meathunter62
Member
- Location
- Cranbrook/BC
38/96 Swede 'hogwash'?
As for strength of the 96 Swede action: as someone else already stated; there's a lot of 'hear-say' and no actual facts! Fact is: Swedish 'Sandvik Steels' have always had and still have a very high reputation in the world.
The 96/38 Swedes were some of the very first rifles I owned, hunted & experimented with when reloading for it, with no problems whatsoever!
A couple were 6.5's and the last one was a 'commercial' .270 Win.
While working in my own workshop as a NZ-Gunmaker several years ago, I was approached by one of the old local Te Anau 'deer-cullers' from way back, who brought in this well used & 'shot-out' HVA-featherweight rifle and expressed his wish to have it re-brl'ed to either .270 Win. or even better to .338-06? He had no interest in the original cal. as he already owned a couple of rifles for this caliber. He was a bit concerned about the strength of the action tough, because of the very same rumours and asked if I had any suggestions to determine the actual strength of this action?
As his rifle was basically unusable for any hunting work in the present state at the time, I suggested the following: you supply your rifle & supply the ammo and we'll try 'blowing-up' this old & worn .30-06 'commercial' HVA-rifle of yours (not the old 'tie to the tree-method' but from a proper fixed bench-position on the local range) by simmulating ordinary reloading 'overloads' with normal rifle-powders as you could encounter while reloading yourself? He agreed to it! I proceeded the weekend after at the local shooting range: other then locking up the bolt every time, combined with the occasional sign of starting 'melt-down' of the cardtridge base into the bolthead at a couple of occasions; I can't tell I was really succesfull at it! Getting tired of pulling the brl. every time and clean-up the mess; I gave up in the end! No doubt; a charge of pistol/shotgun powder would have been the 'icing on the cake'? No doubt; it would have been for any action, regardless of the manufacture nor the strenth/quality of the action! Mind you; it was unclear to me at the time if the action concerned was a re-worked 'military' or later manufacture 'commercial' action? Still: after this experiment it was save for me to say to the customer that this action could easily withstand the .338-06 pressures or those of the smaller bore, but slighty higher pressure curves of the .270 Win. So; all in all one could say that there's a lot of 'hogwash' floating around surrounding these 96/38 Swedes with no real evidence to back any of these claims! Pitty that I didn't own a digital-camera at the time to back up all of this?
As for strength of the 96 Swede action: as someone else already stated; there's a lot of 'hear-say' and no actual facts! Fact is: Swedish 'Sandvik Steels' have always had and still have a very high reputation in the world.
The 96/38 Swedes were some of the very first rifles I owned, hunted & experimented with when reloading for it, with no problems whatsoever!
A couple were 6.5's and the last one was a 'commercial' .270 Win.
While working in my own workshop as a NZ-Gunmaker several years ago, I was approached by one of the old local Te Anau 'deer-cullers' from way back, who brought in this well used & 'shot-out' HVA-featherweight rifle and expressed his wish to have it re-brl'ed to either .270 Win. or even better to .338-06? He had no interest in the original cal. as he already owned a couple of rifles for this caliber. He was a bit concerned about the strength of the action tough, because of the very same rumours and asked if I had any suggestions to determine the actual strength of this action?
As his rifle was basically unusable for any hunting work in the present state at the time, I suggested the following: you supply your rifle & supply the ammo and we'll try 'blowing-up' this old & worn .30-06 'commercial' HVA-rifle of yours (not the old 'tie to the tree-method' but from a proper fixed bench-position on the local range) by simmulating ordinary reloading 'overloads' with normal rifle-powders as you could encounter while reloading yourself? He agreed to it! I proceeded the weekend after at the local shooting range: other then locking up the bolt every time, combined with the occasional sign of starting 'melt-down' of the cardtridge base into the bolthead at a couple of occasions; I can't tell I was really succesfull at it! Getting tired of pulling the brl. every time and clean-up the mess; I gave up in the end! No doubt; a charge of pistol/shotgun powder would have been the 'icing on the cake'? No doubt; it would have been for any action, regardless of the manufacture nor the strenth/quality of the action! Mind you; it was unclear to me at the time if the action concerned was a re-worked 'military' or later manufacture 'commercial' action? Still: after this experiment it was save for me to say to the customer that this action could easily withstand the .338-06 pressures or those of the smaller bore, but slighty higher pressure curves of the .270 Win. So; all in all one could say that there's a lot of 'hogwash' floating around surrounding these 96/38 Swedes with no real evidence to back any of these claims! Pitty that I didn't own a digital-camera at the time to back up all of this?
