Questions on the M1896 Swedish Mauser

Hi again, I come baring questions that need answers.

Firstly, I've recently bought a M/96 Swedish Mauser in relatively good condition for the holidays. The bore/barrel and everything is perfect, as it tells me on the little disk. (Neither the 1, 2, or 3 are marked saying otherwise.) The stock is of course a bit worn, with some dings and dents here, but no chipping or slivered parts at all. For the most part, the butt plate, bolt and receiver all match, and the only things that don't are the magazine plate and rings. It's one of the later ones, made in the 1920s.

But as I look over some of the metal, I've found some factory marks (or I think they're factory), I'm not familiar with and haven't found any sites or anything that can help me decipher what they mean and where they came from. The first is a "T", on the front sight that I have no clue what it means, and on the receiver, just before the serial number there's a "HA" I have no clue what it means. Does anyone know what the "T" and "HA" stand for/mean?

Also I was wondering what were some ammunition companies that make the 6.5x55 Swede, for a relatively cheap price, but are still good range shooting ammo? I've found Prvi Partizan makes a 139gr 6.5 Swede (which if I'm not mistaken the Swedish Army had their bullets at 143gr and I always like to buy the bullets that are closest to the military type), and that they are a good ammunition company. But I was just wondering if there were any others that were just as good or better? I'm not looking for any hunting rounds, just some range bullets (preferably FMJ) that I can buy for between $10-20 USD.

Are you sure that it is an HA and not an SA in a box? If it was an SA it would be a Finnish use Swede. I will try to get pics of mine so you can see.
Also, the Privi is fine ammunition and the brass is excellent to reload.

Yes, it is indeed HA, not SA. I've seen SA on another rifle, Mosin-Nagants, that were Finnish captures at some point which has the SA, but my Swedish Mauser has HA.

HA in front of the number on the receiver is the mark of Frans Harald Andreasson, Captain in the 7th Artillery Regiment and inspection officer at the Carl Gustaf factory officer from Oct. 1. 1920 to Sep. 31. 1923

:wave:
Patrick

Your rifle is a m/96 Swedish Mauser. The "T" on the front sight signifies that the front sight was changed to a height so that the m/41 spitzer cartridge would be compatable with the sights. The m/94 cartridge was a round nose, 156 grain bullet while the m/41 was a spitzer 139 grain bullet.

Stock disk markings are to be taken with a grain of salt. New unmarked ones are available readily on e-bay. The only thing a stock disk tells you is that the rifle, when last inspected, had the condition as noted on the disk. It could have a thousand rounds fired after the last inspection, so you should always go by looking at the bore with the Mark I Eyeball.

If you take the front and middle band off, (press down on the retainers and shove them toward the muzzle), and undo the two receiver screws, the action will come out of the stock. You have to raise the rear sight, and turn the top handguard 90 degrees. There should be a number on both the stock and the handguard that matches the receiver and bolt numbers.

I would advise you against altering or sporterizing this rifle. The production during the 1920s is relatively small, with 8229 in 1920, 5195 in 1921, 5112 in 1922 and 4655 in 1923, the period that Frans Harald Andreasson would have been the Besiktningsofficer at Carl Gustafs, and any alterations will devalue the rifle considerably.

On the bottom of the stock, at the wrist area, behind the trigger guard should be some stampings. One or two Crowns, and possibly some more like a Crown S. With the "T" marking on the sight, the rifle has been into the Arsenal at least once.

What is the barrel length? The m/96 has a barrel length of approximately 29 inches. Some of the m/96 rifles were converted to the m/38 pattern with a barrel oapproximately 24 inches long.

Are there two holes drilled in the receiver, for mounting a target diopter sight?

Give us a bit more information and we can help you further.
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Thanks for all the information Buffdog, and Patrick, for the information. It's interesting to know that the "HA" is an inspector's initials. Does this increase the rifle's original 200 dollar range price, being who it is? Not that it's a big thing for me, I don't plan on selling this rifle at all in the near future, but it would just be an interesting little note of history on the rifle. Also, is there anymore info on this Harald Andreasson? How big of an inspector was he at the Carl Gustav factory?

And now that I know how many were made in the 20s, I'm curious on how many they also made in 1918? The reason I ask, is because before I bought my 20s M/96, I was looking at a 1918 (not thinking of really buying it), and it seemed to be in pretty good condition for being nearly 100 year old rifle, just like the one I have, but it looked re-crowned and looked to have been sanded down by it's previous owner. I have no intention of sporterizing or altering the shape of this rifle. I may have got it for a good price, but I've never sporterized any of my relic rifles, they've all come as they were given. The dents and dings are pieces of history in my eyes/mind, and they can stay there as long as they like. :) My rifle also has the two crowns behind the trigger guard, but no "T". The two crowns are both a bit worn from ware of holding it there though, so they're not too easy to make out.

Also, the barrel is the full 29", so I take it to be from what I've found on another site, to be just your standard M/96b (with the threaded barrel and "barrel cap" <--- is that what you'd call it?) There are no holes drilled into the receiver, or anything for a scope or target sights, just the typical thumb groove on the left side for obviously your thumb when you press the rounds down with a stripper clip.

As for more info, that's all I really have. The bolt needs to have some cleaning, not just field stripped cleaning, but some exterior cleaning to get some grime off (that doesn't seem to hurt anything by itself, but it just looks a bit too dirty.) The wood looks to be a walnut, but from what I've read it could be another hardwood used by the Swedes? I'm pretty sure it's walnut though, seeing how dark it is and having experience with that type of wood before.

There seems to be very little added value to these rifles depending upon who the Inspecting Officer was. Of course, some advanced collectors specialize on having a rifle for each year of production, and there are possibly some who want a rifle with each Inspection Officers initials on it.

The first Crown on the wrist mean that the rifle was accepted by the Swedish Military and the second plain crown indicates it was fired for accuracy. Is there any Alphabetical Letter under the Crowns (such as a Crown over an S)? You indicate that the barrel has been threaded. This is known as a "B" type barrel and was done after 1955 for the purpose of attaching a Blank Firing Attachment for training. The Swedes used wooden bullets for blanks, and this attachment splintered the wooden bullet when fired so that no injuries would happen.

This "B" type barrel on your rifle could be a replacement barrel done at an Armoury or Factory, or the original barrel threaded. Either way, there should be a marking under the wrist of the stock to indicate the location where the work was done. It is a bit of a puzzle as there is no indication of this work being done.

It is possible that the stock is not the original one, and has been replaced. Although there was still some Walnut used after 1914, most of the stocks were Beech. Again, the only way to be sure is to take the barrel and receiver off the stock, and check to see if the receiver serial number is the same as the number on the wood stock and handguard. My previous post tells you how to do this.

In 1918, there were 15,889 m/96 rifles made. A rifle with the wood sanded loses much of it's collectors value. Generally you can tell a refinished rifle because the wood at the finger grooves is rounded and not sharp, and the wood where it is fitted to the metal is even with or below the metal parts. Original wood stands "proud" above the metal fittings.

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Yeah, my mistake on the stock identification, it's not Walnut like I thought, but Copper Beech (which I didn't even know there was such thing). Also, I found on the other side of the blade sight, opposite the T, a marking of +0.5 that is on it. I take this to indicate it shoots a little high, but not too high? And as for the two crowns on the wrist, they're kind of worn from having been gripped there so many times, that they're kind of hard to make out now. There's no alphabetical lettering that I can see, but what does it mean if it does? The the other Swedish Mauser I checked out (the 1918 one), had a letter I think?

Also, it doesn't look like my stock's been sanded (or at least too much) as most of the wood does still stand above parts of the metal. And how many Inspection Officers were there at Carl Gustafs plant? What are their initials?

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There were 16 assigned Inspection Officers from 1894 to 1946 plus 5 other Inspection Officers plus 10 Inspector Armourers.Now I can see where this one is heading. The next request will be for the Names and history of service of all these 31 people, and for someone to spend a couple of hours providing that when you can research it for yourself is a bit too much to ask.

So, instead, I will provide you with a valuable lesson on research. You have to know where to find answers to questions such as you asked. If you are really interested and want to learn more on your subject, you have to obtain written, factual information, and this is a good time to start building a Library for yourself.

To learn about the Swedish Mauser rifles, I would suggest you buy a copy of the book "Crown Jewels" by Dana Jones. It is about $50 but if you are serious about Gun Collecting, a good reference library is a must and books are worth it for the information that they can provide.

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The first Crown nearest the trigger guard is a Military Acceptance mark. The second one indicates the rifle was fired for accuracy (and zeroed with the front sight,) when accepted.

Rifles were inspected on a regular basis in Sweden, either by an Armoury such as Carl Gustafs (Crown C",) or a Tygstation (Inspection and Repair Depot or Workshop) such as Stockholm (Crown S), Tygstation A4 at Ostersund (Crown O) or others. There were eleven such Tygstations in Sweden. Each time a rifle was inspected, repaired or modified, it was stamped on the wrist if the repair/modification/inspection was of a major nature. An armourer could put a small punch mark on the trigger guard when a rifle was looked at for a minor problem.

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HA was a inspector from 1921 to 1923 and that means your rifle should be in the SNr- range from 494147 up to 503960 and it should have a beech wood stock. The Crown with the letters atop of the breech is standard other than a crown over an C an a two digit number at the left side of the breech. This woud mean that the rifle was converted into a Matchrifle m/63 and the number means the year of the conversion.

Just to second what Buffdog says: get Dana Jones' book, I also recommend Doug Bowser's book "Neutrality through Marksmanship". If you want to get serious about your collecting you must build a library! I would also recommend this site:
http://dutchman.rebooty.com/
for a great deal of information on the Swedish mausers.

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Originally Posted by buffdog

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There were 16 assigned Inspection Officers from 1894 to 1946 plus 5 other Inspection Officers plus 10 Inspector Armourers.

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Good to know.

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Now I can see where this one is heading. The next request will be for the Names and history of service of all these 31 people, and for someone to spend a couple of hours providing that when you can research it for yourself is a bit too much to ask.

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I think you're looking in the wrong direction. I was just looking for the number of inspectors, and possibly their initials so I could use it for a platform to do some research of my own. I haven't completely relied on you to answer my questions, only on ones I've had trouble searching when doing my own looking around. So no, I wasn't going to request that you give me all the names and services of the 31 people.

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So, instead, I will provide you with a valuable lesson on research. You have to know where to find answers to questions such as you asked. If you are really interested and want to learn more on your subject, you have to obtain written, factual information, and this is a good time to start building a Library for yourself.

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I figured this was a better place than any while doing some researching, to get some help on questions I couldn't easily find an answer to elsewhere? Didn't think it was that big of a deal.

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The first Crown nearest the trigger guard is a Military Acceptance mark. The second one indicates the rifle was fired for accuracy (and zeroed with the front sight,) when accepted.

Rifles were inspected on a regular basis in Sweden, either by an Armoury such as Carl Gustafs (Crown C",) or a Tygstation (Inspection and Repair Depot or Workshop) such as Stockholm (Crown S), Tygstation A4 at Ostersund (Crown O) or others. There were eleven such Tygstations in Sweden. Each time a rifle was inspected, repaired or modified, it was stamped on the wrist if the repair/modification/inspection was of a major nature. An armourer could put a small punch mark on the trigger guard when a rifle was looked at for a minor problem.

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Good to know. Thanks.

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Actually, the answer to almost every question that was asked, (with much more information and detail,) could have been found in "Crown Jewels." It is the first book I reach for when looking for information on the Swedish Mausers.

A previous post mentioned the possibility of it being a Match rifle. From your written description, it does not mention such markings, although the CG-63 Match Rifle and the FSR rifles, (which were sometimes fitted with improved sights,) use the basic m/94 or m/96 action. A CG-63 Match Rifle will have markings on it similar to ones in the picture below if made by Carl Gustafs. Some CG-63 rifles, however, were made by FSR approved Gunsmiths or other factories, such as Norma.
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https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...2/01/067-1.jpg
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While a good description is all right, there is nothing like close up pictures to positively identify an object or markings. It is much better to post detailed pictures when asking about something on these Forums.
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