Picked Up the 1896 Swedish Mauser.....

[usmc69]

Went back to the gun shop and got the 1896 Swede. It was made at CARL GUSTAFS STADS GEVARSFAKTORI 1923. The stock has one blemish where a band has scrapped the wood. The receiver and bolt are 100%. The barrel has some wear and light scratches from the forward barrel band. Bore is bright and shiney, great lands and grooves. All serial numbers except the cleaning match. The cleaning rod S/N is only 24 numbers off the serial number. Is there any info on the brass stock disc that anyone can impart to me? Got it for $300 with 2 boxes of commercial ammo. Just found a boxed SA on the chamber area.

[Liam]

I wouldn't put too much stock in what information the brass disk provides. As I understand it, it was stamped by the last armorer who inspected the rifle and shows the extent of barrel wear and point of impact of standard Swede military bullet at a given range. How much the rifle has been shot since the last inspection is anyone's guess. Google the subject and an explanation of the numbers is easily found. I'm no cynic, but have seen UNSTAMPED replacement brass disks for sale and give them little credence. The fact your parts are all matching is a bonus! I love my easy kicking 96 Swedes and hand load for them. Much can be accomplished with that .264 bullet. Best of luck with yours. AND.....we are looking forward to a few photos.

[usmc69]

I wouldn't put too much stock in what information the brass disk provides. As I understand it, it was stamped by the last armorer who inspected the rifle and shows the extent of barrel wear and point of impact of standard Swede military bullet at a given range. How much the rifle has been shot since the last inspection is anyone's guess. Google the subject and an explanation of the numbers is easily found. I'm no cynic, but have seen UNSTAMPED replacement brass disks for sale and give them little credence. The fact your parts are all matching is a bonus! I love my easy kicking 96 Swedes and hand load for them. Much can be accomplished with that .264 bullet. Best of luck with yours. AND.....we are looking forward to a few photos.

To be able to decipher what the disc means is a plus to me. The proof will be in the shooting. By the looks of the rifle it has not seen hard use. Since it is all matching and still shows color case harding on the top of the bolt release, I doubt it is a refurb. Will post some pictures tomorrow.

[usmc69]

AND.....we are looking forward to a few photos.

Here are 5 pictues. Two more on the next post.

[usmc69]

The last two.....

[Bill]

Don't have the reference books handy, but from memory, the disk tells you the barrel condition, amount of wear, and the difference in impact point between the original round nose bullet and the later 140 grain bullet adopted.

Little section with a 1, 2, 3 should have a mark over one of the numbers. Unmarked or stamped over the 1 indicates no appreciable pitting, 2 indicates some present, but bore is usable, and 3 indicates bore is conisdered unusable.

Section with the numbers 0 through 9 indicate bore wear, and you add the stamped number to the original bore diameter to get the bore condition at the time the rifle was examined.

Section at the bottom in the picture is supposed to indicate bullet impact point when the new lighter bullet is used, and I have never seen this section punched.

This is from my not so good memory, but believe it is substantially correct.

I too have seen unmarked disks, or rifles with disk removed. I suspect this was done to conceal not very good condition as indicated on the original disk.

Supposedly this gaging was done when the swedes inventoried their arsenal around beginning of WWII.

[Liam]

The one screw disc is divided into 3 sections, each of which is marked in such a way as to reveal some information about that particular rifle. The smallest "slice" of the brass disc bears the numbers 1, 2, and 3 with a triangular punch mark over one of the numbers. This indicates the condition of the bore. No punch mark is perfect. 1 means a very few dark areas in the corners of the lands and grooves. 2 indicates rust in the corners of the lands and grooves and possible light rust in the grooves. 3 indicates spots of light rust throughout the grooves, but no sharp edges; this is still acceptable. A rifle scoring lower than 3 was rebarreled. My rifle is a 3, but any rifle passed by the Swedish armorers will shoot very well, as the inspectors were quite picky. The bore of my rifle looks good to the naked eye.

The next slice of the little brass disc indicates the elevation aiming error when shooting the standard m/41 Swedish service load, which used a 140 grain boat-tail spitzer bullet at a MV of around 800 m/s. There are three Swedish words in this sector of the disc. "Torped" indicates the 140 grain BT spitzer bullet (there was an earlier 156 grain RN bullet), "Overslag" means over, followed by a space and then "Str." Str is the abbreviation for streck, a unit of angle, and there are 6300 streck to a circle. Streck were used in a manner similar to the way North American shooters use minutes of angle. If there is a number in the blank space between Overslag and Str. it indicates the amount the rifle shoots over in terms of streck. 1 streck equals approximately 1/10 meter at 100 meters. So a 1 in the space on the disc indicates that rifle would shoot 10 cm (or a little less than 4") above the point of aim at 100 meters. The space is blank on my rifle's disc, indicating that it shoots to point of aim.

The largest slice of the disc has an outer and an inner arc of numbers. The outer arc bears numbers "6.51" followed by the numbers 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 (my rifle has a punch mark over the "2"). The inner arc bears the numbers "6.46" followed by 7,8,9,0 (no punch mark over a number in the inner arc on my rifle). It is my understanding that these numbers reveal the nominal bore (6.46mm) and groove (6.51mm) diameters of a new barrel. The punch mark(s) reveals the actual diameter of the particular barrel (and thus, presumably, any wear). Thus, my barrel has a groove diameter of 6.52mm. Apparently the bore diameter of my barrel measured right at 6.46mm.

[usmc69]

The one screw disc is divided into 3 sections, each of which is marked in such a way as to reveal some information about that particular rifle. The smallest "slice" of the brass disc bears the numbers 1, 2, and 3 with a triangular punch mark over one of the numbers. This indicates the condition of the bore. No punch mark is perfect. 1 means a very few dark areas in the corners of the lands and grooves. 2 indicates rust in the corners of the lands and grooves and possible light rust in the grooves. 3 indicates spots of light rust throughout the grooves, but no sharp edges; this is still acceptable. A rifle scoring lower than 3 was rebarreled. My rifle is a 3, but any rifle passed by the Swedish armorers will shoot very well, as the inspectors were quite picky. The bore of my rifle looks good to the naked eye.

The next slice of the little brass disc indicates the elevation aiming error when shooting the standard m/41 Swedish service load, which used a 140 grain boat-tail spitzer bullet at a MV of around 800 m/s. There are three Swedish words in this sector of the disc. "Torped" indicates the 140 grain BT spitzer bullet (there was an earlier 156 grain RN bullet), "Overslag" means over, followed by a space and then "Str." Str is the abbreviation for streck, a unit of angle, and there are 6300 streck to a circle. Streck were used in a manner similar to the way North American shooters use minutes of angle. If there is a number in the blank space between Overslag and Str. it indicates the amount the rifle shoots over in terms of streck. 1 streck equals approximately 1/10 meter at 100 meters. So a 1 in the space on the disc indicates that rifle would shoot 10 cm (or a little less than 4") above the point of aim at 100 meters. The space is blank on my rifle's disc, indicating that it shoots to point of aim.

The largest slice of the disc has an outer and an inner arc of numbers. The outer arc bears numbers "6.51" followed by the numbers 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 (my rifle has a punch mark over the "2"). The inner arc bears the numbers "6.46" followed by 7,8,9,0 (no punch mark over a number in the inner arc on my rifle). It is my understanding that these numbers reveal the nominal bore (6.46mm) and groove (6.51mm) diameters of a new barrel. The punch mark(s) reveals the actual diameter of the particular barrel (and thus, presumably, any wear). Thus, my barrel has a groove diameter of 6.52mm. Apparently the bore diameter of my barrel measured right at 6.46mm.

Found this website.

According to this info my rifle has a bore diameter of 6.50.

The elevation error is 0(zero).

The condition of the barrel is "as new".

[Gunner]

The elevation error is 0(zero).

Very rare, for the reason that the m/41 ammo has more speed!?

Regards

Gunner

[Gunner]

Is the inspection stamp on the left side of the reciever in front of the serial number H.A. ? And is it in the503491 - 503960 range?

Regards

Gunner