Anybody else noticed a difference in Swedish M96 & M38 Mauser Barrels?
I have a few M38's and M96 6.5x55mm Swedish Mausers and was wondering if anybody else noticed that the throat lengths were different between the Carl Gustav made M96 and Husqvarna M38 made barrels.
YES !...........And the Husqvarna will out shoot the Gustav, both being great rifles though !........................
Anybody else noticed a difference in Swedish M96 & M38 Mauser Barrels?
Apart from length?
It would have been obvious from the start that the new ammo would need a shorter throat to work best, but they also needed to consider that, if the "excrement struck the air-circulation device", having two sorts of chambers and two sorts of ammo in the warehouse might get a bit untidy at times.
The long throat for "torpedo" shaped bullets survived in several rifles, and for the same reason: the "old" ammo persevered for decades after it was officially superseded.
Oz 1940s SMLES have a "long" throat. The specifications for these rifles were were laid down before the great unpleasantness started in Europe in 1914. ANZAC troops were issued with MK6 ball by the boat-load at Gallipoli, and there was a LOT of Mk6 being directed eastwards in France and Belgium at the same time.
Even the Swedish AG-42B semi-auto has a throat cut to handle the vintage ammo. On these rifles, they even have a reversible rear-sight drum; one side for "pointy" bullets and the other for "blunt" ones, and suitably marked as such.
I have found that my Husqvarna made M38's have a slightly shorter throated bore with the lead hitting up against long seated Hornady 160gr. RN bullets that were setup for my M96 rifle where they never even touched the rifling.