Shootering a Sporterized Swedish Mauser

1. Oh no, not another assault rifle weapon of war. Look at that thing, scary, a thumb hole grip and a bipod to make it extremely steady with a scope for cripes sake so surely every bullet fired from this sniper rifle weapon of war will destroy universes and bring about the apocalypse.

   😁

   • The fascist left is terrified of thumbs getting shoved into holes.

     • “The fascist left is terrified of thumbs getting shoved into holes.”

       Which is really odd.
       Seeing how they spend most of their time proving to everyone that cranial rectal impaction is their modus operandi. The “d” is a perfect example. 🤔

     • Well we’ve gotten the perspective of Mr. ‘The Final Solution Was A Good Start’ jwm. Now can we hear from someone who isn’t an unabashed Nazi apologist?

       • You’re a liar and an apologist for dacian the nazi, peegee. Also paid by big pharma to make anti vaxxers look bad. And your fantasies about the final solution paint an even uglier picture of you. If that was possible.

         But we all knew that.

   • I miss Samco Global. Sad they are gone. Southern Ohio Gun too. Those were some great places.

   • I will say, I would never sporterize my M96. Just the thought of it is making me queasy. For 400-500$ I can go get a savage with an accutrigger, or a Remington 700 with heavy barrel. No way in hell am I going to chop up a 100 year old rifle. F No.

     In fact, in the past years I have been rebuilding vintage/antique rifles. Had some spanish mauser 1916 barreled actions. Rather than sporterizing them, I found some 1916 stocks and built them back into what they were supposed to be.

     • About 30 years ago I bought a M96 barreled action with scope mounts already attached. It was so butchered there was no point in restoring. Sights were removed and the barrel slightly shortened. Uneconomic to restore.

       I put it in an aftermarket Choate stock. Started with a Bushnell Banner scope but replaced with a Leopold VX3 6.5-20x40AO. Shot out the original barrel. Replaced with another 6.5 barrel but ordered the wrong pitch. Another 6.5 barrel was going to cost over $500 but a gunsmith who was moving gave me a good deal on a .308 barrel for $150.

       I use a mild load of slow burning AR2209 powder. Velocity is about 2250fps but very accurate and consistent out to 400m.

       Been a long work in progress. Next think is to replace the crunchy military trigger with a Timney.

2. My wife’s first deer gun…..I found a m 96 and had it cut to 23″, did all the cosmetics, big know turned down bolt handle, Bold trigger, Bell and Carlson camo stock. Will shoot into a half inch consistently with my loads. Great old rifle!

3. Interesting read. I like the rifle and the caliber. Both were both perfectly suited to the task they were asked to do. Probably still do it pretty well today.

4. Always nice to see what was basically a discarded firearm ending up in the right hands and looking so nice and ready for a hunter to put food on the table.
   Some years ago we acquired 2 steel scope mounts that were made in the UK for an Enfield that were imported by a US company named Catco. The neat thing about the scope mounts was the opening that allowed Enfield flip sights to be used for backup. The mounts were the inspiration to make a sporterized huntin’ rifle that I gave to a good home and sold the extra mount. I have only seen one mount like it available on years ago on eBay. No telling what one would cost today providing the seller knows what they have.

5. The Far Right are always their own worst enemies. Today original untouched military rifles are bringing astronomical prices while sportized Junkers will be lucky to bring you a couple of hundred bucks maximum.

   Even back during the heyday of cheap surplus military rifles it cost way more to butcher one than simply to go out and buy a used commercially produced sporting rifle at a gun show and many times you could even buy new guns at prices cheaper than butchering a military rifle. The low budget econo deer rifles that Winchester and Remington made come to mind. These were always way less money than the flagship rifles like the M70 and M700 rifles.

   The sad fact is that is is a crime to destroy any historical rifle that will never be made again and pure stupidity do spend more money doing it than buying a commercial rifle.

   If the author had brain one he would have restored the gun to its original military configuration rather than make a deer rifle out of it but that was way over his head.

   • Moron.

     • jwm, don’t worry about the idiots. They seem to come with the territory. In the case of this particular idiot he really should preface his comments with a disclaimer. Something like, “I don’t know anything about firearms but…” Many people chose to build custom sporters on surplus actions because they felt the military actions were superior to many commercial actions. This is particularly true of Mauser and Springfield actions if controlled round feed is preferred. Remember, Winchester dropped that feature from the model 70 in ’64. Then there some who want a rifle tailored to their specifications. And the pride of ownership that comes with it. jwm, I doubt the the idiot that started this can wrap his brain around what I just said. After all, it’s a stretch for him to wrap his brain around a BB. Bottom line is there a many reasons people sporterized $75 Mil-Surp rifles. Nothing wrong with it then or now. Of course, the quality of the job means everything. A well done conversion, especially by a known riflesmith, can be worth thousands. BTW I have few mint Mil-Surp rifles. I’d cut off my fingers before I touched one with a file.

   • If it has already been “sporterized” then there is no loss in improving.

     I know some people who have restored sporterized rifles back to service configuration but it was a labor of dedication. Some things can’t be restored such as P14/M17s that have had the sight protector ears ground off.

     But please leave original rifles in their original condition.

     • My first milsurp rifle was a sporterized 1903 Springfield. I was 13 at the time and found it at a yard sale. I rode it home on my bike. It was a shooter.

       Nobody cared about keeping them in issue condition back then.

       • I get it. Back then they were plentiful and everywhere. Like a never ending supply of them. So it didn’t really matter.

         Certainly not the case anymore. I have a sporterized swiss rifle I bought for $70 that was never finished that I will continue to sporterize, simply because it can never be restored back. They chopped the stock up and cut the barrel shorter. Also ground on the receiver and magwell to make the mag flush with the bottom of the receiver. So I will finish sporterizing it. But only because the damage is already done. If it was in original condition there is simply no way I would do it.

       • to Jethro W.M. our local Moron Hillbilly.

         quote—————–Nobody cared about keeping them in issue condition back then.———–quote

         Wrong Morn there were many people back then that tried to warn people that not only where they destroying history but that it would cost them more than just buying a used commercial rifle. All the gun shows in the U.S. probably had at least 3 commercial deer rifles for every man woman and child in the country.

         Of course the gun buying public has been dominated by all the relatives of Jethro W.M. that have less brain power and common sense than a piss ant. They are stingy and cheap as hell but blow more money on hair brained projects than the U.S. treasury has on any given day. Even back in “The Day” butchered military rifles you could not give away as compared to unaltered ones even in well worn condition let alone mint ones.

       • Once again, dacian the nazi, you prove how trying to pretend to be older than you are is a failure. In the 60’s no one was sounding any alarms about milsurp rifles. I saw Mausers and Arisakas sticking out of wood barrels at hardware stores like broomsticks. No. 5 jungle carbines could be bout for 30-40 bucks, tops.

         The economy was different then and people were much more practical. And you completely ignored the fact that a 13yo, with his paper route money, was able to purchase and travel through town armed with no problems. No background checks. No registration and America was safer then.

       • But look at the price of an original 1903 Springfield today. Downunder about $1500-2000. I know some people who restored sporterized ones via the Brownell’s catalog.

       • The reason why no one cared about keeping most of them in unaltered condition back then was that the shooting public “back then” often was the same age cohort as the men who won WWII. When the WWII generation who taught me to shoot were buying guns, they never equated military surplus rifles with something “collectable” – a Luger, maybe. Lugers have always commanded valuation because of the machining and fondle-factor.

         But a K-98? Pfah. m/96’s? So what? They already had K-98’s that they brought back from the war that had far more value to them – because they killed the guy from whom they took it. They had 1903A3’s they brought back, Japanese rifles they brought back, handguns they brought back.

         No one in the 1950’s and 1960’s gave much thought to “preserving” these rifles – and the reason why was that no one gave much thought to “preserving” the previous wars’ small arms from before WWI. Today, no one really thinks much today of the .30-40 Krag rifle and either sporterizing or preserving it. There are lots of sporterized Martini-Henry actions, and few thoughts to keeping those rifles original back then. Back then, no one thought much of how much a Colt SAA would be worth in the future. Elmer Keith blew up a half-dozen SAA’s doing his cartridge experiments before/after WWII. I remember when you could order M1 Garands, Carbines, 1903’s and the like through Sears or Monkey Wards catalogs.

         In the 60’s, we’d go into a gun store and wooden barrels would be in a gun store, with dozens of war-surp rifles stuck in the barrel, muzzle-down, “your choice, $40.” Sometimes, there would be a sale, and it would say “$25.” Yes, it made economic sense to convert these rifles to sporting use, because gunsmith shop rates were a fraction of what they are today. When you were all done, you might have all of $70 invested in a sporterized Mauser or 1903/A3. It also made sense because many of these war-surplus rifles were in rough shape. There were even gunsmiths and gun importers who made a cottage industry of selling sporterized military rifles back then.

         The reason why these rifles are now worth so much is because you kids have bought the marketing BS the gun industry is selling today of plastic, aluminum and slathered-on coatings as “quality.” So when you see a wood and blued steel rifle from 80 years ago, you realize what quality actual looked like and you go nuts paying for it. For the guys who lived back then, that’s what guns were supposed to look like, and they were nothing special.

   • Well… I guess we had to agree on at least one thing, one time.

     This was it.

     • A stopped clock is right twice per day.

   • It was already destroyed you fucking idiot

6. Funny – With the push of the current wave of 6.5 Super Wiz Bang cartridges, everyone forgot about the 6.5 x 55 Swede. Wonder how a rifle, like a RUGER American, in 6.5 x 55 Swede, using modern powder and bullets, and at about 58,000 – 60,000 psi, would compare to those “modern” 6.5 cartridges. Likewise, the original 6.5 x 55 Swede always performed better than most folks realized. Sometimes, you don’t have to invent a new wheel, but just re imagine an existing wheel. Oh wait, I also forgot about the 260 Remington!

   • Remington made their special commemorative 700 in 6.5×55 one year. It was so popular it was made a regular clambering.

     • * chambering. Damned phone autocorrect.

   • Grumpy you hit the nail on the head.

     The 6.5 Swedish was and is perhaps on of the worlds great military and hunting cartridges and is very popular for Moose hunting in the Scandinavian countries. Most Americans would not think of using such a small caliber on Moose proving they for the most part are complete Morons. I have fired some Norma produced 6.5 Swedish cartridges out of a 6.5 Swedish military rifle and I thought the rifle was going to jump right off the bench the Norma cartridges were loaded so hot. No wonder they have no reservation of hunting Moose when this caliber.

     The U.S. companies that have produced the various American invented 6.5 cartridges were so damn stupid they never put the same fast rifling twist in them that the Swiss had in the 6.5×55. For the American mind it was always faster is better but the .264 Winchester fell flat on its face because of excess throat erosion coupled with the competition from the then new 7mm Remington Mag. Strange, but it too had excessive throat erosion as well but the American mind always thinks bigger is better even though the 7mm Mag was only a bit larger in diameter than the .264 Winchester.

     W.D.M. Bell stated that the 6.5×54 Mannlicher caliber was “the only caliber” he used that would always, shoot right through the head of an elephant and that cartridge was only traveling a bit over 2,460 fps. with the heavier bullet of 159 grains.

     Agnes Herbert perhaps the greatest female hunter of all time stated that she saw no difference in killing power between the 6.5×54 and the 45 cal elephant rifle she borrowed off of her Uncle. It was her favorite caliber and she hunted on 3 continents with it including Africa, Alaska, and the Caucasus Mountains.

     The old time African Hunter Percival favored the 6.5×54 carbine for his Lion gun.

     Roy Chapman Andrews used the 6.5mm Mannlicher Carbine in Asia for hunting and also used it for protection when he discovered the Lost Dinosaur Graveyard. One of the greatest of archeological finds of the 20th Century. He used it to protect himself from a pack of viscous starving Chinese dogs that had been eating Chinese corpses that had starved to death.

     Just experiencing the Nostalgia of owning one of the old time 6.5mm European calibers is reason enough to own one even if you only take it to the range once in awhile.

     And perhaps the most rarest military caliber of all time was the Chinese 6.8mm Mauser rifle. Both the rifle and caliber are as rare as Jethro W.M. making an intelligent statement on anything. You cannot get any rarer than that. And the rifle is worth big bucks.

   • to Grumpy

     quote————–Wonder how a rifle, like a RUGER American, in 6.5 x 55 Swede, using modern powder and bullets, and at about 58,000 – 60,000 psi, would compare to those “modern” 6.5 cartridges.———quote

     If you are not hand loader just buy some Norma 6.5×55 ammo its hotter than hell. If you are a handloader the cartridge can be loaded very hot as long as your rifle does not have excess headspace. No real need to do this and load that hot as if you use the heavier bullets they will shoot right through even a Grizzly bear with no problem even loaded down to reasonable levels.

     I currently have 3 Swedish 6.5×55 rifles and one 6.5 Japanese rifle and all of them can shoot off the antenna of a fly a reasonable ranges.

     I also have nothing but the highest praise for the 6.5 Japanese cartridge as well. A friend of mine shot both a black bear and a Canadian Moose with his Japanese 6.5mm and he said he would not hunt with anything else.

     In 1968 I was hunting in Canada with my friend who had a .375 H&H magnum Winchester M70. I had a M70 .270 Winchester using 160 grain hand loaded Nosler partition bullets using Dupont IMR 4350 powder . My buddy got excited and gave a raking shot to a large Moose producing only a ghastly but non fatal surface wound. The Moose by now who was madder than hell charged my buddy hitting him in the chest head on and he flew threw the air and landed in a lake, his rifle flying through the air one way and he the other way. I blasted the Moose deliberately in the shoulder, not necessarily to kill him, but to cripple him fast before he went into the water to kill my buddy. I then shot him a second time when he went down on his knees right behind the shoulder. Our guide said he never saw anyone shoot a bolt gun that fast in his life. He said it sounded as if I was shooting a semi-auto. I told him I learned to shoot that fast in competition when shooting the NRA across the course matches which are timed matches with a rapid fire part of it. My buddy got one broken rib and a couple of cracked ribs out of the deal but one dead moose as well.

     Moral of the story: Caliber size is irrelevant but bullet placement and penetration are paramount whether shooting a pistol or a rifle. From the dead hand of the past W.D.M. Bell would have smiled and agreed with me and maybe Agnes Herbert would have even given me a kiss.

     • Liar. You weren’t even born in the 60’s.

       • Liars will add minute details in the yarn. The funny thing is I heard this exact same story from an old guy years ago. Coincidence that the same thing happened to this guy too? I know the guy who told the story was known for tall tales.

       • Back in the mid 2000s, I shot some pigs with PMC 139g SP. They were so hot loaded they actually grouped with the 1in9″ pitch barrel. And they were all one-shot-stops.

       • He lies about his age, you lie about your military service. At least we can all agree that you’re both asshats 🖕🤡.

       • His mother shit him out in 1998

         Came out with a wad of jizz in his mouth too

       • citations, please, peegee.

     • Do you really believe that anyone takes that story, or any other you tell, seriously? If so, you really are, no kidding, honest-to-God, feeble minded.

7. I would really like to shute this riffle.
   Looks nice to me.
   I wonder how many MSR’s will be running 120 years from now?

   • Not as many Mauser rifles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

8. Nice end result. But “shootering”??

   • there it is. way down here, but finally.
     it immediately made me wonder if that’s possum’s real name.

9. I was lucky enough, decades ago, to find a very fine original M96 and along the way picked up all the pieces like sling, screw on flash hider, sight hood and a complete bayonet setup. I never had the thought of sporterizing it or any other milsurp rifle. Glad I didn’t and the values of all these ‘then cheap” rifles is going nuts.

10. I let a Hakim go to a buddy years ago. Wish I still had it. Paid around 100 for it about 1992.

    • Weren’t they 8mm? The Llungmann m/42 they were based on was 6.5×55.

      • 8 mm is correct.

11. The biggest reason why the 6.5×55 didn’t find more traction in the US is the case head diameter of 0.480″ meant that the cartridges wouldn’t fit in the face recess of 1903, 1917 and successive American bolt-action rifles without gunsmith modification(s). American bolt guns assume a cartridge head diameter of 0.473″. The .30-06 set the precedent for American guns, and that was that. The .308/7.62 NATO had the same case head diameter.

    As a cartridge, the 6.5×55 is excellent. There’s nothing lacking, and that’s why it is still used over a century later.

    As for the m/96 Mausers: It is best to not stoke these actions as hot as you might the Mauser 98’s. The m/96 Mausers lacked the third, or safety, bolt lug in the event of bolt lug failure of the two primary lugs. They’re good actions, you just need to remember that they are not 98’s, with all the final safety features of same. I’ve always found the steel used in the Swedes and Husky actions to be of excellent quality.

    • Even the German made Swedish Mausers used Swedish steel. The factory that made them in Germany is the Mauser company museum and is still known as the Swedish house.

12. They have stocks for under $100 and just about what would be needed as well.it’s not too late to put it back to original.http://www.libertytreecollectors.com/productcart/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=42

13. the metal disc on the stock indicates bore condition ect. the four holes to the right of the disc are nail holes that held a rectangular metal plate. that plate is what had the holdover convertions on it that were upside down so the solder could glance at them with the rifle shouldered. some stocks have round disc that was held on by two screw that indicated infantry info. reference the swedish mauser rifles by Joe Poyer and Steve Kehaya.

14. Hi,
    Very nice build/conversation! Exactly what I have been looking for to do to my m/96.
    Great job! 👍🏾
    Regads!
    /JBM

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16. I would really like to shute this riffle

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