Swedish M94 Mausers, Weapons Officers rifles & possible Norwegian M1894 Sniper rifle?

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mkrnel

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Swedish M94 Mausers, Weapons Officers rifles & possible Norwegian M1894 Sniper rifle?

Hi everyone,

Thought I would share a few pictures of some of my more unique pieces from my Swedish rifles collection. Also adding a possible Norwegian M1894 Krag sniper or target rifle, I am only using the sniper term because it has a GI sniper sight fitted and am unsure of it's origin or previous usage.

http://s1048.photobucket.com/user/mkrnel/slideshow/Swedish Mausers

Which Swedish rifle from these pictures would most think to be the most rare, unique or hard to find? a hint is they all have something very special about each of them!

BTW all are in very good to excellent condition with all having excellent bores and two of them having still never been fired and still filled with factory grease except for their bores (boy it was a task to get the original 80 year old grease out of the bores to check on their condition). All are also all matching with matching numbers except for one, don't know why it is not matching but was informed that because of its date of manufacture and all over excellent condition with an Un-numbered new bolt it was most probably a factory or armoury parts put together for someone special (high ranking).

As a side issue does anyone know what their present value might be as I am in the process of getting the insurance increased on them and need a more modern ballpark figure to supply to my insurer.
 
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Very nice. The 1930 m/94 Carbines are very rare. Carl Gustafs quit production of m/96 rifles in 1926, but a small run was made in 1929. VERY small runs of Carbines were also made.

The Weapons Officer Carbines are quite interesting, with TWO of them made: one with "M Bjorlin" on it and the other with "PM Bjorlin". These have the "cross" that should be on the parts for a Weapons Officer's firearm, and most Weapons Officers made only one firearm as it was sort of an "Exam" rifle to see if they learned how to construct one. I would say that M. Bjorlin and PM Bjorlin were the same person, and that he was a Non-Commissioned Officer rather than a Commissioned one. While Commissioned Weapons Officers were named in the "Rulla" (yearly Officers Catalog) the Non-Commissioned Officers were not.

The "S 1067" is a Shooting School Carbine and is also very Rare. As far as is known, these were made in 1901 dates. Only two numbers have apparently surfaced, those being S 911 and S 1088.

It also appears that M Borlin not only made up an original m/94 but also a m/94-14. On the Shooting School Carbine, the bottom mounted sling swivel, no stock cut for the sling, and straight bolt handle are correct.

An outstanding set of Firearms. As far as price, I would not be surprised if the two Weapons Officers Carbines, NOT BROKEN UP BUT SOLD AS A PAIR, would be worth at least 5-6,000 dollars OR MORE.

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Those are very exceptional pieces. The Swedes are just so finely made and finished for a military rifle. They were produced and maintained with TLC, never under the press of wartime needs. Yesterday I posted on my excursion to the range this week with a very nice M1896, vintage 1915. I've had this rifle, another 1917 target rifle with the Elit diopter and a 1941 M38 for 2-3 years and haven't gotten around to shooting any of them until now. Shame on me. The performance of the M1896 with Sierra 142gr match bullets was amazing and I'm looking forward to shooting the other two to see how they perform.
 
No problem, have you ever heard of a 1902 dated m/94 carbine? all my research comes up blank and all information points to none being made in that year even in the bible of Swedish Mauser - the Crown Jewell's states that none were made in that year. It appears that this one is a very rare one off, just like the 1930 one.
 
mkrnel said:
No problem, have you ever heard of a 1902 dated m/94 carbine? all my research comes up blank and all information points to none being made in that year even in the bible of Swedish Mauser - the Crown Jewell's states that none were made in that year. It appears that this one is a very rare one off, just like the 1930 one.
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I looked in CJ after I read your post. Now, the numbers in CJ reflect only numbers recorded I think. What is interesting to me is that CJ shows production ended in 1901 at 12,693. But then 1903 started at 12,718. Now that is 25 rifle numbers unaccounted for. By any chance, could yours have replaced one of those 25 in between numbers we know nothing of? Just food for thought and a WAG.
 
Old Outlaw said:
I looked in CJ after I read your post. Now, the numbers in CJ reflect only numbers recorded I think. What is interesting to me is that CJ shows production ended in 1901 at 12,693. But then 1903 started at 12,718. Now that is 25 rifle numbers unaccounted for. By any chance, could yours have replaced one of those 25 in between numbers we know nothing of? Just food for thought and a WAG.
Click to expand...

It is quite possible that it is one of those 25 that officially do not exist because nobody has ever seen one, I wonder if any others from that 25 have survived the last 111 years hidden away?

But on second thought and this is only a guess, it is also possible that thery made up 25 receivers as spares to replace carbines with damaged actions and my one got made up into one of them as mine has a couple of non matching numbered parts and the bolt knob has no numbers at all on but the rest of the bolt, i.e. cocking piece, safety, firing pin etc have the same 3 digit number as the rifle has and is correct for the rifle. Also the old 5 digit serial number on the receiver has been ###XX out and restamped next to it with the same number as on the bolt pieces. And the stock wrist has no crown or armoury stamps behind the trigger guard. Also the Bluing and polishing on this rifle is far deeper and looks to be redone, possibly at rebuid stage, I have many Swedish mausers and none have such a deep and nice bluing, is is more like a 1935 Brazilian Mauser.

I think this rifle was never reissued as it also has the old triangle front sight blade and V rear sight notch and the wood stock is in perfect shape as well. All these rifles came from the same source in Sweden and have not been part of military stock for a long, long time.
 
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While "Crown Jewels" is probably the best reference book on the Swedish Mauser rifles, and Dana Jones did an outstanding work on these rifles, we also have to remember that the information in it was fairly accurate up until when it was published in 2003. Since then, with the greater interest in our collection and information on these rifles, and especially the Gun Forums available to us on the Internet, we are constantly updating, modifying, and in some cases altering our thinking and views on the Swedish Mausers.

As more of these things come to light, I am probably committing the sacrilege of writing notes in the appropriate chapters of CJ, and now there is one more note that shows the existence of a 1902 dated m/94 Carbine. The Serial Number and Production Data pages of CJ is a very good indication of APPROXIMATELY how many rifles/carbines were produced during a certain year, but almost every year where production is noted has a "gap" between the ending of that year and the starting numbers for the next year. It does make sense from a Military point of view that spares were needed so these would have been made. I would think that the DATE stamps were separate from the "Carl Gustafs" name stamp, so the DATE stamp would have been applied as one operation, at the DATE when the firearm was assembled.

There are replacement rifles and receivers that we know about. I have a m/96 with the 1917 serial number 412502 but the receiver is dated 1925. The 1944 Husqvarna serial numbers for the m/96 in CJ shows one rifle, 695810 made in 1942, but the 1943 production is from 689087 to 697837. However the 1944 production numbers begin at 697641 and go to 702969, a discrepancy of 196 rifles. (Crown Jewels - page 148.)

If the above figures are correct, Husqvarna m/96 687783 does not exist because it is dated 1943 but is 1104 serial numbers before the start of the 1943 production. But, it does exist. If we look at the section on the Husqvarna M/39 production, we find that the 1943 production figures for 18,000 rifles, m/96, are from 686,000 to 704,000. (Crown Jewels - page 84) So we have two different sets of production figures within the same book, and with the existence of m/96 serial 687783, it would seem that the Page 84 figures are the correct ones, and there is an error in the production figures on Page 148.

We are gaining in knowledge of the Swedish Mausers every day. An example of this is the 1929 production of m/96 rifles. I am certain that if Jones was aware of these at the time CJ was published in 2003, he would have mentioned it. My notes indicate the existence of over 166 rifles from serial 515733 to 515899 that seem to have come to common knowledge in the last 10 years.

On page 78 of CJ, Jones notes "One m/96 had a walnut stock without a marking disk cut, which may have indicated that it was an "aftermarket" stock, although it appeared to be original. The rifle also had an aperture sight, and most likely had been in private hands." I can assure you that Jones did see such a rifle, and possibly even the rifle in the picture below. This rifle came to Canada several years ago as part of a shipment to a Canadian importer, and it has all the proper markings and serial number of a 1900 Mauser made rifle, one of the 5000 m/96 rifles made after the Mauser 1899-1900 Military rifles, and has a four digit serial number under 5000. It would appear that many of these 5000 FSR rifles ended up in the hands of the Military and the hole for the stock disk was then made into the stock. Very few of the original ones seem to be around (I have recorded four, including the one I have.) The picture below shows two of the Mauser 1900 production of 5000, with the rear one original and without the hole for the stock disk.



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So now, thanks to MKRNEL's posting of these exceptional rifles, we have added a bit more knowledge to our data on the Swedes. No doubt in the future other "anomalities" will come to light. But, we should also consider that these are NOT anomalities, but rather something that was produced a long time ago and were not really recorded. Who, over a Hundred years ago, would have had even the wildest thought that an interest in these firearms would be generated such as it is now amongst collectors.

Thanks again for sharing your treasures with us.
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I saw a bubba'ed Swedish Mauser in a shop, muzzle brake and all, SN was S 11xx, can't remember the last 2 numbers.
 
buffdog said:
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Very nice. The 1930 m/94 Carbines are very rare. Carl Gustafs quit production of m/96 rifles in 1926, but a small run was made in 1929. VERY small runs of Carbines were also made.

The Weapons Officer Carbines are quite interesting, with TWO of them made: one with "M Bjorlin" on it and the other with "PM Bjorlin". These have the "cross" that should be on the parts for a Weapons Officer's firearm, and most Weapons Officers made only one firearm as it was sort of an "Exam" rifle to see if they learned how to construct one. I would say that M. Bjorlin and PM Bjorlin were the same person, and that he was a Non-Commissioned Officer rather than a Commissioned one. While Commissioned Weapons Officers were named in the "Rulla" (yearly Officers Catalog) the Non-Commissioned Officers were not.

The "S 1067" is a Shooting School Carbine and is also very Rare. As far as is known, these were made in 1901 dates. Only two numbers have apparently surfaced, those being S 911 and S 1088.

It also appears that M Borlin not only made up an original m/94 but also a m/94-14. On the Shooting School Carbine, the bottom mounted sling swivel, no stock cut for the sling, and straight bolt handle are correct.

An outstanding set of Firearms. As far as price, I would not be surprised if the two Weapons Officers Carbines, NOT BROKEN UP BUT SOLD AS A PAIR, would be worth at least 5-6,000 dollars OR MORE.

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I have this information provided by an advanced collector from Sweden as to who M. Bjorlin is to keep this post up to date for future information to all those viewing it -

"Per Mattias Björlin was born 24th of February 1894 in Stockholm. Married 1919 with Karin Dagmar von Schéele. They got together 4 boys (Claes-Henrik 1921, Per-Gösta 1923, Mats 1924 and Ulf 1933).
Per Mattias (with nickname Mats) became second-liutenant at Royal Svea Artillery regiment in 1917. Lieutenant 1922, captain 1932 and finally major 1942.
Mats Björlin was also a rather good painter, especially portraits. He is represented at the National museum in Stockholm and you can search for him here http://emp-web-22.zetcom.ch/eMuseumP...search&lang=sv He died 1986 in Stockholm."

Per Mattias granddaughter Naida (Ulfs daughter) became an American singer and actress. Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Bjorlin. http://www.nadia-bjorlin.com/
 
Kinda off topic, but the granddaughter is yet another example of the excellent results one gets thanks to hybrid vigour:

nadia_bjorlin_hd-normal.jpg


Swedish-Iranian. Yow.

I should very much like to sit down with her someday and discuss her Grandpa's work. Or the weather. Or marriage.

Carry on...
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
Kinda off topic, but the granddaughter is yet another example of the excellent results one gets thanks to hybrid vigour:

nadia_bjorlin_hd-normal.jpg


Swedish-Iranian. Yow.

I should very much like to sit down with her someday and discuss her Grandpa's work. Or the weather. Or marriage.

Carry on...
Click to expand...

She sure is nice, I don't know which I would like to have more, the grand dad's rifles or his grand daughter!:xes
 
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