 rifles would be built. The Mauser Oberndorf factory in Germany was also awarded a contract in 1899 to produce and additional 40,000 m/96 rifles. Thus, Sweden's armed neutrality made it possible for her to resist the blandishments of both sides during World War I. In the mid-1930s, with war clouds once again gathering over Europe, the Swedish government undertook another complete review of here military readiness.

A massive rearmament program was instituted, and in 1938, the barrels of some 30,000 m/96 rifles were reduced in length to 24.5 inches to produce the m/96-38 rifle. In 1941, contracts were awarded to the manufacturing firm of Husqvarna to produce 60,000 more rifles with the short barrel, now designated the m/38 rifle. With the end of the war, it was clear that the bolt action, five shot rifle was obsolete. Sweden was already experimenting with a semi-automatic battle rifle, the AG42B, and with a variety of automatic personal weapons. Large stocks of the m/96 rifle had gone to Finland in 1939 during the Winter War against Soviet aggression, and now, thousands more were sold to Denmark and Norway to reequip their military forces after the German occupation. Most American firearms enthusiasts became aware of the Swedish Mauser in the early 1950s when the first m/94 carbines were imported by two companies called Pasadena Firearms and InterArms Company, respectively. Rifles followed until 1968 when the Gun Control Act of that year forbade the further importation of military firearms. But

Although the Swedish Mauser rifle has long been considered a fine collectible firearm and an excellent shooter, other than a few magazine articles and one book published in Germany, there has never been an authoritative source of information about these fine rifles available to the collector. That has now changed. The authors, one an executive with a large firearms importer and manufacturer and the other, an author of over four hundred magazine articles on firearms and military affairs, teamed to write the definitive book on the Swedish Mauser rifle, and succeeded.

In its 255 pages, the history of its development and use is described, a part-by-part analysis of all models is provided, complete with markings, codes, inspection marks and any changes made during the rifle's production life. A survey of 478 rifles was performed and more 150 were disassembled completely. Information was received from collectors around the world and from the Swedish defense forces, the last director of the Carl Gustaf factory and from its modern successor.