Swedish Mauser Sporter Help

[dak0ta]

Hi,

I'm looking to get a rifle in 6.5x55, but I don't want to spend that much on a new Tikka or CZ. Hence i've looked towards Husqvarna sporters and Swedish Mauser conversions.

I found a '41 husky (m38?) as well. The stock is a modified military and is very nce. Comes with leupold rings and bases and vx2 2-7x33 with target dot
450.00 shipped (buyer description)

I was thinking of buying it without the optic, rings, bases. Is this a good scope/rifle combo or should I just buy the rifle alone (what price?) and get my own scope and mounts? Also, are these rifles accurate? I notice there is a step in the barrel. Purpose is general hunting deer, moose, elk, varmints, target shooting.

Pics:

 

[Sweet 6.5]

Hi
I had one of these (6.5x55) but in a 96 with a VXII 3-9x40 and I just loved
the rifle. It was accurate and I had 11 one shot kills before I lost it in a fire.
I shot some big and tuff animals with it. The bluewildebeest was with 160gr
Hornady and the warthog with 155gr Lapua Mega. They both went no more
than 20yards after the shots.

 

[dak0ta]

Is that 96 barrel chopped? Nice rifle and nice game!

 

[stan rose]

Dakota,
With the barrel already cut and re-crowned, bolt handle modified for scope use, and the scope base, rings and scope already mounted that doesn't seem like an unfair price. If you were to add it all up piece by piece plus your time it would probably come out to more than $450 to get the rifle to state it is at now.

 

[jrdolall]

Gunsmith quoted me $200 to get my 1918 Swede ready for a scope. Drill, tap and cut down the bolt. I am still undecided as to whether I want to get it done or just keep it as is.

 

[NCsmitty]

With the collector value not being a factor, it should be a good hunting/shooting rifle but you need to dump the too high rings, and get the scope down and back to give yourself a more natural hold. It's hard to tell why they used the high rings, but it may be to clear the bolt. Small changes can make it a superb rifle for all around use, and it's rare to find a Swede that won't shoot little groups.


NCsmitty

 

[Jimro]

450 for the package is a good deal.

Jimro

 

[303tom]

Its a travesty that some one would do that to that rifle, but they done a good job, even I would own it at the right price.............and I own 2 of the less than 20,000 Husqvarna Vapenfabriks AB m/96`s ever built.

 

[artee]

Yes, the package price is worth it. Good deal.

Here's my thinking (from a guy that loves MilSurps, but hates MilSurp Conversions): The rifles in the late 80's till mid 90s sold for 90 to 150 dollars. As soon as there were no more to import, they became $300 rifles. The 96s and M38s were good designs, not great (the Mauser 98's were Great). They are an Excellent execution of their design, however. They are in a great cartridge. The scope is a Leupold. Great company. Good scope (VXII). Great power range for a deer rifle, especially if an "all round" rifle. Not so great reticle. Dot reticles are super on bullseyes and varmints in the west. This is somewhat individualistic, but the standard "Dual X", especially Leupold's (who invented and obtained the patent) is a far better reticle for a hunter. It shows in low light, it is fine enough for precision shooting, it's useful for ranging. Because they had the design right from the beginning, the competitors could never make a "Dual X" as sucessful as Leupold. The high scope mounting is an utter failure, unless irons are your primary sight and you just want to tote a scope around 'cause everyone else does. And then, only if those high mounts are "see thru's". If the mounts aren't see thru's, you really have a turd. It's not that I like see thru sight mounts. I don't. But to have that high of a sight line on a rifle, where the scope can't possibly match your eye, it better be because of "see thru's" for using the iron sights or it's idiotic.

Century imported a lot of Sweeds. They offered a conversion that had a "synthetic" stock, scope compatible bolt handle, and high see thru scope mounts. Their stock was a nice 'straight' comb. This allowed the rifle to be an adequate compromise scope/iron sight gun. I think it went for about $300.00. If it came with a scope, it would have been comparable to the Rem 700 ADL or Savage 110 packages with their buttom line 3-9 Bushnells. The stock was designed to compete with the tuperware stocks of the ADL's and 110's. Not the McMillan's or HS's on the Win 70 Varmints or Rem 700 Varmints of the time (with their glass layups and aluminum bedding blocks). Those package guns today, with a Leupold scope in the bargain (something they never sold with) would be, at top dollar, $450.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

 

[dak0ta]

Besides asking if the bore is excellent, what other questions would you want to ask the seller?

 

[Edarnold]

Two thoughts on this package: first, the Leupold scope and mounts are $350 new, maybe somebody can get it cheaper but that's retail, and you will not get a better scope, unless you want to pay twice as much for somebody's brand name. If you get the bolt handle turned down further, all you would need is a lower set of rings.

Second, find out if the seller has the brass disc that fits that spot on the right side of the stock. The arsenal assessment of the bore condition is stamped on one sector of the disk, with one, two or three punches. One punch is excellent, two is serviceable, three punches means the rifle is no longer considered serviceable due to bore condition. I got burned on this on a Model 38 years ago, didn't know about the significance of the punch marks and the external condition of the gun was very good, the bore looked bright and clean. What I didn't know was that the throat was very rough, after about five shots of Norma factory loads the throat had fouled to the point of driving the pressures up and piercing the primer on the sixth shot. Drove the firing pin back to full cock and kinked the spring, needless to say that was the end of shooting that rifle. It took a lot of solvent, brass brushes and elbow grease to get the bore cleared, I sold the gun for what I had in it with the understanding that it was strictly a non-shooting collector's piece.

When somebody is selling a gun that looks good, you always have to wonder why.

 

[Coltdriver]

Kimber also converted a lot of the 6.5x55 Swedes to sporters.

There is a fellow here in Denver with one up for sale on the local board for $400 no scope.

I would not put any faith at all in the original brass disc. You are better off to take a look down the barrel and slug it if you are suspicious.

If the barrel is good then $450 with that scope is probably a fair deal. You could look at the serial numbers to see if the parts match. But its not the end of the world if they don't. Having a matching bolt and receiver would be nice.

If you have a good smith around ask him what he would charge you for an opinion.

 

[Jimro]

A "3" condition bore was still considered serviceable, and may have nothing to do with how tight the rifle will or won't shoot. Rounding of rifling, dark patches, etc, could all conspire to give a very tight shooting rifle a "3" bore.

However, the bore inspection rating only applied to the last time the rifle went through a Swedish armorer inspection, so nothing beats a visual inspection.

Jimro

 

[wjt]

The reason for the high mounted scope are three fold.

1 - Although the m-38 bolt handles are turned down, they will still not clear a low mounted scope.

2 - A low scope would interfere with an original safety.

3 - The rear sight would not allow the scope to be any lower if left as is.

Another option is to buy the rifle w/o scope,rings & bases and get a "no gunsmith" scout mount (that replaces the rear sight) and IER scope.

Walt