Old Military Rifles

I have a few old rifles that were involved in 20^th Century history. These come from the Soviet Union, USA, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, but my favorites are the Swedish Mausers. My oldest Swede was made in 1899 and is still an accurate rifle that I shoot occasionally, but, more importantly, it represents a way of thinking that protected a nation throughout WWI and WWII.

The Mauser rifle was developed in Germany near the end of the 1800s and the Swedes licensed the right to produce their own version. Sweden had the best steel in the world and produced these rifles through 1944. The rifles are bolt action, which means that to load each round of ammunition the operator was required to pull the bolt back, extract a spent shell casing, and then push the bolt forward to put a new round in the chamber. By today’s standards of automatic and semi-automatic rifles this is obsolete, but by the standards of the day these were the finest and most accurate rifles on the planet. 

Deterrence matters in preserving peace. Before WWII the Nazis made a deal to buy Swedish iron ore. Sweden was neutral when the war broke out and, because the iron ore was critical to the German war effort, they could have been invaded as their neighbor Norway had been.  As a neutral nation, Sweden continued to sell iron ore to Germany but, as part of the deal, Germany had to deliver to Sweden some of their finest military rifle scopes, the Ajack. Sweden was and is a nation of shooters, and their citizens at the time had to undergo compulsory military training that included the use of rifles. All citizen soldiers took their rifles home with them so as to be ready for quick mobilization. Shortly after the outbreak of war, when the German need for iron ore was increasing, the Nazis realized that they had sent the best rifle scopes in the world to an armed and prepared nation of accomplished shooters with the finest rifles in the world; the invasion of Sweden never happened. The Swedes and their magnificent rifles and trained populace prevented an invasion; there is something to be said for an armed citizenry.

In my collection I have reminders of bad ideas; Nazi rifles (German Mausers) that were captured on the Russian front from the hands of the aggressors, and Soviet rifles that were captured by Finland in the Winter War, improved and then turned on the Soviet invaders. There are reminders of success and victory as well; Soviet rifles that were never captured and may have been in Berlin on VE Day, and U.S. rifles that were carried by our troops in the European theater and the Pacific. These old rifles are not worth very much and the U.S. Government classifies them as “Curios and Relics”, but to me old military rifles are more than about shooting; they are tangible reminders from recent history of lessons that should not be forgotten.

-----

As an addendum, here is a bit more about Swedish Mausers. Each was built one piece at a time and all parts were custom fitted with every other part. Most parts of the rifle are numbered, and when all the numbers match it indicates that the rifle is totally original as it came from the armory. Over time from 1898 through the Second World War, cartridges advanced to higher bullet velocities. The Swedes had thousands of rifles with old and expensive-to-replace rear sights for elevation that were not adequate for the new ammunition. The solution to this problem was not new rifles, it was the addition of a metal tag to the stock of the rifle that informed the infantryman how to interpret the elevation on the old sight to match the new ammunition. It was a simpler time, but these bolt action rifles remained the best ever made, and still are today. The last Swedish Mauser was retired from Swedish military service in 1995.

The rifle pictured above was made in 1903. The brass disk in the photo above indicates that this was rifle number 867 of the 71st area of the 20th Infantry Regiment, Landstormen (experienced troops used for area defense). The rectangular metal plate indicates the elevation adjustment for new ammunition issued after this rifle was made. 

You can read more about the Swedish Mausers here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Mauser .