My buddy Ted recently acquired an example of the Model 96 Swedish Mauser at a gun show. It is one of the cleanest examples of this rifle I have ever seen.

I told him, "If you ever decide to get rid of that rifle, give me first shot at it."

He decided that he could live without it and sold it to me.

Here it is.

It is as clean as the day it left the factory.

These rifles are in 6.5 X 55 Mauser, a very fine round.

Ted also sold me some military surplus ammo for the rifle.

Here's the ammo.

It is about the nastiest looking milsurp I've ever seen.

But "pretty is as pretty does", so we will see how it shoots.

I took a round apart and the bullet weighs 143 grains, and the powder is a standard stick powder.

The Swedes marked their rifles with a brass disc on the stock when they went through the armory for re-issue.

Here's my disc. The most important number is in the smallest part of the "pie" on the disc.

The top number on mine is a "1".

0 means "New"
1 means "Very good"
2 means "Moderately worn"
3 means "Serviceable"
4 means "Needs replacement"

My barrel is indeed "Very good", as it looks like new and running a patch through it feels like a new barrel. We'll see how it shoots.

This rifle was manufactured from 1893 until 1925.

Mine is stamped 1917, and I sure hope I look this good when I am 92 years old.

The rifle was made in the days when they liked long barrels, and this one has a 28 inch barrel and the 2 inch flash suppressor makes it a total of 51 inches long.

A long rifle for sure.