Husqvarna Sporting Rifles #### - ALL MODELS!!!

Many people just don't realize how good Husqvarna firearms are now and were through all of their transitions over the years.

I will admit, they have a lot more competition in the present markets of both sporting and martial firearms. However, they are still extremely well made and do the jobs they were intended to, at the time they were built, for the conditions of the times.

I no longer have a Swede M94/96/38 in my safe, but not because I don't appreciate them or how well they were made. My eyes no longer see the sights, even with glasses.

I do own one of their M98 clones, bought from Eagleeye on this site, chambered for the venerable 8x57, it came with a composite stock, which seems to be reasonably stable, but I changed out the trigger for a Husqvarna built adjustable. The original trigger is adjustable but doesn't break as crisply as this aftermarket type they once sold for these rifles. It loves 196 grain flat base/round nose bullets at 2600fps, which it shoots into 1.5 moa or less out to 300yds.
I have noticed a crap ton of them in 8x57 for sale maybe I should get one lol. The other thing is there were so many models and variants!. So for the collector who wants to get into a brand for not a bad amount of investment these are perfect!. The trigger on mine I suspect has been worked over because it breaks like glass!. These really are undervalued but I hope it stays that way so i can get one in 7x57!.
 
Many people just don't realize how good Husqvarna firearms are now and were through all of their transitions over the years.

I will admit, they have a lot more competition in the present markets of both sporting and martial firearms. However, they are still extremely well made and do the jobs they were intended to, at the time they were built, for the conditions of the times.

I no longer have a Swede M94/96/38 in my safe, but not because I don't appreciate them or how well they were made. My eyes no longer see the sights, even with glasses.

I do own one of their M98 clones, bought from Eagleeye on this site, chambered for the venerable 8x57, it came with a composite stock, which seems to be reasonably stable, but I changed out the trigger for a Husqvarna built adjustable. The original trigger is adjustable but doesn't break as crisply as this aftermarket type they once sold for these rifles. It loves 196 grain flat base/round nose bullets at 2600fps, which it shoots into 1.5 moa or less out to 300yds.
That is a pretty stout load isn’t it?
 
People my age and much older were collecting Husqvarna firearms since the turn of the 20th century, along with Carl Gustav, from which it morphed.

I have a lovely SxS 12ga shotgun, with a double underlever system to break the action open. Made in the mid 1930s and marked "Svensk7 SpecialStal" The barrels have a lustrous Kreighoff blue, the levers/receiver/hammer locks on each side are beautifully color case hardened, some of which is a bit worn, the stock is very straight grain Beech and the fit/finish is tight, without any gaps. Both barrels are cylinder bore and the chamber/forcing cone are one smooth surface all the way through. It handles any 12 gauge ammo, from 1.5 inch to 3.5 inch, but any of the magnums or even heavy 2 3/4in loads are brutal to shoot.

Their 22 rimfires are excellent and as accurate as any of their day and still on par with most offering out there today. Their high end line is competitive in any circle.

If you're going to start collecting Husqvarna firearms, I would suggest you stick to ONE model, there are so many, and so many variants of each it boggles the mind.
 
I have a 649 9.3x62 in a full stock… 20” barrel, shoots around 1” 1 1/2” at 100mView attachment 986556

People my age and much older were collecting Husqvarna firearms since the turn of the 20th century, along with Carl Gustav, from which it morphed.

I have a lovely SxS 12ga shotgun, with a double underlever system to break the action open. Made in the mid 1930s and marked "Svensk7 SpecialStal" The barrels have a lustrous Kreighoff blue, the levers/receiver/hammer locks on each side are beautifully color case hardened, some of which is a bit worn, the stock is very straight grain Beech and the fit/finish is tight, without any gaps. Both barrels are cylinder bore and the chamber/forcing cone are one smooth surface all the way through. It handles any 12 gauge ammo, from 1.5 inch to 3.5 inch, but any of the magnums or even heavy 2 3/4in loads are brutal to shoot.

Their 22 rimfires are excellent and as accurate as any of their day and still on par with most offering out there today. Their high end line is competitive in any circle.

If you're going to start collecting Husqvarna firearms, I would suggest you stick to ONE model, there are so many, and so many variants of each it boggles the mind.
Wow that sounds like a fun side by side!. Are there really that many models. I would probably collect the mannlicker rifles and lightweight rifles.
 
That is a pretty stout load isn’t it?
Nope, not according to the manufacturer. It develops just over 50K psi, and the European sporting loads are approximately the same.

As you know, North American manufacturers of 8x57 ammunition load it down for legal reasons, where people who don't do enough due diligence load them into the early version of the

8x57 designations are all over the map.

The M88 version, for the date it was accepted by Germany and intended for the M1888 Commission Rifles, utilizing .318 diameter 225 grain round nose bullets was first and a lot of those rifles were brought back to the US and Canada over the years. Pressures produced with later milsurp ammunition, in some of the poorly maintained rifles were dangerous to the rifle and shooter, and after SAAMI came along, they decreed all ammunition marked 8mm Mauser be loaded to appx 37,000psi, in deference to the older rifles. Some will have 7.92x57S, which is for the S Patrone bullet (Spire Point) but still .318 diameter

Ammunition in Europe and other parts of the world will have proper descriptions of what's in the box and it's expected of the purchaser/shooter to know which rifles it's safe to shoot.

Most military rifles manufactured after 1903, and many earlier M1888 and 1898 Mausers were either rebarreled for the new 7.92x57IS or JS cartridge or newly manufactured with bores suitable for the .323 diameter bullets.

SAAMI (North American) specs for the 8x57 Mauser or 7.92x57 cartridge is listed at a maximum 36,800?? psi

CPI (International) specs for the 7.92x57JS Mauser are listed as 56,560psi or 37,000CUP.

The 8x57JS cartridge is pretty much the equal of the venerated 30-06, which has no flies on it IMHO, with any given bullet weight, but only if you purchase European ammunition or hand load.
 
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Nope, not according to the manufacturer. It develops just over 50K psi, and the European sporting loads are approximately the same.

As you know, North American manufacturers of 8x57 ammunition load it down for legal reasons, where people who don't do enough due diligence load them into the early version of the

8x57 designations are all over the map.

The M88 version, for the date it was accepted by Germany and intended for the M1888 Commission Rifles, utilizing .318 diameter 225 grain round nose bullets was first and a lot of those rifles were brought back to the US and Canada over the years. Pressures produced with later milsurp ammunition, in some of the poorly maintained rifles were dangerous to the rifle and shooter, and after SAAMI came along, they decreed all ammunition marked 8mm Mauser be loaded to appx 37,000psi, in deference to the older rifles. Some will have 7.92x57S, which is for the S Patrone bullet (Spire Point) but still .318 diameter

Ammunition in Europe and other parts of the world will have proper descriptions of what's in the box and it's expected of the purchaser/shooter to know which rifles it's safe to shoot.

Most military rifles manufactured after 1903, and many earlier M1888 and 1898 Mausers were either rebarreled for the new 7.92x57IS or JS cartridge or newly manufactured with bores suitable for the .323 diameter bullets.

SAAMI (North American) specs for the 8x57 Mauser or 7.92x57 cartridge is listed at a maximum 36,800?? psi

CPI (International) specs for the 7.92x57JS Mauser are listed as 56,560psi or 37,000CUP.

The 8x57JS cartridge is pretty much the equal of the venerated 30-06, which has no flies on it IMHO, with any given bullet weight, but only if you purchase European ammunition or hand load.
I have two Mauser 98 one is still a 8x57 Danzig made, the other is now reamed out to 8mm-06! Both shoot really well with 200gn bullets
 
I've always gotten my best accuracy with bullets over .308 diameter, shooting old school cup and core bullets, which they were designed around, with heavy bullets. At the velocities we're able to push them with non magnum cartridges, there isn't any need and very little if any benefit in using long sleek bullets over flat base round nose for the typical ranges most of us hunt.

For longer ranges, past 300yds there is an advantage to using lower drag ratio bullets, but most shooters/hunters shouldn't be shooting at game at those distances. I'm not going into the ethics of long range hunting practices because some, very few, individuals are quite capable of consistent clean kills at extended ranges, with rifles they've taken the time and effort to get intimate with.

Most of us aren't that intimate with our firearms, for many good reasons.

I ran into a fellow at the local CT yesterday and he was looking for 300WSM ammunition. His choice depended on which box had the highest listed velocity on it. Nothing else.

He's had the rifle for ten years and is on his third box of ammunition. His father bought him the rifle, but he finds it "So expensive to shoot"

I got into a conversation with him about changing points of impact with different bullet weights, velocities, etc and he looked at me with very obvious disbelief. Time to leave.
 
I've always gotten my best accuracy with bullets over .308 diameter, shooting old school cup and core bullets, which they were designed around, with heavy bullets. At the velocities we're able to push them with non magnum cartridges, there isn't any need and very little if any benefit in using long sleek bullets over flat base round nose for the typical ranges most of us hunt.

For longer ranges, past 300yds there is an advantage to using lower drag ratio bullets, but most shooters/hunters shouldn't be shooting at game at those distances. I'm not going into the ethics of long range hunting practices because some, very few, individuals are quite capable of consistent clean kills at extended ranges, with rifles they've taken the time and effort to get intimate with.

Most of us aren't that intimate with our firearms, for many good reasons.

I ran into a fellow at the local CT yesterday and he was looking for 300WSM ammunition. His choice depended on which box had the highest listed velocity on it. Nothing else.

He's had the rifle for ten years and is on his third box of ammunition. His father bought him the rifle, but he finds it "So expensive to shoot"

I got into a conversation with him about changing points of impact with different bullet weights, velocities, etc and he looked at me with very obvious disbelief. Time to leave.
😆 yea I dont get the whole long range hunting craze. I haven't hunted for deer before but logically getting the closest you can to the animal before shooting it would seem wise to me. That interaction you had with that fellow was funny. If that was his first high powered rifle he should of got something in a cheap caliber.
 
I have two Mauser 98 one is still a 8x57 Danzig made, the other is now reamed out to 8mm-06! Both shoot really well with 200gn bullets
I've built a couple of 8mm-06 rifles for folks and one for myself, using a 30-06 reamer, then an 8mm neck/throat reamer. All were done on take off milsurp barrels, other than the one I built for myself, which was done on a military NOS replacement barrel, still in the wrap.

I like the cartridge a lot, but I like the 338-06/35 Whelan more and the velocity advantage over the 8x57js, when loaded to 50K psi, isn't enough to worry about in the field, so I sold it to another fellow who had been thinking of getting one built.

Back when I made up those rifles, finding 8mm barrels, without importing from Europe or placing a "special order" in North America was not easy.

We utilized what we could find and at that time, 8x57jx chambered take off barrels were in almost every LGS that offered gunsmithing services, many of them in excellent condition and they were mostly taking up space, and the smiths sold them off very cheap.

One of the biggest mistakes (IMHO) made by smiths back in the day, was to "reprofile" these barrels to make them more presentable, or try to duplicate the esthetics of a commercial barrel.

This was not conducive to accuracy, no matter how well the job was done.

German engineers went to a lot of trouble to figure out the best barrel profiles to provide consistent harmonics with issue ammunition. Those barrels almost always will have "tooling" marks under the covered areas and some will have them all the way to the muzzle. Some folks find this unsightly.

When I do builds using these barrels, I remove the military style sights, chuck them up in the lathe and polish away the tooling marks, nothing else. This just makes life so much easier when working up loads later.

I have seen a few reprofiled barrels shoot well, but only a few, most don't or are extremely fussy about which load will shoot acceptably and it's almost impossible to find commercial offerings that will do the job.
 
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😆 yea I dont get the whole long range hunting craze. I haven't hunted for deer before but logically getting the closest you can to the animal before shooting it would seem wise to me. That interaction you had with that fellow was funny. If that was his first high powered rifle he should of got something in a cheap caliber.
It was a gift, and I don't believe he had much, if any choice in the selection of preferred cartridge. He can't afford to shoot the rifle, let alone buy it.

I suspect his father meant well, and was hoping for some sort of bonding experience while hunting?????? Likely didn't know a lot more about shooting than his son???
 
Thats really i
I've built a couple of 8mm-06 rifles for folks and one for myself, using a 30-06 reamer, then an 8mm neck/throat reamer. All were done on take off milsurp barrels, other than the one I built for myself, which was done on a military NOS replacement barrel, still in the wrap.

I like the cartridge a lot, but I like the 338-06/35 Whelan more and the velocity advantage over the 8x57js, when loaded to 50K psi, isn't enough to worry about in the field, so I sold it to another fellow who had been thinking of getting one built.

Back when I made up those rifles, finding 8mm barrels, without importing from Europe or placing a "special order" in North America was not easy.

We utilized what we could find and at that time, 8x57jx chambered take off barrels were in almost every LGS that offered gunsmithing services, many of them in excellent condition and they were mostly taking up space, and the smiths sold them off very cheap.

One of the biggest mistakes (IMHO) made by smiths back in the day, was to "reprofile" these barrels to make them more presentable, or try to duplicate the esthetics of a commercial barrel.

This was not conducive to accuracy, no matter how well the job was done.

German engineers went to a lot of trouble to figure out the best barrel profiles to provide consistent harmonics with issue ammunition. Those barrels almost always will have "tooling" marks under the covered areas and some will have them all the way to the muzzle. Some folks find this unsightly.

When I do builds using these barrels, I remove the military style sights, chuck them up in the lathe and polish away the tooling marks, nothing else. This just makes life so much easier when working up loads later.

I have seen a few reprofiled barrels shoot well, but only a few, most don't or are extremely fussy about which load will shoot acceptable and it's almost impossible to find commercial offerings that will do the job.
Thats really interesting I had thought about building a 8m06. But I instead went with the 338.06 so I rebored a 1903 springfield barrel and bought a action for that build. I didn't know that reprofiling those barrels would affect accuracy much.
 
It was a gift, and I don't believe he had much, if any choice in the selection of preferred cartridge. He can't afford to shoot the rifle, let alone buy it.

I suspect his father meant well, and was hoping for some sort of bonding experience while hunting?????? Likely didn't know a lot more about shooting than his son???
I hope he's not getting the snot kicked out of him from that rifle.
 
I've built a couple of 8mm-06 rifles for folks and one for myself, using a 30-06 reamer, then an 8mm neck/throat reamer. All were done on take off milsurp barrels, other than the one I built for myself, which was done on a military NOS replacement barrel, still in the wrap.

I like the cartridge a lot, but I like the 338-06/35 Whelan more and the velocity advantage over the 8x57js, when loaded to 50K psi, isn't enough to worry about in the field, so I sold it to another fellow who had been thinking of getting one built.

Back when I made up those rifles, finding 8mm barrels, without importing from Europe or placing a "special order" in North America was not easy.

We utilized what we could find and at that time, 8x57jx chambered take off barrels were in almost every LGS that offered gunsmithing services, many of them in excellent condition and they were mostly taking up space, and the smiths sold them off very cheap.

One of the biggest mistakes (IMHO) made by smiths back in the day, was to "reprofile" these barrels to make them more presentable, or try to duplicate the esthetics of a commercial barrel.

This was not conducive to accuracy, no matter how well the job was done.

German engineers went to a lot of trouble to figure out the best barrel profiles to provide consistent harmonics with issue ammunition. Those barrels almost always will have "tooling" marks under the covered areas and some will have them all the way to the muzzle. Some folks find this unsightly.

When I do builds using these barrels, I remove the military style sights, chuck them up in the lathe and polish away the tooling marks, nothing else. This just makes life so much easier when working up loads later.

I have seen a few reprofiled barrels shoot well, but only a few, most don't or are extremely fussy about which load will shoot acceptably and it's almost impossible to find commercial offerings that will do the job.
Sounds like a easy conversion
 
I've built a couple of 8mm-06 rifles for folks and one for myself, using a 30-06 reamer, then an 8mm neck/throat reamer. All were done on take off milsurp barrels, other than the one I built for myself, which was done on a military NOS replacement barrel, still in the wrap.

I like the cartridge a lot, but I like the 338-06/35 Whelan more and the velocity advantage over the 8x57js, when loaded to 50K psi, isn't enough to worry about in the field, so I sold it to another fellow who had been thinking of getting one built.

Back when I made up those rifles, finding 8mm barrels, without importing from Europe or placing a "special order" in North America was not easy.

We utilized what we could find and at that time, 8x57jx chambered take off barrels were in almost every LGS that offered gunsmithing services, many of them in excellent condition and they were mostly taking up space, and the smiths sold them off very cheap.

One of the biggest mistakes (IMHO) made by smiths back in the day, was to "reprofile" these barrels to make them more presentable, or try to duplicate the esthetics of a commercial barrel.

This was not conducive to accuracy, no matter how well the job was done.

German engineers went to a lot of trouble to figure out the best barrel profiles to provide consistent harmonics with issue ammunition. Those barrels almost always will have "tooling" marks under the covered areas and some will have them all the way to the muzzle. Some folks find this unsightly.

When I do builds using these barrels, I remove the military style sights, chuck them up in the lathe and polish away the tooling marks, nothing else. This just makes life so much easier when working up loads later.

I have seen a few reprofiled barrels shoot well, but only a few, most don't or are extremely fussy about which load will shoot acceptably and it's almost impossible to find commercial offerings that will do the job.
Both my 8mm have the military profile stepped barrels and both shoot really well! The 8x57 gave me a sub moa group one day hahaha
 
Yes and No, a lot of care needs to be taken to make sure the reamer feeds straight into the old chamber.

It's not difficult but it's not as easy as cutting a new chamber from a bore.

I refused to recut a chamber in a 30-06 one time for a fellow who wanted it to become a 300 Win mag.

Remember, with the larger diameter body, there isn't a pilot guiding the reamer true to the axis of the bore. Not only that but the reamer is making the initial cuts with its shoulder, which can quickly lead to chatter and that can be hard to clean up to impossible to clean up.

The 30-06 reamer starts to bite into the side wall of the 8x57 chamber appx 3/4 of the way down, and the tapers are close enough that it still works well with a floating reamer guide, but you still need to be extremely careful, especially if you're doing the job with a 30-06 reamer and chasing the neck/throat with a separate reamer.

First, you have to swap out the bore guide on the reamer from .308 to .323 if it's rotating or shrink fit a sleeve onto a solid guide and turn it to .323 so it will work as a guide while cutting the chamber. If it isn't fed true or for some reason wanders, the barrel is ruined.
 
Both my 8mm have the military profile stepped barrels and both shoot really well! The 8x57 gave me a sub moa group one day hahaha
That really isn't unusual.

I have two sporter 8x57js rifles, one is a commercial offering from Husqvarna, which might be made by them or in Belgium and assembled in Sweden, I can't tell the difference. It shoots about 1.5 moa out to 300yds, with 196 grain Oryx flat base round nose.

The other is built on a military 98 action, with an NOS milsurp replacement barrel, in a 60s style, very stable walnut stock, and some double set triggers, salvage from a commercial BRNO, which were given to me by an old friend from Burns Lake. It shoots the same load from the same batch of cartridges, made up on the same die settings, etc into moa or less out to 300yds. From a bench of course, but I can shoot it well off hand into sub 3 inch groups at 100 yds.

Shooting off hand is something most shooters don't practice, other than with 22 rimfires, which is good, but the weight differences usually throw them off in the field, if they haven't practiced with the rifles they're hunting with. Triggers are usually different as well.
 
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