1918 Swedish Mauser questions.

[jrdolall]

I bought some guns at an estate sale on Wednesday. One was an SKS, one was an old double hammer shotgun that needs a new stock and the other was a 1918 Swedish Mauser. I knew it was a Mauser before I made the deal because of the bolt but I am not well versed in Mauser types. The good news: Carl Gustafs Stads Gevarsfaktori 1918 is on the barrel. All the numbers match, bolt, barrel, mag cover. If my internet search was correct then they produced 115,000 Mausers at this factory and this serial number, assuming they were sequential, makes this one of the last 5,000 produced. It has a 17-18" barrel. The bad news from an authenticity point of view: It has a very intricate sport stock apparently made by Bishop Stocks, at least the buttplate says Bishop. The sights are not original but were made by Williams Gun Sights. This gun was assembled to be used for hunting it appears though it is not drilled for a scope. I sent a message with a picture to Bishop requesting info on the stock so that I can "value" the gun for insurance reasons.

Will this rifle work well with modern ammo? I do not reload but have a friend who can do whatever I have. I will take it to my gunsmith today so that he can make sure everything looks good inside. I read a couple of posts here on THR about ammo but I want to make sure I don't use something made for a modern rifle in this 100 yr old piece unless I feel confident it will not damage the barrel..

What about scope options? It looks like it would be a cast iron biotch to put a scope mount on this. I may shoot it 5 times and then bury it in my safe somewhere or I may try to hunt with it some.

 

[Moose458]

Looks like you have a real nice sporter. My sporterize Swede is my favorite hunting rifle. I reload, but I don't think you will have ant trouble using factory ammo. 6.5x55 isn't usually loaded to hot since it will be used in a lot of mil sups.

 

[Owen Sparks]

Great rifle, I have two. The one with a scope will hit a dime at 100 yards off sandbags.

 

[303tom]

Looks like a very good rifle, don`t be afraid to use it with modern factory ammo, should work great for ya, happy shooting.............

 

[Boxhead]

I have a very fine custom 7x57 built on the Swede action. I load it to 7mm08 levels without a problem. They were built with very good steel. Nice rifle.

 

[Float Pilot]

If the 17.7 inch barrel (450mm) is original, it was a Swedish m/94-14 carbine.
The serial numbers for the m/94-14 carbines made that year at the CG factory went from 96102 to 111002. There were about 15,000 carbines made at CG that year.

It should have the initials H.K. by the serial number.
That stands for Lt. Helge Gustaf Ludvig Kolthoff (6th Artillery) who was one of the inspectors there from 1912 to 1923.

That carbine has a twist rate of one turn in 200mm. Or about 1 in 7.8 inches.
Any factory ammo will work fine. Norma is the best, but it is rather hot and best used for hunting. The current Federal hunting ammo is very accurate in all my Swede Mausers and has a lower pressure rating. Please note that US made ammo has slightly undersized brass. The stuff made by PMC is horribly undersized.

The Swede Mausers are a small ring action and therefore you cannot hot-rod your loads like you might try in a stronger M-98 Mauser action.

Scope mounts are made by Leupold and Weaver. They require competent drilling and tapping of the forward and rear receiver rings. (a good gunsmith)

If it was still in the original military condition it would be worth $600 to $900 depending on condition. BUT, since it has been sporterized it is worth about $350 for insurance purposes.

She should shoot just fine and make a great back-wood hunting carbine.

 

[Dr. Sandman]

I wish we had estate sales as good as that around here! You have excellent taste in guns, my friend. What did you pay?

 

[edwin41]

hello
dont worry about the quality of these guns , as they are a big step over the
german mausers.
in fact , the germans tried very hard to get the steel from the swedes as they also considered it of higher quality as the german steel .
ive read somewhere that the factory ammo in the states is different than the ones you buy over here in europe.
it has something to do with american pressure ratings , european ammo would be
much more powerfull.
ive seen several carl gustavs at the gunrange over here in holland , they are fairly common over here.
most of the guns i saw shot the full power norma cartridges with no problems for years and years...
i really think you gonna love this gun , it may very well be one of the best guns ever produced , and it will outshoot a lot of modern ones !

 

[edwin41]

as far as sights , you may want to google mojo sights.
very exellent sights and not to expencive , really would be an asset
for such a great rifle!

 

[jrdolall]

Thanks for the input. I took it to my gunsmith today and he will give it a look over to make sure all is well before I bust some hay bales. My LGS carries a couple of different rounds for it so I will try them out and see how accurate it is before I decide whether or not to put a scope on it. It will be hard to say what I paid since I bought 3 guns and some other items. The SKS is Russian with all matching numbers and good wood, the shotgun will need a lot of work as it is rusted and the stock is trashed and this Mauser. I put 60 rounds through the SKS today with Tula ammo and had no issues. I probably have $250 in them altogether so I did okay. None of them will ever be sold while I am alive so it is really just about collecting some unique items.

 

[303tom]

Keep Collecting......................