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

Here's my .270 that I am nearly finished 'rebuilding'. I've repaired the stock and added the crossbolts and have a few more coats of oil to work into it. I took it to the range this evening and have included a photo of the first group I've fired out of this rifle. (at 100yds) The first shot was the one on the right, which is the bottom of the group. I hope that this is an indication of the rifles potential and not a fluke.I plan to take this rifle sheep hunting in 3 weeks ...
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Well...I'm in the sticky with my very first. A 456 in .308
I never had much to do with HVA's until this one caught my eye at a local mom and pop gunstore.
I asked to have a look, the owner placed it in my hands and it was just meant to be. Funny how a guy can spend 3500$ on a custom mountain rifle that is supposed to be built and fit just for you,only to have it trumped by a 50 year old rifle in a full-wood stock. I've been in the game long enough to know how rare that feeling is, so after a quick PM to both baribal and 264magnum who both offered helpful info on this particular model, I brought it home.




Now, here come the questions. My serial number reads 2260** A, indicating a 1958 year of production but I have an alloy floorplate/t-guard which I was under the impression was supposed to be steel until around 1963?
Second question, I looked all over the bolt for a number or marking of any kind to indicate it was matched to the receiver and found nothing. Were they marked?
Thirdly what type of rear base do I have. It has a tiny little peep sight that sits just under the scope and has a tiny bit of elevation adjustment.
The base is alloy and has the number 30 on it. The sight looks really slick and if it hits paper I think I'll keep it.
I would like to keep this rifle close to original. I'm guessing the recoil pad has been installed in place of a butt-plate? Was the original steel or plastic? Will a butt-plate from another model fit this one?
The rear sight is long gone and the dovetail filled with a blank. Which rear sight do I need? Thanks guys. I know I will have more questions in the days to come.
 
Nice!!. Is the stock actually two pieces or are those lines cosmetic?
Many Mannlicher type stocks were improved if they hay had point of impact variations by floating the front part of the cut two piece stock.
Envious.
 
Congratulations for your acquisition.

To answer some of your questions;
The "A" in the serial means you have an alloy trigger guard / floorplate. The alloy trigger guard / floorplate appeared in 1958 (more or less S/N 220 000), but there are known rifles (450 series) showing s/n as early as 209 ###A (end of 1957) with them.
After S/N 220 000 or so, the majority of the rifles will be found with an alloy trigger guard / floorplate and by the time all the steel one were gone, they used the "A" to differentiate them.

Regarding the bolt, you will usually find the three last digits of the serial number etched under the bolt lever. The bolt shroud and cocking piece have been stripped to bare metal, to look like a FN or a Parker-Hale.

Regarding the rear sight, your chances to find one original are slim, but you can try E-Bay and if you're very Lucky, the EE or Trade Ex...
It was pretty common on these days to swap the rear sights for Marbles model 97L, 66, 67, 68, 69H and/or 70H. The standard front sight height is .375" and the widht is 11/32" (Marbles front sight #37N).
The base you have may be a Parker-Hale (the width will then be 0.780") - if so, you need P-H rings, not common but they are there - but Redfield also made some pop-up peep bases and many others did so too. To find out, you will need to dig a bit in old catalogs.
If the width is 0.825"-0.830", then, you should be good to go with standard Weaver type rings (the Grand Slam would be a good choice for me). The base with pop up peep is a very good feature and they are not too common neither.

The original buttplate was made of black plastic. They're not very easy to come by and repros are not very well done, and anyways it's pretty thin and may well not fit so good after being installed and sanded to fit the stock contour, plus the LOP will be pretty short if you remove the pad.

Now, a lot of these rifles were modified before they even leave the store, as it was pretty common in those days to have a lot of aftermarket stuff fitted on the gun. Take it like a new girlfriend; she had previous life before you and that's part of her heritage. A lot of these aftermarket accessories are now long gone from the market and in general, they were much better made than those of today - no plastic was used!
Anyways, the rifle will gain very little, if any, value by trying to get it "original" (as "out-of-the-box").

My conclusions are; the buttpad seems to be fitted like it should and if not dried out, I would leave it alone. You still can have the bolt shroud and cocking pice blued, but it's not 100% certain the blue will be the same, unless your gunsmith can garanty you it will be... As for the rear sight and the existing base + peep, if you can find the right rings to fit the bases and the peep can be adjusted to shoot right (which I don't doubt), there is little need to install another rear sight. And you still can look around to find one while using the rifle.
If Weaver rail type rings can be used, you will need to get a vintage scope to fit the rifle and enjoy.
 
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If you look in the EE section 'Exchange of parts and accessories for Hunting and Sporting Arms' You will find that a member has for sale a couple husqvarna rear sights. It appears that he has two elevators. I am not sure if they are marked but I can look on my .308 (which may or may not be the same? It is a 4100) to see if it has a #. I understand the elevators had different #.s corresponding to different cartridge trajectories. But I am quite new to collecting and owning Husqvarnas and my knowledge base is limited. I do find the husqvarna sights to be very functional and of good build quality.

Well congratulations on your new fullstock! That is an exciting find indeed. I know what you mean by the 'meant to be' feeling. I was cruising the gun stores about 4 years ago looking for something special, maybe a win. m70 or something, and there was this well used 4100 .308, and pretty much within seconds of holding, fondling and shouldering it I was sold, and delighted to find a rifle that fit me so well. Good luck with yours, and welcome to the club.
 
If you're ready to spend 95.00 $ for a sight, then, yes, this can be an option. But it will void the use of the peep sight (which provides a much greater sight radius). My .308 W all have a No. 1 elevator.
 
Need some Husky Help here,
I have just acquired a Husky in .270 The information at the bottom is what I found on a Husqvarna history site, the serial number is 107=== and I believe this to be made between 1949-50 and is a model 640. Can anyone confirm or deny this? What differentiates between small or large ring mauser? Under the hood the rear has a pillar but not the front mount, I find the trigger very heavy for my liking, the action is rock solid when closed, the front sight has been sweated off and the rear removed as well. I picked the rifle up thinking a buddy of mine would be totally stoked as it is a .270, you see, he has been having .270 withdrawal since I sold my Weatherby mk V in .270. So after going over this rifle for the last week I am beginning to think he can "get screwed" it's mine, not to mention this would be great to hand down to my son.

I hope the pictures post, if not I'll be back to fix that.

thanks, Shaun







INFORMATION FOUND:
Repeterstudsare Modell 640 Repeating Rifle Model 640 6,5x55mm / 8x57JS / 9,3x62mm, 5 round magazine. After 1949: .220 Swift / 270 Win / 3006 Springfield. 60cm round, rifled, Swedish Special Steel. Fixed sights. 1944-1953 No. Walnut with checkered flat bottom pistol grip. Broad checkered halfstock, later other variants. Bolt action FN, older type (German M/98). Bent handle. Later FN newer type with backwards swept handle. Some with Swedish M/38 actions. A lot of variants exist.
 
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That's a bout it, with the exception that the M/98 did not show before 1946, so the vast majority of the 640's using a M/38 were made '46 and before. The "military" configuration is only found on pre-'47 rifles. The final shape of the "commercial" FN M/98 appeared in late '48 to '49. The later set-up resulted in the Supreme (or #300 action) in 1956.
The wood is also wrong; most 640 have beech stock (like yours). Only very few were made with Walnut stocks (but the 1000/1100 export models were).
Your rifle have the "Beaver tail fore arm" shape, which is also the more common configuration, later ones have slims fore arm + Schnabel fore end.
The rifle is a M/640 and was made in 1949.

The tang pilar is a normal feature used for Mauser stocks. There is no pilar at the front.
The trigger can be worked, but in any cases it should be of less than 3.5# of pull weight (unless you install an aftermarket trigger, but even in that case, most manufacturer do not recommend using a pull pressure of less than 3.5#). You can try polishing the mating surfaces of the sear / cocking piece but take great care not to modify the angles or surfaces themselve. A good gunsmith can do it for you, too.
 
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Awesome, thanks for the help,

Now it seems the challenge is to find some scope bases, I would prefer a 1 piece picatiny but even finding the right Weaver stuff is becoming a challenge. It appears the receiver has had an extra hole drilled near the barrel, I'm guessing it was hard for the previous owner to find a proper mount as well.

Thanks again, Shaun
 
Get the cheap aluminium Weaver # 46 (front) and # 45 (rear) mounts and check if they fit with the holes already there. The standard hole spacing for the front is 0.850" and 0.500" for the rear base. The center distance between the rear hole of the front base and the front hole of the rear bast is 3.825".
I, personally, don't really like Picatinny rails on vintage guns, but it's just me. Also, a two piece base set may be much easier to fit if the holes were made "custom". I much prefer something less "modern".
 
I, like Baribal, almost always use the two piece Weaver aluminum bases. They are not only light weight, but are plenty strong enough for the recoil of any rifle that I am going to shoulder.

Best of all, the two piece base allows the rifle to be carried by the scope tube, which I have done for at least forty years without a problem. :)

Ted

PS: 55 and 46 are the correct bases for the last two generation Husqvarnas with the small ring receiver.
 
Ted,

In fact, if I go "Weaver" I personally much prefer the Grand Slam bases. But my favourite set-up is a one piece mount, with an openin wide enough to easily drop a case in the mag. But since it's not always possible, especially with those pre-1640 which have been d&t by who knows who, the aluminium is often a solution and they are easy to get.
But I agree with you, there's nothing wrong with the aluminium Weaver mounts.

That's correct for the bases when it comes to small rings, but to avoid confusion I just want to specify that Shaun M's rifle uses the FN M/98 Large Ring action.
 
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Well I've owned this for a long time now and have posted it up before but thought I'd finally add it to the sticky. It isn't all original any more and I'll take the blame for that. All of the work was done by myself except for the rechambering and the actuall welding on the bolt handle which was done by a professional with a tig. I did all the filing, polishing and shaping of the bolt handle and incorporated the original checkered knob. I also d&t'd it, full length bedded the action, floated the barrel, added a Buhler type safety, and a Bold trigger. One of my favorite hunting rifles and I've used in on a few whitetail with success. Originally it was a 9.3x57 but is now a x62. I load it with 286 Nosler Partitions and it does pretty well at 100yds.
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Very nice outfit. The extra long bolt handle is a very practical touch. Great work, jb.

I have the same scope on one of mine, except it is a bit beat up. Nothing wrong with a 9.3X57 at all, however the '62 is just more of a good thing.

Ted
 
Thanks Ted! The bolt handle is maybe a bit extreme but I wanted something easy to grab and manipulate in the cold, late moose seasons around here. It does work very well but unfortunately my Husqvarna and I haven't connected on a moose together yet. Maybe this year.
 
One of my 9.3X62 rifles had a bolt handle that was quite similar, in length, and also had the original knob. It worked exactly as you described in cold weather. It now belongs to the brother of one of our regular posters on here.

Did you lengthen it by cutting and welding in a section, or did you forge it longer.
Ted
 
The bolt handle is kind of messed up story. Originally I had paid a "professional" gunsmith to forge it for scope clearance but he did a horrible job so I cut it off in the proper location near the root and custom built it from there. I used the original knob and about 3/4 of an inch of the original handle then had it extended to the length I wanted using a section from another handle I had laying around from a previous project. The guy that does all my welding for me does such a beautiful job with the tig that there is a minimum of excess material to be ground off then just a lot of careful filing and polishing to get the final result. When he welds it there is no seam or gap in the joints, its all 100% solid steel throughout so I have no doubts as to its strength and integrity. Proper heat sinks and care is used so no heat damage either.
 
Cool rifle, JBMauser. Hope you put it to the task soon.
Actually, as I often said, there's nothing wrong with a modified rifle either. There are two ways to see HVA rifles; in a pure collecting vision, then, it's mostly to preserve the rarest models in as original as it could be. But it's not always possible simply because the Swedes themselves always liked to modify their rifles. They saw them as hunting tools, not safe Queens.

The other way to see it is to get the rifles modified or to modify them either to use it or to collect stuff from another time. When they were modified in the days, they often used parts that we simply can't find anymore. These aftermarket parts are themselves, collected by quite a few people...
 
In a way I kind of think its a shame that I modified it like I did but back when I bought it I was pretty young and really had no idea of collector value or thought about keeping it original. In the end it's a more versatile rifle for me now that its scoped and I use it far more often than I would if it just had the irons. I do have a few rifles that I don't plan on putting scopes on but limit their use to situations where I know the shots are going to be close as I'm not as well practiced or comfortable with iron sights.

I think I modified it in a tasteful manner and even though I didn't think it was collectible at the time, I liked the way it looked and wanted to keep it as original as possible. That's why I insisted on using the original bolt knob and stock.

I don't think this is too rare of a model any way? Seems to be lots of them around.
 
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