Rifles by countries and continents. Viking Heirs Rifles (part 14)

Some nations have what could be called the "cult of accuracy" when it came to developing their rifles. And that's just to the Swedes this applies first. Other nations just wanted their rifles to do the work for which they were created — to quickly and easily hit a person about 100 yards away. Of course, all the rifle sights had a graduation and for firing at a greater distance, but it’s really impossible to get at a distance of one kilometer in battle. And everyone understood that.

The German Mauser M1892 chambered for 8x58R (Army Museum, Stockholm)

They also understood that a soldier in a battle must ... work! Otherwise, he will simply go crazy with the horror that is happening around him. The easiest thing is to give him the opportunity to shoot. Not too often - it is very expensive for the country, but not for one cartridge. This is too slow. Five rounds per store charge was enough.

Nevertheless, for some reason, some countries developed weapons a real "cult of accuracy." This is primarily Switzerland (which we have already talked about in VO) and Sweden (about which we also talked about rifles, but now much more information will be given!), Who tried to give a rifle for sniper shooting to the hands of almost every soldier of their army. And if for rifles of other countries at the beginning of the twentieth century the optimal distance for an accurate shot was a distance of 100 yards, for rifles of these two countries - 300 yards! Even the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, which produced extremely accurate rifles (especially in their sniper variations), did not achieve such results for rifles produced for ordinary infantrymen.

Swedish MXX Mauser produced by the company of Carl Gustaf (Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori). Caliber 1896x6.5 mm. (Army Museum, Stockholm)

So what made Sweden and Switzerland come to this? Perhaps this was due to their culture. In fact, the theme of the relationship between culture and war is very interesting within the framework of cultural tradition and will have to be addressed. In the meantime, the answer to this question, perhaps, lies in that great attention to mechanical precision and metalworking, which they were famous for? But it could well be also a matter of choosing tactical priorities. These peoples had small armies that came across potential invaders who had a huge supply of labor and, therefore, “cannon fodder”. They were at a disadvantage, but it was beneficial for them to “play for protection” in difficult terrain. The troops of these countries will not be able to beat their opponent in the jungle. But they will outnumber him in snow fields or high mountains.

Imagine yourself as a Swiss soldier facing a German occupier. You are in a hidden position on a snowy slope, and your enemy crosses the valley. If you do not have artillery, would it be nice if you had a rifle that allows you to hit it as far as possible? And isn't it a great idea that every person in your country, even the smallest unmobilized reservist, has such a rifle on hand? And, most likely, the military experts of these countries just decided that their armies needed just such accurate and long-range rifles.

Carabin m / 1894 / 96 for the Swedish engineering corps. Caliber mm 6.5x55 (Army Museum, Stockholm)

This was true of highland and neutral Switzerland, but it was also perceived in northern, mountainous and neutral Sweden. Not without reason for today's collectors, Swedish rifles are real treasures ... beautiful, accurate and very accurate. And these are all Mauzers, although this does not mean that the Swedes did not test rifles and other systems. Tested! But it was Mauser who considered the best rifle among all tested ones. The Swedish Mauser is very similar to the Spanish 1893 Mauser of the Year, except for differences in some small details and ... an amazing level of accuracy!

Originally, Mauser rifles were purchased in Oberndorf, but the Swedes insisted that they use excellent Swedish steel. Later, the production of rifles was deployed in two Swedish enterprises: Karl Gustaf and Husqvarna. By this time, the Remington rifles with the Swedish infantry's crane bolt had already been converted to small-caliber cartridges (8x58R), but the cavalry carbines still used the old 12,17X42R ammunition. So it was decided that the cavalry would receive the first new Mauser, and the infantry would wait a bit!

Clip with cartridges for "Swedish Mauser", release 1976.

This is how the famous Swedish Mauser was born - a family of rifles based on an improved version of the 1893 early Mauser model of the year, but using the 6.5 × 55 mm cartridge and including a number of unique elements at the request of Sweden. These are the m / 4 carbine (model 1894), the long rifle m / 96 (model 1896), the short rifle m / 38 (model 1938) and the sniper rifle m / 41 (model 1941). In 1898, their production was launched at the Karl Gustav Arms Plant in Eskilstuna.

Shutter rifle "Carl Gustav"

All Swedish mausers were designed for the 6,5 × 55 mm cartridge, and all of these provided pressure 455 MPa (65,992 psi) (55 000 CUP). The scope was also calibrated with the 6,5 × 55 mm chuck and designed for firing from 300 to 2000 m with 100 pitch. The Swedish mausers made Waffenfabrik Mauser AG in Oberndorf in Germany, where 1896 rifles were made at the end of the year 12000. In Sweden, rifle production began in 1898 at the factory of Carl Gustav and Huskvarna on Vapenfabriks Aktiebolag. Before 1918, the Karl Gustov plant produced 113000 carbines, which had a characteristic tide at the bottom of the box at the muzzle for attaching the bayonet. All Swedish mausers made in Germany or Sweden were made using high-quality tool steel alloyed with nickel, copper and vanadium, with high strength and corrosion resistance.

Carabiner m / 1894 with tide for bayonet. (Army Museum, Stockholm)

In total, the following types of Mauser rifles were manufactured in Sweden:
1. m / xnumx rifle and carbine
2. m / 1894 Carabiner
3. m / 1894 / 14 Carabiner
4. m / 1896 "Long rifle"
5. m / 1938 "Short shooting"
6. m / 1941 and m / 1941В Sniper rifle
Note that the M1892 rifle sample submitted to the Swedes and the carbine based on it was a motley mixture of German (M1890), Turkish and Argentine (M1891) Mauser rifles.

Short bayonet for m / 94 carbine. ((Army Museum, Stockholm)

In 1914, carbines were modernized on the model of the English rifle No.1 Mk3 “Lee-Enfield” and received a mount suitable for two bayonets at once. The most common was the long bayonet m / 1914. The second minor bayonet was an even longer bayonet and was intended for the sea fleet (m / 1915). Modification m / 1894-67 was a carbine of 1894, adapted under the bayonet-saber m / 1867 "Yatagan".

The device, screwing on the barrel of the "Swedish Mauser" for firing blank cartridges.

Skolskjutningskarbin (literally “school karabiner”) for military training in Swedish civil schools was also known. This model differs from the standard m / 1894 carbine, firstly, by its marking, and secondly, by the straight grip and the lack of a bayonet attachment.

The production of rifles at the factories of Karl Gustov lasted until the 1925 of the year, but approximately 18 000 m / 96 were manufactured at the Haskvarn factory during World War II for military training of citizens. Mauser produced 40 000 m / 96 “long rifles” between 1899 and 1900 for years and delivered them to Sweden, Karl Gustav - 475 000 m / 96 between 1896 and 1932 for years and Husqvarna 20 000 m / 96 between 1942 and 1944 for 535 years and 000 96 m / 6,5 between 38 and 6,5 for 1938 XNUMX XNUMX XNUMX XNUMX XNUMX In total, the XNUMX XNUMX "long rifle" m / XNUMX was released. The XNUMX mm short rifle mm Gevär m / XNUMX caliber XNUMX mm was adopted in XNUMX according to the experience of the First World War, which showed that under new conditions it is preferable to have a shortened rifle.

Rifle Gevär m / 38. The shortened m / 96 rifle (modification 1938-1940). (Army Museum, Stockholm)

The original m / 38 rifles (type I) were obtained from m / 96 rifles by trimming their barrels to 139 mm. Most of the specially made m / 38 rifles (type II) had a handle bent down and were finished with production in the 1944 year. The weapon factory in Huskvarna between 1942 and 1944 for years produced 88 150 new m / 38 “short rifles”. In total, 143230 copies were released. The m / 41 and m / 41B sniper rifles are m / 96 rifles equipped with a telescopic sight, supplied from Germany. When, due to the worsening military situation, Germany stopped selling them to Sweden, the Swedes started producing their own sights and converted the specially selected rifles in the 5300-1941 into sniper rifles for the 1943.

Gevär m / 41 sniper rifle. Caliber 6,5x55mm. (Army Museum, Stockholm)

In 1939, the unknown was given to the Finnish army, but apparently a rather large number of m / 96 rifles were used during the Winter War against the Soviet Union and, most likely, also during the 1941-1944 war. Actually, Swedish rifles were removed from service since the 1950-s, although sniper rifle versions continued to serve until the beginning of the 1980-s. Nevertheless, some units of the rear services were equipped with m / 96 even in the 1983 year. The last unit using the m / 41B sniper rifles was the Royal Guard.

Rifle "Huskvarna."

Interestingly, for their “medium” and “heavy” machine guns, the Swedes developed a special cartridge with the size of 8 × 63 mm m / 32. It was used from 1932 to the completion of the transition to the NATO 7,62 × 51 mm caliber of NATO in 1975.

Cartridge 8 × 63 mm.

The fact is that the 6,5 × 55 cartridge mm m / 94 was not considered effective enough for firing at aircraft and armored vehicles, and the army needed something more powerful, but not too heavy. Bofors offered the m / 32 cartridge of the same length as the .30-06 cartridge, which allowed it to fit into the standard Browning machine gun receiver, but which had a larger diameter cartridge than the standard 6.5 × 55 mm. The bullet weighed 14,2 g, had a large muzzle energy and had an effective range of about 3600 m (3937 m), at which the impact energy was 196 J. The maximum range was 5500 m (6,015 m). The patron was equipped with armor piercing bullets, which had quite decent performance characteristics for armor.

Experienced m / 40 rifle with a muzzle brake chambered for 8 × 63 mm. (Army Museum, Stockholm)

To be continued ...

Comments

[Curious]

"And if for rifles of other countries at the beginning of the twentieth century the optimal distance for an accurate shot was a distance of 100 yards, then for rifles of these two countries - 300 yards!"
Vyacheslav Olegovich! You look like. We set ourselves the goal of surpassing the famous site creative duo in the number of "wonderful discoveries" in the field of weapons and military equipment.
One hundred yards is ninety-one meters.
We will conduct a short historical excursion.

This is the 1848 Guide to Target Shooting. The bulk of the infantry and cavalry was armed with smooth-bore flint and shotguns loaded with a muzzle. There were still Peter's fuseys.

[Curious]

And this is the page of the indicated instruction. As you can see, the range of the aimed shot is indicated in 150 steps. Translated into SI units - 106,5 meters (step - 0,71 m).
So you want to say that in the middle of the XIX century the optimal range was greater than at the beginning of XX?
For the Berdan rifles, training exercises, of which there were 8, provided a distance of 200 to 800 steps, that is, from 142 to 568 meters. And only for never recruited recruits provided for orientation shooting at 100 steps.
Please indicate the source of your information.

[kalibr]

They were all listed in one of the first articles. In this case, it is "Bolt Action Military Rifles of the World. SC Mowbray and J. Puleo." (Page 323.) Crawl a page? Is it so important? The fact is that the book is not mine, the format is non-standard and frequent insertion into the scanner does not bring any benefit to it.

[Curious]

What the authors (incidentally prolific) had in mind is incomprehensible. However, I am far from the idea that "they" in the books do not have errors "like ours" and "they" do not have their Shirokorada.
By the way, the phrase "high grade tool steel" also raises great doubts, since weapons are not made of tool steels. Especially the trunks. Moreover, in Sweden at that time the excellent, world-famous Svenska Specialstal and "Swedish Special Antioxid Steel" steel steels were produced.

[kalibr]

So it was not clear to me and I tried to translate as streamlined as possible. And I can’t say anything about steel, here I pass.

[Curious]

BOOK
"The Swedish Mauser," by Steve Kehaya and Joe Poyer.
"For Collectors Only" series.
Quote: "In 1899, Mauser was granted a contract to build 40,000 rifles to supplement production at the Carl Gustaf factory using the best "Swedish steel" (the Swedes considered their steel so superior that its composition never changed from start to end of production). "
I would translate so "
In 1899, Mauser received a contract for the production of 40 rifles in addition to manufacturing at the Carl Gustaf factory using the best “Swedish steel” (the Swedes considered their steel so excellent that its composition never changed from start to finish).
This is perhaps closer to the truth.

[kalibr]

Thanks for the tip! Yes, that’s clearly better.

[hohol95]

The Swedish naval forces (Swedes. Svenska marinen) also did not remain aloof from the army, and the next year they adopted a modified carbine m / 1894/1915 (I can’t exactly name its differences from the “land” version m / 1894/1914 probably they were insignificant) and a bayonet to it - arr. 1915 (m / 1915).
Bayonet arr. 1915 was later also used with a submachine gun mod. 1945 (Carl Gustaf m / 45) (see photo No. 3).
Bayonet arr. 1915 differs from the 1914 model in length, as well as in the shape of the blade and scabbard (in the handles did not see any differences).
The bayonet blade is single-blade, with a narrow dol on both sides.
Bayonet arr. 1915 produced two Swedish companies: Eskilstuna Jernmanufactur AB and Erik Anton Berg AB. The bayonets of different manufacturers have slight differences in the shape of the blade.
The main overall dimensions of the bayonet arr. 1914 (m / 1914):
- total length - 630 mm;
- blade length - 500 mm;
- blade width - 25 mm;
- the inner diameter of the ring in the crosspiece is 15,5 mm.

[Lekov L]

The bullet weighed 14,2 g, had a large muzzle energy and had an effective range of about 3600 m (3937 m), at which the impact energy was 196 J. The maximum range was 5500 m (6,015 m). The patron was equipped with armor piercing bullets, which had quite decent performance characteristics for armor.

Experienced m / 40 rifle with a muzzle brake chambered for 8 × 63 mm. (Army Museum, Stockholm)

Thank you very much Vyacheslav Olegovich!
There will be something to do at night: I crawl through the sites - I have not heard for such an interesting machine ..
Passed by.
With deep respect.

[Kot_Kuzya]

And if for rifles of other countries at the beginning of the twentieth century the optimal distance for an accurate shot was a distance of 100 yards, then for rifles of these two countries - 300 yards! Even the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, which produced extremely accurate rifles (especially in their sniper variations), did not achieve such results for rifles produced for ordinary infantrymen.

In fact, even for PPSh, the distance of 91 m was children's, and at 273 m it was quite possible to shoot aiming from PPSH. From AKM and AK-74 it is possible to conduct effective targeted shooting at 300-400 m, and from PKM at a distance of 600-700 m. Of course, I understand that there may be translation errors, but is it really a translator who is completely versed in weapons?

[Michael HORNET]

Well, take the PPSh (now they are sold) and try to hit the target by 273 meters) this is shooting in that direction. The real effectiveness of the weapon under the pistol cartridge is 100 m, from 100 to 200 m - the zone of conditionally aimed shooting. Over 200 is in that direction, hoping to hook.
Which does not replace the stupidity written in the article about 100 meters of rifle efficiency, BUT, the Marxman Swedish Mauser 6,5x55 really has significantly improved ballistics and, if not for the standardization of NATO, so far the weapon for this cartridge could be relevant, as modern cartridges rifle 6,5 (260 rem and others) essentially the same.
The Swedes and the Swiss correctly emphasized - if you do not have a powerful army, then all your soldiers must be Marxists.

[Kot_Kuzya]

This is from MP-40 under the cartridge 9 * 19 with an initial speed of 380 m / s to shoot at a distance of over 150 m was "shoot in that direction." A bullet flies out of the PPSh at a speed of 500 m / s, and it is quite possible to shoot 300 meters at a height figure quite accurately. If you believe Vicki, then at a distance of 300 m, the spread of bullets in short bursts is 64 * 60 cm, which is quite enough to hit the growth target.

[kalibr]

Quote: Kot_Kuzya

Of course, I understand that there may be translation errors, but is it really a translator who is a girl who absolutely does not understand weapons?

You read what was written in the previous comments about this? Curious asked about this and I pointed him to STR. and the title of the book. And he found both, read and was surprised too. So this is not my mistake as a translator. To consider this a mistake of the authors? It's hard to say ... In any case, there is a source and you can check it yourself. I have never met anyone who reproached the authors of the book for this ... But on the other hand, getting from a rifle while standing on the 91 m into a standard target is not so simple. Even from the usual “little things” while standing on 50, getting into 9-10 is not easy at all.

[Kot_Kuzya]

But on the other hand, getting from a rifle while standing at 91 m into a standard target is not so simple. Even from the usual "small things" standing at 50 m to get into 9-10 is not easy.

And here is what is written in the title of the article:

Other nations simply wanted their rifles to do the job they were created for - quick and easy to hit. people at a distance of about 100 yards.

The average European man is 175 cm tall and 40 cm wide. I doubt very much that a person with normal vision will not be able to get from a rifle to a target 175 cm high and 40 cm wide at a distance of 91 m. For example, the accuracy of the Mosin rifle on a distance of 100 m averaged 3 cm in height and 2 cm in width, that is, from the Mosin medium rifle, at a distance of 91 m one could selectively get into almost the eye. Rifled weapons have a very good accuracy. Unfortunately, I only have green stuff and I can only buy a smoothbore, but when I was at the training camp after the military department, they shot 3 rounds from AKM with 100 rounds at a target of about 30 * 30 cm, and then they hit. This is despite the fact that none of us from AKM had ever fired before.

[kalibr]

I don’t argue with you and I don’t want to prove anything to you. Find the book "Bolt Action Military Rifles of the World. SC Mowbray and J. Puleo". (Page 323.), The specified page and translate it yourself. I did not throw away this passage, I translated it very streamlined. Curious found, read, translated too, and was also surprised. What guided the authors of the book I can’t say, throwing away everything that you don’t understand ... well, that’s not much left. There was about steel. Neither I understood nor Curious, but he is an experienced metallurgical engineer. Throw away this place always has time ...

[Deck]

For example, the accuracy of the Mosin rifle at a distance of 100 m averaged 3 cm in height and 2 cm in width, that is, from the average Mosin rifle at a distance of 91 m, you could selectively get into almost the eye

Someone deceived you. Finding a Mosin rifle with an accuracy of less than 1 MOA is very difficult. A factory cartridge is almost impossible. Unlike m / 96 rifles

[Catfish]

Quote: Deck

For example, the accuracy of the Mosin rifle at a distance of 100 m averaged 3 cm in height and 2 cm in width, that is, from the average Mosin rifle at a distance of 91 m, you could selectively get into almost the eye

Someone deceived you. Finding a Mosin rifle with an accuracy of less than 1 MOA is very difficult. A factory cartridge is almost impossible. Unlike m / 96 rifles

Well, yes, yes. Shot from both. The three-ruler to Mauser is approximately like a DShK to Cord.