Do you want a parts 1896 Swedish?

[twb]

I acquired a model 1896 Swedish Mauser hoping to make a shooter out of it. Unfortunately my gunsmith says that while it's perfectly safe to shoot, the bore is both pitted and worn out. The action seems tight to me and not worn and most of the parts are present. So I thought I pull apart the rifle and sell parts. Would there be any interest out there?

[leftyo]

have you shot it? some of them old swedes even with a pitted bore shoot very very well.

[twb]

have you shot it? some of them old swedes even with a pitted bore shoot very very well.

I have not shot it yet. After the smith report I'm not in a hurry to put any cash or time into the gun (no cash yet, very little time invested). But, I'm in no hurry so maybe I'll buy a box of shells and try it. It will break my heart to shoot factory rounds. LOL

[leftyo]

give it a shot, my first swede mauser had pretty much what most would call a sewer pipe barrel, it was dark and well pitted, but that thing still shot very well.

[twb]

You've pretty much convinced me to give this Swedish babe another look. I will have to buy the parts I need for the rear sight, I can't give it an honest test without a sight. I might have to do a "shade tree gunsmith" fix up of the crown too. It will be a little while, but I'll update this thread if and when I put some rounds through the rifle.

[jon_norstog]

Good luck. The Swede is a great rifle.

jn

[bruce]

I acquired a model 1896 Swedish Mauser hoping to make a shooter out of it. Unfortunately my gunsmith says that while it's perfectly safe to shoot, the bore is both pitted and worn out. The action seems tight to me and not worn and most of the parts are present. So I thought I pull apart the rifle and sell parts. Would there be any interest out there?

Buy a couple of boxes of factory ammo. Shoot it starting at 50 yds. Nice round groups? Try 100 yds. Still nice groups? You've got a shooter! No it is not a numbers matching pristine example of the breed, but it can be the workhorse you wanted even if it will never be a show horse. For the record, have had a number of older military rifles with less than perfect bores. With thorough cleaning and then use with compatible ammunition on target results were never worse than 3 inches for ten shots at 100 yds. Often the results were no different than same rifles/calibers that had fine to even perfect bores. Usually got better results using flat based bullets that were a bit heavy ... say 180 gr. in .30-06 and normal 196 gr. in the 7.92x57mm. In 6.5 Swed., always fired ball and Norma hunting ammo. HTH. Sincerely. bruce.

[p246]

Yep my only Mauser is a M96. I lucked out when I found it and it's a very nice example. However I have more than a few rung out Lee Enfields with pitted bores. Some shoot flat base bullets some don't. The none shooters always had the wood brought back into spec, helped one but the rest still throw bullets instead of shoot them. I can not think of one of my pitted L.E.s that will shoot boat tails. Apparently those pitted bores need the longer bearing surface of F.B. Bullets. Please let us know how things end up and good luck.

[twb]

I finally got clear of "things" keeping me from testing this Swede off the bench. To help factor out operator influence I shot two three shot groups with the Swede along with the same from my Ol' Faithful 1903A3, similar type rifles, and I know how well the 03 shoots (very well by the way). Holy crow I shot some nice groups with the Swede (the 9 shot group eventually shot was awesome). So, time for a minor restore. The wood is in great shape even if the finish isn't. I'll probably try to get the bolt as shiny as possible with minimal abrasion. I don't know what, if anything, I'll do about surface rust covering ~50% of the blued steel. Oh yeah, a machinist friend is going to help me (try to) remove the receiver screws, they're wicked stuck and there's not much I can do until I get them out. Ugh.

By the way, at 100yds the group was about 3-4 inches low and to the left. I had obtained a higher front blade for 100 yd use and had just managed to get it into the dovetail. Visual bore sighting indicated the windage was close and it was. I'm so glad it's sighted close enough for some load development, THEN I'll go through the headache of final sight-in. I'm glad I read the posts about boat-tails not shooting well in a worn bore, I use boat-tails whenever possible. Time to order dies and bullets.

Now if I only figure out why my trapdoor shoots so friggin' far to the right. That poor Buffington is cranked so far left and I'm still right. (sorry, different topic, same range trip)

[leftyo]

glad the swede shot well for you. like i said my first one was dark and pitted and still shot dang good groups. form it i learned not to judge a barrel until ive shot it.