Five favorites
As on old target shooter, I do love accurate rifles. Sometimes, you can actually associate a Military firearm with an actual person. Here are a few examples of some of these rifles.
An m/96 Swedish Mauser 6.5x55 Infantry Rifle. This one was a Hemvarnets (Swedish Home Guard) Prize rifle for winning a Military National Shoot..
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A 1902 Carl Gustafs m/96 Swedish Mauser. This rifle was First Prize in a Fund Raising Shoot in 1903 by the FFSFF. The FFSFF was an Association to raise money for constructing concrete bunkers, trenches and fortifications for the defence of Stockholm. These extensive defences totaled a length of 55 kilometers North and South of the City. The original winner donated it again in 1930 to raise additional money for these fortifications.
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These two rifles are both the same date, made by Mauser in 1900. They are two of a production run of 5000 Swedish m/96 Mauser rifles specially made for the FSR (the Civilian Shooting Regulatory Authority similar to the NRA or DCRA.) Sweden was in the process or rearming their military, and had no excess rifles to spare for Competition shooters. In 1899 and 1900, Mauser had supplied 40,000 m/96 rifles to Sweden to keep the rearmament on schedule and these were numbered in the approximate 19000 to 59000 serial number range. These 1900 rifles were numbered in the 1 to 5000 range. Many of these were bought by the Army.
The original Mauser 1900 FSR rifles had no hole or provision for the stock disk. When the Military bought them, they drilled the hole and attached a stock disk. There are only four known rifles without a stock disk hole. The rear one is an original 1900 Mauser production m/96 FSR rifle, and the front one is also a 1900 Mauser FSR rifle but had been bought by the Military. Both have four digit serial numbers.
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In 1925, Carl Gustafs State Arsenal in Sweden ceased production on the M/96 Swedish Mauser rifle, but still did repairs, made machine guns, experimented with target rifles and other things. In 1929, a very small handful of m/96 rifles were made. Note the date on this rifle.
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One of the best, I saved for last. This rifle belonged to Erik Lundgren, of Ockelbo, Sweden. He was one of the most famous race car drivers in Europe, and was known as the “Wizard of Ockelbo” because he won over 50 of the 60 races he entered, mostly with a car and engine he built and modified. He won several of the F1 races, beating out the best Italian designed race cars, and he was a pioneer in Sweden for his use of plastics and fibreglass. Later in his life, he was known for his “Ockelbo” boats.
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