M38 Swedish Mauser

[Jerome Cooper]

I bought an M38 from a friend who in turn got it on the open market several years ago and never fired it. In viewing and reading the work done with the Swedish Mauser stock I am reminded of the unsolved problem I have with the M38. Using cast bullets and a moderate charge of powder I repeatedly got grouping to the left of the black and often off the edge of the target. Moving the front sight as far as it can go to the left doesn't change anything. I had a gunsmith look at the rifle to see if the barrel is bent and it is not. I cannot imagine that the rifle passed through the Swedish military shooting like that. Is it possible that there is some lateral pressure is being exerted on the barrel by the stock and this is causing the point of impact to be shifted to the extreme left and it is exceeding the capacity of the rear sight. What are the steps that I have to follow to determine just what is going on here and what has to be done to correct the prob? It is wrong that a rifle of this capability has to be aimed at the right edge of the target with the front sight all the way to the left in order to get the poi into the black. Any help or suggestions/remedies would be most appreciated. J.Cooper

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[Patrick Chadwick]

Is it possible that there is some lateral pressure is being exerted on the barrel by the stock and this is causing the point of impact to be shifted to the extreme left and it is exceeding the capacity of the rear sight. What are the steps that I have to follow to determine just what is going on here and what has to be done to correct the prob?

Assuming that your gunsmith took a proper look at the bareel, and it is straight and the crown is OK, then yes, the barrel is probaby binding in the channel somewhere.

xa-coupe had the same problem and it was covered in detail in the following thread: "Swede M38 Range Report" started by xa-coupe.

"I cannot imagine that the rifle passed through the Swedish military shooting like that." Of course it didn't. But that was a long time ago, and wood dries, shrinks and warps. To read some of the IMOH horrible things that some people do to their stocks, one can only conclude that they think wood is as unchanging as metal.

Read right through the thread mentioned above. I think it will answer your question. And when you have sorted out the binding, completely oil the stock with linseed oil, outside and inside !

Patrick