6.5x55 swedish mauser

[hillbill]

ive had a nice swede in my collection for awile but have just recently began testing it out. its accuracy at long range is astounding.at 300 yrds it beats my ruger no.1 in 30-06 no prob. my question is, how do i tell if i have a mod. 94,96 or the later 98? the scope mount is covering some of the writeing on the front of the action. how do i tell if it is the stronger, later action? right now im shooting 44 grns of 4350 powder with the 140 grn bullet. im interested also in what loads everyone else is useing in similair rifles. thanks!

[jh45gun]

Most all swedes are the small ring 96 action. Which is the same thing basically as the Spanish model 93 and the later models 94-95.  Only diff is the Swedes used good steel and their fit and finish are nicer than some of the spanish ones. Most of the German made small ring guns had a nice fit and finish also. THey may have made some in the 98 later but if they did they are not common maybe for sporters. They did not make any military 98's that I am aware of.  If the gun has a long barrel 29 inch it is a model 96 action. If it is shorter it probably is the model 38 which many of them used the 96 action They made a carbine too not sure if that was a earlier action or not but all small ring actions are about the same strength. AS long as you do not hot rod them you will be fine.

[ajj]

Your load is a good one. If you want to experiment with 140 gr bullets, the cartridge does well with slower powders, H 4831 and Rl 22 are excellent.
They really shoot, don't they? I once read that the barrels were hand lapped. The care lavished on fit and finish is obvious. I have shot just under 1" 5-shot 100yd groups with the issue sights from several rifles. I helped a friend work up loads for one he had scoped and shot 2.9-3.0" 300 yard groups with three different bullets. No, not every group but none over about 3.6". Just amazing rifles.

[Mikey]

hillbill - you have either a 96 or a 98 - most likely a 96 action.  They are as strong as you would want for the 6.5 Swede and that cartridge need not be loaded hot.  Standard pressure loads with a 140 gn bullet are adequate for most anything on the North American continent - for really big or nasty critters you can go up to the 160 gn slugs which have incredible penetration.  

My Hornaday handbook shows the 44 gn of 4350 to be a max load with the 140 gn bullet and gives you 2500'/sec.  Many 6.5 Swede shooters prefer the 120 gn bullet for game the size of whitetail.  HTH.  Mikey.

[1911crazy]

The small rings(93,94, 95, 96) diameter is 1.300" and the large ring diameter is 1.400" '98 thats the front ring where the barrel is screwed into.  The turk mauser is a large ring reciever '98 that takes the small ring barrel.  Just some mauser food for thought.

Your using the ("H" 4350) like H4350 powder right?  Not IMR4350 powder?
I ask this because in one book your over the max charge with IMR4350 powder.

The Hornady Vol. II reloading manual shows the 140gr bullet with "4350" power at 44grs @2500fps. is a MAX load.

The LEE 2 edition. reloading manual shows the 140gr bullet with H4350 powder at 44grs @ 2617fps. again its a MAX load.

[Slamfire]

The '94 Swedes were all carbines with something close to 17.5" barrels. The 96s include a gas escape hole drilled into the bolt body. The 38 were basically made by Huskvarna, when Carl Gustav was busy putting shorter barrels on 96s. Sweden never used the 98s for military rifles, and most of the commercial rifles made were based on the small ring design.  :wink:

[1911crazy]

In 1938 the model M38 swede these were converted M96's made by Oberndorf and Carl Gustaf in the beginning and probably rearsenaled into M38's the Brand new M38 Husqvarna's weren't manufactured until the early 40's.  The acutal model number for the early M38's is actually M96/38 that means a reworked M96.  It gets confusing when we get into swede sporters they used both 96 small rings and 98 large rings too in many different american and european calibers. The model '94 carbine is actually the very first swede mauser manufactured in 1894.  Now there are some reworks in 94's too they were older swede M96 mausers I have an M94 dated 1916 on the receiver.  You can see both the small ring and large ring swede sporters at www.sarcoinc.com  A co-worker had a swede sporter in 30-06 and i seen it up close and personal its one of the prettiest rifles i have ever seen I believe he had it since it was new the wood was awesome too and the finish was second to none it looked much like an expensive wetherby but as we know some of the prices on swede sporters aren't too far behind.

I also believe the swede's were the first to develop chrome moly steels and how far back it goes i'm not sure but i believe their rifles did have it thats what was so special about their steels. Their quality of steels were second to none also for many years. We can see that because the swede mausers are still good today after 100 years they are tac drivers in the hands of a good shooter. I have one rifle (M96) that i take to the range often and the groups are awesome.  My son gets the targets for me and he shakes his head everytime he sees my swede target he still can't believe how good the old swede still shoots. (1907)

[hillbill]

thanks for the info guys! my swede is pretty obviously a 96.thats what i wanted to know. im useing imr powder , my load is max but safe in my gun and its the max load in both my books. ive seen no signs of pressure with it. i have a 6x18 leopould scope on it, kind of a goofy looking combo for a mil type rifle especially since i paid 40$ for the gun and 450$ for the scope. but like yuall have experienced the accuracy is amazeing.at 100 yrds you can actually aim at your previous bullet hole and usually scare the crap out of it. ill admit the looooong barrel keeps me from useing as much as id like. it wont fit in the gunrack of my 78 ford beater hunting truck.i have visions of a custom rifle floating roun in my noggin. preferably a 22 in mannlicher type thing or a 24 or 26 in regular type sporting rifle with a 3x9 good light gathering type scope. i know ill recieve fire for butchering such a rifle but it already has a drilled and tapped reciever and turned down bolt.besides that im talking bout a deer rifle that will last me a the rest of my life then hopefully become a family heirloom! lol now just to find a smith in my area worthy of such a project. i may follow up some leads i have after deer season. happy hunting!!

[cal sibley]

I have 3 M96 Swedish mausers in 6.5x55.  They have 29" barrels.  The Swedes periodically called these back to the arsenal to check them for accuracy.  The more accurate ones had their bolts turned down and were fitted with side mounted scopes and used as sniper rifles.  You can tell the condition of the bore by the gold colored circle on the right side of the butt stock.  The Swedish rifles had a much easier life than the German 98 mausers and shoot very well.  There's the short barreled carbine, the M94.
Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[rockbilly]

The m/38 is the short barrel model.  It was only made for a few years, from 1941 to 43 if I remember correctly.  It also comes with the bent bolt.

Before getting smart, I converted at least a dozen or so to sporters.  Removed the sights, drilled and taped for scope, upgraded the triggers and safetys, and put them in a nice piece of wood.  Several that I "cut" up would be collectors items today, sure wish I had them back in issue condition. :roll:

[Slamfire]

The brass disk on the stock show the rust in a barrel rated from 0 (new barrel), to 3 (barrel to be replaced). the bore size, in mm, which shows the amount of erosion, and a chart that shows the trajectory difference between the original 160 grain load and the suceeding 139 grain load.

[brimic]

The mauser 96 actions are probably just as strong as any 98 action of the same era, the Swedes were built with the best steel available at the time. The 98 actions just have a few more built in safety features   to protect the shooter in the worst case catastrophic rifle failure scenario. Small ring/ large ring, I don't think it makes too much difference- the Czechs were building small ring 98s known as G33/40's, that were highly coveted by the Nazis,  chambered in 8x57 which is a cartridge that uses modern pressures versus the lower pressure 6.5x55.
I've seen one account of a mauser 96 blown up- a novice reloader who wasn't too bright, filled 6.5x55 cases with bullseye and a 140 gr bullet. The bolt was sprung, the action was bent, the left side of the stock was splintered, but the shooter was uninjured.

That being said, there is no reason to hotrod these 100 year old rifles, they tend to perform really really well at velocities around 2500 fps.