1942 Husqvarna m38 - 6.5x.55 Value? With Pictures

There is one tiny crown under the wrist on mine. I didn`t pay attention to that on others I looked at.

I have noticed the electro pencil makings on numerous M/38s all Husqvarna made, all with turned down bolts, most in very good+ or better shape.

All these rifle would not have required new cocking pieces.

So it makes more sense to me that they were not marked, and were numbered by the armorer when taken apart for service.
 
Maybe this only applied to the FSR rifles you mentioned earlier Tac.

I also noticed that other than the bolt and butt plate, all the parts that all the parts that are normally numbered on my other Swedes (flour plate, nose piece, barrel bands etc.) are not on my Husky.
 
There are a couple of very good references which supply details on the somewhat arcane topic of stampings/markings on the Swedish Mausers; 'Crown Jewels' by Jones and 'The Swedish Mauser' by Kahaya/Poyer. ' The Swedish Mauser' has a table on this very issue. The Husqvarna rifles had the cocking piece marked with the last 3 digits of the rifle's s/n. It could be stamped or engraved with an electro-pencil. My last 1941 Husqvarna has the numbers stamped on the rear of the cocking piece.
 
I have been trying to find a copy of the Crown Jewels at a price that is not too crazy for a while without much luck.

Saw one for $60 on the EE a little while back. Needless to say it was gone pretty quick.
 
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If someone knows better let us know, but I think Husqvarna did not number the cocking pieces on these originally.

Every one I have handled was either not numbered or was electro penciled.

Husqvarna used electro pencil to number some parts. On Husqvarna rifles the crown stamp is on an angle. They didn't mark the s/n on every single piece like C.G. factory
I bought one this spring in similar condition $350
Carl Gustav on the left Husky on right
20151129_162146_zpsztl5c52s.jpg
 
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The M38 rifle was first off a Carl Gustav design modification of the M96 rifle designed during the 1930's when the Swedes like most armies of the time had found that their WW1 era long barreled service rifles were not conductive to the new war doctrines of that time period so in 1938 they started a program to alter their current stocks of long M96 rifles into shorter rifles.

As was expected by a lot of countries in Europe war would break out again soon and when it did in 1939 the swedes found that they needed more rifles and started to issue the long M96 again and the state factory (Carl Gustav) was busy making other weapons so they approached Husqvarna to start making the M38 short rifles for them on contract.

Husqvarna had already been making sporting versions of the M94 actioned guns so this was not a big deal for them (CG had basically stopped making M94 and M96 rifles in the late 1920's). The original specs for the M38 called for straight bolt handles and Husqvarna made up their first batches with straight bolts until they sort permission to use the same bent handled bolts they had been using in their sporting rifles as it was faster for them to make them this way as their workers had always made them like this and their forgings molds came bent first and so they had to straighten them which took more time.

The Calvary and Artillery used the shorter and handier m94 carbines and they had enough stocks of those.

Before the war ended in 1945 they had made enough by 1944 that no more were needed and work was already started on making a semi auto replacement for both rifles (the AG-42) as they and most armies saw the need for having their armies using semi's before the end of the war.

Rifles (both M38 and M96) with that less than perfect bores were threaded on the end to accept blank firing attachments as the wooden bullet blanks had a tendency to wear out the bores quicker and their use was banned in sniper rifles for this very reason. When they wore out this barrel a new non threaded barrel was installed and when it became worn was then threaded for blank use.

There are at least 4 versions of bolts used in these Swedish rifles and carbines.

Husqvarna started to stamp all the bolt parts but for reasons of speeding up the process started to switch to electro pencil as the expensive stamps wore out on the different assembly stations on their much harder and newer steel and treatment formula. If you examine a Husky M38 to a CG M96 and try to drill and tap for scope mounts you will find that the Husky has much harder steel in the receiver and bolt.

Husky receivers also tend to shatter a lot more when they let go compared to a CG M96 which tend to just split open on overloads or case head ruptures.
 
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