Sporterizing Model 1896 Swedish Mausers

Here I will show how an old military rifle was transformed to a cherished beauty that looks and shoots with the best of them. The rifle was purchased with plans to convert it to a customized version for hunting and target shooting. This would include sporterizing the old, burled hardwood stock, shortening the forend and adding a fancy tip, precision bedding the receiver, free-floating, shortening and crowning the barrel, altering the bolt, mounting a scope, and installing anew trigger.

Attempting to convert a badly worn, old relic wouldn’t have fit my plan, but this was quite a different story. The odds of finding such a vintage rifle that appeared to be in virtually unused condition is rare indeed. I was determined to see what this transformed rifle would do from a performance standpoint. The original stock would be used, albeit much modified. There would be alterations of the barreled action.

These would include cutting 2 1/2 inches of the nasty looking, threaded muzzle and front sight from the 29-inch barrel, re-crowning it, and turning down the rear sight housing. The factory trigger would be used awhile but with some adjustment and then replaced. The bolt handle would be shaped to conform to scope mounting and the receiver would be drilled and tapped for a pair of bases and rings.

Seems like a major Bolt, trigger guard, and magazine assembly are pictured at center with refinished stock and original buttplate below. face lifting just to bring out the latent potential from an old rifle, but I’ve worked harder on many a rifle with no guarantees of success… we would see. Let’s have a closer look at this remarkable old rifle. As I disassembled it I saw a very well-built action with evidence of very sound and precision machining throughout.

The integral magazine and trigger guard assembly alone showed incredible machining. This unit was all one piece, aside from a removable floor plate. The action displayed a good-looking bolt and receiver with good bedding support. There was a steel tang pillar that appeared to match perfectly at the tang surrounding the rear action screw. This extended completely through the stock from the tang to the trigger guard.

Lock time would be long with the inch-long striker travel, the sear and cocking piece were square and smooth but would be dependent on a good bedding job to dampen most of the vibration on firing. The functional dynamics of anew trigger would also help things here. The original 29-inch stepped barrel begins at 28.2mm diameter just forward of the receiver face for a short length of only 5.7mm. Reduced diameter at the chamber area is 24.6mm for a length of 41mm.

The next step is 11 inches in length with a diameter of 20mm. The remaining barrel diameter is 17.5mm with no taper for the remaining 13 inches to where I cut and crowned the barrel to 26 3/8 inches total length. This is actually a four-diameter stepped barrel with a muzzle diameter very near a standard weight Model 70 Winchester or Model 700 Remington. When I finished there was 13 3/4 inches of barrel in front of the later-shortened forend.

It was evident an extraordinary amount of work and precision had gone into this rifle barrel. Initial bore inspection revealed a near-perfect bore. The Hawkeye bore scope showed four deep, equally spaced lands and grooves with defined sharpness, with no sign of

This included removal of the front sight and short threaded section of the muzzle. This provided a solid bearing surface placed behind the front guard screw blending into the recoil lug surface. Two laterally opposing pillars were placed immediately behind the magazine cutout as a solid central action support. rust, pitting, or erosion. In fact, it looked every bit as good as most of the factory barrels I’ve examined right out of the box. The rifling pitch is about 1:8 right hand with a fairly lengthy 10mm leade.

I am not aware of the process involved in making such barrels more than a century past, but this one showed most excellent workmanship, commensurate with many of today’s better barrels. An Accuracy Edge The barrel was lapped using a process that has produced excellent results for me for several years now. This involves the use of a jag and special abrasive papers as a lapping medium. On a bore like this I normally begin the lapping procedure with 30 micron grade (400 U. S.

Mesh) aluminum oxide or silicon carbide patches and finish lapping with 15 micron grade (600 U. S. Mesh) patches. I monitor the bore closely during lapping with a feel for optimal conditioning. I’ve had bores shoot extremely well after this lapping process and also have used it to restore ailing bores or those with stubborn fouling or even erosion. My lapping process was published in the February 2000 issue of American Rifleman entitled, "Barrel Break-in and Restoration".

Glass bedding the action had gone very well using Brownells Steel Bed. The rear tang already had the pillar bedding, which held the tang firmly in place. All I did at this juncture was surround the existing pillar with a ring of bedding, including the flattened, stepped surface immediately forward of the tang screw-hole. This surface provides most excellent action support. There is a full square inch of bedding surface behind the front guard screw that blends into the recoil lug surface.

This is a very strong support. I also bedded a quarter inch of the receiver ring and 3/16 inch of the shoulder where it butts against the receiver shoulder. I provided two laterally opposing pillars just behind the magazine cutout with the extra sturdy magazine/trigger guard assembly for added support. Following the bedding, I cut a full 18 inches from the forend and installed a laminated forend tip. This really stood out, generating quite a few comments.

I would later finish the stock with Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil which further brought out its inherent beauty. Good Scope and Mount I chose a Leupold two-piece base mounting system with high scope rings. This came with 6-48 base screws. The receiver is quite hard so quality drill bits and taps area must when doing this work. I used drills and taps from the Brownells Far An inch long portion of the larger barrel step is seen immediately forward of the reverse forend slant.

The whole stock was finally refinished with Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil.

Far This moved the former nearly-centered trigger well back into the loop where it belongs. This is particularly helpful where a glove is worn. The Timney trigger is fully and safely adjustable. Screw Conversion Kit. It is of utmost importance to properly align the scope bases with the bore. Here I aligned the receiver in the milling/drilling machine to aid in perfect screw alignment. When finished, I tested the rings for true coaxial alignment with a Brownells Sleeved Scope Alignment Rods and all was well.

I tried a couple different scopes and ended up using a 6.5-20X Sightron for much of the testing. The Perfect Trigger Initially I worked with the Mauser factory trigger. I’ve adjusted several of these old single-stage triggers before and they ended up safe and quite smooth. Trigger travel is plenty long, but it works. Pull was four pounds before I made any changes.

Initial trigger tuning was performed by reducing sear spring pressure a bit, and also polishing It is shocking to discover the number of scope mounting systems that fail to pass this test. the sear/striker mating surfaces to a mirror shine. There is a very simple, yet effective leverage built into the trigger/sear mechanism. This resulted in a safe and workable trigger for most needs, particularly combat. Though I had the factory trigger down to 2 1/2 pounds, I decided to consult with the folks at Timney Triggers.

They sent me one of their Featherweight models to fit the 96 Swedish Mauser that adjusts crisply to just under two pounds. The Timney trigger required some special fitting, but it was worth every minute spent on it. The Swedes had the trigger almost centered in the trigger guard which makes it difficult to get a gloved finger into the loop. This all changed with the well-engineered Timney model. It now sets well back into the trigger guard.

This involved opening the slot in the trigger guard and inletting the stock rearward to make room for the trigger. The trigger housing on the Timney Featherweight is much larger than the original Mauser versions. The trigger is adjustable for creep and overtravel as well as pull weight. Of course, the original striker lock safety is used as provided on the Model 96 Mauser rifle. On firing, the original trigger actually caused the bolt to move slightly downward as the sear pulled down on it.

Such movement most likely wouldn’t be conducive to best accuracy. Now there is not a hint of bolt body movement as the Timney trigger fires the rifle. Timney really comes to the rescue with a fine trigger. I’ve never had one fail. I took a careful look at the finished rifle with the scope in place, and the new forend and shortened barrel. The white-black, laminated

forend with its "Weatherby" slant was quite easy on the eye. The Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil stock finish brought out the dark blond wood grain to a burled beauty I haven’t seen before. The finished rifle with scope weighed 9 1/2 pounds, at a total length of 46 1/2 inches and displayed good balance. The gun really took on a presentable non-military appearance and appeared ready for action. Testing Next up is working the newly customized rifle.

I had several boxes of PMC 139 grain factory loads to use, so I shot some of these at 100 yards as a shoot-clean bore break-in regimen before turning to more serious handloading following my lapping procedure. I was down to denuded bore metal so at least some break-in was in order to obviate copper fouling. Following this I thoroughly monitored the bore for fouling and cleaned after each five shots. The old bore really didn’t show excessive copper or fouling buildup as I progressed to handloads.

As closely as I could determine, the groove diameter is 0.265 inches or 6.73mm. I don’t know how closely these old guns ran to our modern day bore tolerance, but a thousandth of an inch over standard didn’t seem out of the picture. I know some of my real shooters have had bores that were a bit over size, but they were uniform as this old Swedish Mauser bore appeared to be. A bullet tends to obturate the bore on firing as tests have proved, thereby forming a uniform contact to the bore wall.

Starting back in 1959 when I was using the Model 70 Winchester chambered for the .264 Winchester Magnum there were only a few bullets available in 6.5mm. This enigma no longer remained once the American shooters finally recognized the merits of the 6.5mm bore and bullet. The varmint hunter, big game hunter, and target shooter now have an excellent variety of 6.5mm bullets to satisfy their every need, and new ones keep on appearing.

I have included a picture showing but a few of the different 6.5mm bullets by several manufacturers, including Sierra, Hornady, Speer, Berger, Nosler, Lapua, and Barnes to serve a variety of shooting needs.

I have used these bullets selectively in Few shooters would feel deprived if this were the only rifle they ever owned. a number of my 6.5mm chamberings, including such cartridges as the 6.5×47 Lapua, 6.5 Creedmoor, .260 Remington, 6.5-284 Norma, 6.5-’06, and the 6.5×42 NEJ Wildcat of my own design—a descendant of the reworked Winchester Super Short Magnum cartridge. So, my anticipation ran pretty high as I embarked on handloading the 6.5x55mm Swede.

I used a Redding Type Sbushing sizing die along with their competition seater for the 6.5×55 Swede. The PMC cases were very uniform in weight and volume with very uniform case neck wall thickness. Neck turning was not indicated. I prepped the PMC cases with routine case mouth chamfering. The chamber neck measured 0.299" for a respectably close tolerance. Neck turning would not be in the plan at this time. I used Redding Series A neck sizing and seating dies which produced a very concentric loaded round.

The PMC neck wall thickness ran quite uniform at 0.016", just right for the 0.299" chamber neck. Initial testing involved some additional bore break-in to obviate fouling. I wanted to be sure the rifle had everything going for it given all the time and effort put into it at this stage. I pretty much followed the Berger, Sierra, Hornady, Nosler, and

5×55 Swedish Mauser, a fairly wide selection of bullets were chosen. Bullets ranging in weight from 85 grains to 142 grains by Sierra, Hornady, Speer, Berger, Barnes, Nosler, and Lapua were evaluated, yielding a surprisingly good outcome. It took far too long for American shooters to recognize the merits of the 6.5mm cartridges. 5×55 Swedish Mauser using select handloads with Hornady, Berger, and Sierra bullets. Upper row, 95 Hornady V-Max. Lower left two groups, 140 Berger. Lower right two groups, 142 Sierra.

Overall, the seven groups average is 0.541 MOA. The 142 grain Sierra Match King came through with a 0.270 MOA five-shot group. Hodgdon manuals and kept things quite mellow—but not sissy loads either. With some measure of caution, I did not exceed 45,000 psi as is suggested in both the Speer and Sierra reloading manuals. Speer mentioned the Model 94 Swedish Mauser here, but Sierra included the Swedish Model 96 as well in a caveat for use of too high a pressure loads.

I had noted fairly flat primers with the PMC 139 grain factory load and didn’t push things. Some of my first loads displayed remarkable accuracy, even as I was lapping the bore and breaking it in. I was very encouraged.

I was par- Rifle Specifications Make & Model Model ’96 Swedish Mauser Caliber 6.5x55mm Swedish Date of Manufacture 1896 Action Type Bolt action Barrel Factory, stepped, four groove 26 3/8", 1:8 twist Magazine Capacity Five/staggered removable floor plate Trigger Timney (set at 1.5 pounds) Safety Firing Pin Lock Stock Burled hardwood/sporterized Length 46.5" Weight 9.5 lbs. with scope Sights & Mount Sightron/Leupold ticularly interested in the accuracy potential of this old arm following its transformation as a sporter/target rifle.

We gunsmiths don’t even mind seeing our efforts turn out better than expected. Loads for the old cartridge closely paralleled the 6.5 Creedmoor, not far behind the 260 Remington. But as I said earlier, prudent velocity along with good accuracy was my goal, and this goal was reached. Sub minute-of-angle accuracy was in the realm with most of the bullets shown here, with a few of the match bullets by Berger, Nosler, Lapua, Hornady, Barnes, and Sierra approaching the half-minute accuracy level.

Two back-to-back groups with the 142 grain Sierra bullet were 0.270 and 0.324 MOA at 100 yards. The 95 grain Hornady V- Max was also in this category. As a most excellent varmint bullet, I have included for comparison purposes the Hornady 95 grain V- Max bullet along with several of the 6.5mm cartridges. Several loads were taken from the Hornady 8th Edition Reloading Manual.

As I stop to review the remarkable performance of this old rifle and cartridge developed more than 125 years ago, I see a rifle and cartridge transformed into an arm that can compete with many modern cartridges and rifles. As a ballistic-oriented gunsmith I’m pleased to have the opportunity to work with this fine rifle and cartridge. AG 5x55mm sporterized 1896 Mauser using 95 grain Hornady V-Max bullets. Sometimes pleasure and satisfaction comes at a lesser cost to the hunter.