Just bought a surplus 1915 Carl gustafs mauser

[Tosi]

I basically was looking for a mauser to shoot and I like the 6.5 swede so I bought the rifle for $260 its in verygood condition. But I have no idea about the history of these rifles etc. I had a few questions. One the numbers match on the bolt and the reciever and most everthing on the gun except a few random pieces, does that mean its numbers matching or realy just some numbers matching. Second what is the little disky thingy on the butt of the stock. Third the reciever has been drilled close to the back and something was taken off what was that, competetion sight??? Fourth theres a bit of masking tape on the stock what should I use to clean it off? and last was what I paid a fair price? Thanks for the input, Mike

ohh and one other thing whats the most inexpensive, non corrosive ammo? ohh and another thing why does it have a threaded barrel?

 

[cracked butt]

this Thread Is Worthless Without Pictures!

 

[cracked butt]

You bought a very good rifle from the sound of it.

Yes, the rear receiver bridge was sometimes drilled for a dioptor sight for target competition. You can still find dioptors for sale if you figure the correct one for the holes drilled, they run from about $150-300 for a set.

Nearly all of the parts were numbered on Swedish mausers when they were manufactured, ver the years, the rifles got rebuilt and parts became mismatched. The Bolt will always match the receiver however and will sometimes be electropencilled or overstamped with a matching number.
There will be crown stamps behind the triggerguard, each one represents either an acceptance mark or an arsenal rebuild.

The disk is called the armorer's disc. The pie with the most numbers determines the bore diameter in mms, the small pie with the numbers 1 2 and 3 represent the bore condition with '1' being the bore with the least wear. A '3' marked rifle is likely to still be a very good shooter as the Swedes had very strict standards for the condition of each rifle.

The last pie is the torpdam/overslag which determines the sight correction ffor changing from rn bullets to the M/41 spitzer ammunition. This part of the disc was rarely used.

 

[cracked butt]

The piece of tape was probably put on by a civillian competitor to mark his rifle so that he could find it on a rack of similar rifles.

Sarco imported a lot of M96s a few years ago, a lot of them had tape on them because they were purchased from private sources rather than military arsenals.

 

[rangerruck]

goo gone, or alcohol, or orange cleaner,for the cleaning, the rifle is deff worth that, not sure about the numbers, sounds like an all match. what a great rifle, and one of the best cals ever.

 

[rangerruck]

kimber and somebodly else, bought a ton of these about 5 or 10 years ago, refinished them , restocked them , etc., you see them going for about 400 bucks or so.

 

[Float Pilot]

Welcome to Swede Mauser Land. As long as you don't live up here in Alaska or down on Hawaii you should be able to find lots of mil-surplus ammo. None of the Swede military stuff now on the market is corrosive. But it is Bredan primed so it sucks for reloading.
There is also PMC and some Bosnian ammo that works just fine. Even Sportmands Guide sell the wonderful 6.5 x 55mm ammo.


The barrel was threaded for using a blank fring adapter. The Swedes and several other countries used wooden bullet blanks. The adapter caught and shredded the bullet. Before they started using those, they actually told the troops to aim off to one side of the opponents during war games.. Ouch....

This guy has a good web site

http://www.rebooty.com/~dutchman/

And here is the Swede collectors forum.

http://forums.gunboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49

Just don't cut it up.....Leave it military.

 

[Tosi]

Thanks for the info guys, and yes I will get some pictures up soon. I was out prowling the woods in my german winter camo playing sniper on all those facist clay pigeons out there. Still have to punch some paper to see how she shoots. Also I got the tape off the stock which had been there forever but it came off clean. The bore part of the disc was marked with a one which I was pretty happy about. Plus I managed to find some non corrosive surplus ammo at my local gun shop. Ohh and I would never cut it up, ughh thats a sin on a piece of history. Every time I look at it I have hard time believing it from 1915, almost a 100 years old.

 

[Float Pilot]

The Swedes were kinda anal about thier bore conditions. So even a rifle with a 2 or 3 marked on the disc is usually way better than most modern factory rifles. I have a 1900 Oberndorf M96 with a virtually new barrel (no mark in the 1,2 ,3 area) and a perfect 6.50 mm bore. But my 1943 Husqvarna M38 with a #2 bore condition and a 6.52mm bore shoots just as good. 1.5 inch groups at 100 meters with iron sights from sandbags,,,so far....
I am in the middle of a big handloading project to see if I can work up some super accurate loads with some lower pressures to stretch my case life. I am not sure my half century old eyes can do any better.