1942 Husky Rifle Blew up?
- Thread starter Pblatzz
- Start date
manbearpig
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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- Somewhere in the Third World
argh, i hate it when people dont embed the images in their post and use the damn phpBB hosting instead. im not going to sign up on yet *another* site just to see the pic.
ive met a lot of people who are pretty cocky with their milsurps and reloads though. shooting .308 or even worse what they call .308 'warm loads' through a nearly century old small ring mauser. its so bloody stupid, they think that just because the last 20 loads didnt blow the rifle apart it means it will continue to shoot them indefinitely. then they go online and assure others that its perfectly safe to shoot.
really pisses me off - if they blow their own faces off i could care less, but stay the hell away from me and my family on the range.
ive met a lot of people who are pretty cocky with their milsurps and reloads though. shooting .308 or even worse what they call .308 'warm loads' through a nearly century old small ring mauser. its so bloody stupid, they think that just because the last 20 loads didnt blow the rifle apart it means it will continue to shoot them indefinitely. then they go online and assure others that its perfectly safe to shoot.
really pisses me off - if they blow their own faces off i could care less, but stay the hell away from me and my family on the range.
That contradicts all the reloading information I've read on 6.5x55 in military actions. I think its vital to know what these guns were designed to handle and respect those limits. Maybe he had something other than a small ring mauser, but for the M96's and M38's, you have to know your limits.
heck,it even contradicts common sense.CIP lists 380MPa(55,100psi) as Max.96s and 38s are not '98s, and should not be treated like '98s or any of the 'modern' sporting actions.
It is indeed possible to blow them up, or at the very least to set the recoil lugs back and quite thoroughly ruin them. I don't believe in running them hotter than the low to mid 40's. 46,000 cups is plenty.
The Swedes are notorious for having various bore sizes - some are quite tight indeed, and probably manage to survive because they have such long throats. They were, and are, damn fine rifles and are often unbelievably accurate. I have a couple right now that will shoot 1 moa regularily, not modified whatsoever, and with the original sights!
They just have to be treated as what they are....a design that's well over 100 years old. And going strong, to be sure.
It is indeed possible to blow them up, or at the very least to set the recoil lugs back and quite thoroughly ruin them. I don't believe in running them hotter than the low to mid 40's. 46,000 cups is plenty.
The Swedes are notorious for having various bore sizes - some are quite tight indeed, and probably manage to survive because they have such long throats. They were, and are, damn fine rifles and are often unbelievably accurate. I have a couple right now that will shoot 1 moa regularily, not modified whatsoever, and with the original sights!
They just have to be treated as what they are....a design that's well over 100 years old. And going strong, to be sure.
First time I have ever heard this.
Everything I have seen and heard about the Swedish Military gunsmiths has been that they were down right anal about the condition of their rifles...hence the constant attention on measuring bore condition, and marking the results on a disk on the buttstock, and various chamber gauges they made for these rifles.
If you have any heads up as to possible dangers not known about these rifles let us know as myself and many others have 1942 huskies.
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You have made very good assumptions. The swedish model 96 military (or HVA model 46) mauser is NOT built or rated for cartridges in the .308 winchester pressure range.
They were designed for the 6.5x55 which is in the same pressure class as 30-06, 7x57, 8x57, and similar age cartridges. The .270 and .308 winchester have a higher pressure limit set by SAAMI than most older catridges because they are only chambered in modern actions.
Since before '42 it was known that the '96 was not up to the 98 as far as pressures go and that is why pressures have been kept down on 6.5x55 factory ammo. Some Euro Co.s load it heavier for use in newer/stronger guns, I guess they haven't been sued yet by a suet faced customer. Ackley blew up some 96s with less pressure then he expected and that was over 50 years ago....existing '96s are not getting any stronger with age.
I'd hazard to guess that the Swedes had all the time in the world to build a better rifle out of what they considered better steel then what the Germans were using at the time. In fact I recall reading about Husk' and his people saying as much about German steels, and workmanship.
Good advice on not hot loading though...no real reason to anyway IMHO.
Good advice on not hot loading though...no real reason to anyway IMHO.
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Of course the Swedes could have built a better action - except they didn't need to. Ballistically speaking, the model 96 in 6.5x55 compared very favorably to other main battle rifle cartridges during it's service history. The Swede's would have been most concerned with the Russian 7.62x54R and the German 8x57. The 6.5x55 was as good or better than either.
Sweden is a small country, population-wise. Germany, France, Russia, and the Uk are all many times larger. But nobody screwed with Sweden during WW2, when many larger and richer countries were occupied by hostile invaders. I think that's really all that needs to be said about the Swedes and the model 96 mauser.
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I digress, but it ain't the weapons system that determines the deterent; it is the ability , and willingness, to deploy it fast and effectively. Also, the Swedes were busily selling to both sides throughout the European war. Ball bearings from Sweden wereused equally in Juno and Rols Royce engines!
Back to the issue of weapons vs human factors; I get a hoot out of the "sniper" rifles that are currently sellinglike hotcakes. A $5K rifle and scope will not make Bubba a sniper, but in the hands of a trained military sniper, anything that will do 2 MOA or better is a deadly accurate weapon.
Back to the issue of weapons vs human factors; I get a hoot out of the "sniper" rifles that are currently sellinglike hotcakes. A $5K rifle and scope will not make Bubba a sniper, but in the hands of a trained military sniper, anything that will do 2 MOA or better is a deadly accurate weapon.
