M38 Swede Mauser Disassembly?

mmattockx

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Finally got out to try my M38 this afternoon. Sweet little rifle that shoots great and was loads of fun. Not bad at all for a gun manufactured in 1899!:D

The problem I have is that the rifle is very dirty and gunked up. I would like to strip the action out of the wood and clean everything out underneath and get a proper coat of oil on the metal. I looked in the milsurp knowledge library on milsurps.com, but found nothing resembling a manual or how-to on stripping the rifle down.

Does anybody have any instructions on this or will I have to wing it?

Thanks,
Mark
 
When I helped Drachenblut put his 94/14 carbine back together, I learned quite a few things about how the Swedes made their weapons.

If I recall correctly, there is a depress tab near the rear band and one near the front band as well (the front depress tab was hidden under the nose cap and has to be depressed via a punch through a little hole in the nose cap). These tabs had to be kept under a bit of pressure until the bands moved off of the catches on the tabs. After that it was like a Mauser disassembly with just unscrewing the trigger guard screws.

Hand guard was a bit of a pain to get on as well. I remember having to take the adjustment tab off the rear sight in order to get it on then put the rear sight back together again. Not impossible but certainly annoying trying to find a screwdriver bit small enough for the retaining screw.

I don't know if the M38 is similar to what I tried to describe above but you may run into some similarities.

Hope this helps you out.
 
The 96/38 described is mechanically identical to the 94/14 carbine.

Check for unloaded condition.
Cycle the bolt.
Safety ON.
Bolt up and back.
Pull Bolt Release at left rear of Receiver: OUT.
Slide Bolt straight back.
Unscrew Bolt guts from bolt body, put body on bench.
With Firing-pin Tip against the wood Bench, press DOWN against spring pressure. When Spring compresses to solid, turn Cocking-piece 1/4 turn nd remove to rear.
Release pressure on mainspring; bolt will disassemble itself.

BANDS remove with pressure on Band Latch Springs: INTO the wood, slide Bands off.
Remove 2 Trigger-guard Screws, lift Action from wood.

Clean Action with appropriate Solvents, Bore likewise.

Reassembly is reverse of this order.

With MINOR changes, this will do as a guide to any 93, 94, 95 or 96 Mauser; slight modification only for 98.
.
 
Of course ;) , you now realize we're expecting an awesome range report from you :) , right?.......:p

Didn't take any pictures, I was just test driving it to see how it shot. It was shooting around 3" high and 4" left @ 50yds. I did get a couple of groups of just over 1-1/4" with different ammo. I shot 6 rounds of 140gr surplus (assuming it was 140gr, it was FMJ SP bullets), they shot OK, but the primers were FLAT and I left those alone at that point. 3 rounds of 160gr Norma RNSP produced a decent group, as did 3 rounds of Federal Fusion 140gr SP hunting ammo.

The sights weren't that great for my eyes, so I was happy with those groups. I bought the rifle early this spring and it has been sitting ever since. It is the handiest milsurp I have ever handled and would make a superb bush rifle with the 160gr RN loads. Even with the light weight recoil was negligible.

A couple of pics of the rifle in its dirty state:

100_1475.jpg


100_1476.jpg


Can anyone translate this stock disc?

100_1477.jpg


I will post some better pics when it is clean and shiny again.

Mark
 
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