My M1896 showed up today

[Rick the Librarian]

My M1896 came today. I had a chance to look it over and it is as nice as my earlier pictures indicated. You are right that most of the smaller parts don't match. The bolt matches, although the bolt collar, although it has the last three digits of the serial number, appears to have been overstamped on top of another serial number. The buttplate also matches the serial number.

I have no way to checking the condition of the bore (MW/TE) except that it is very shiney and the grooves appear crisp.

The stock has some dings but only a couple of larger ones on the left side near the comb are really noticeable.

I saw no evidence of any import marks.

Bottom line - maybe not a "purist" M96, but a good, representative example, which is what I wanted. I would have felt better had I gotten it for the opening bid ($275), but I think I paid a fair price. ($351)

One question - thanks to Old Outlaw on Surplusrifle I have a pretty good understanding what is on the disk EXCEPT for the "Torped Overslag 0 Str" - what's that mean (What little Swedish I picked up via the Swedish Chef on the "Muppet Show" doesn't seem to work here! )

Thanks especially to Old Outlaw and Calfed - I'm sure I'll have a number of additional questions soon.

[milsurpman]

http://candrsenal.com/tip-how-to-read-swedish-mauser-stock-disks/

This site has it spelled out very well. Essentially it is the holdover for a rifle sighted in for the old roundnose round shooting the spitzer m41 round. Yours has obviously been sighted for new newer round.

[jon_norstog]

Rick,

It means swedish fishball (turbot) with sauce over zero. That's when the fish is really fresh and doesn't need any doctoring.

Actually, what you have is a 96/38. The Swedes went to a (roughly) 24" barrel in 1938, and also a bent-dwon bolt handle. But they also remodelled a lot of '96s and left the bolt sticking out straight.

This was done at the arsenal I think. Anyway, there was some mixing of parts, although they tried to keep the bolts with the right barreled actions.

I had one of those for a while, lent (ha ha) it to my nephew when he was a teenager. It is still his hunting rifle.

jn

[Rick the Librarian]

I have a M1896 - that much I learned! The barrel is about 28" long. I believe the M38s were 23.9".

The Swedish Fishball makes about as much sense as I could figure out from what was printed there!!

[jon_norstog]

My bad! Yeah, I thought, wait a minute, that's not a 24" barrel. Some people say there is a crown stamp on the stock behind the TG that indicates arsenal reworking.

jn

[milsurpman]

The Swedish Fishball makes about as much sense as I could figure out from what was printed there!!


Ok so you didnt quite get what was on that site. Let me spell it out another way. Torped (spitzer projectiles) on the disk announces "attention if your shooting M41 spitzer ball". Overslag (holdover) This is saying your rounds may hit Low on the target without you holding over. So you holdover due to your rifle shooting low on paper at the current standard aiming point---------> Str (short for a swedish unit of measure) a one next to Str is 10 cm 2 20cm 3 30cm and so forth. Yours has a zero so zero correction is needed when the armory did the sighting check on your rifle. So what your disk says attention rick the librarian if you shoot 139 grain m41 ammo in your new 96 you will have to holdover to make up for your rifle shooting absolutely 0.0 lower from point of aim. If your rifle had a 1 in place of that zero you would have to hold over slightly due to your rifle shooting slightly low 10 cm.

[spanner1751]

You have an elm stock too. Nice rifle!!!

[Rick the Librarian]

Thanks for the information and the links. A trip to the range will happen soon, when I get some 6.5mm ammunition.