Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles M96 Swede value

I have a couple that I never used. I bought them in the 1980s. I looked at Gunbroker, and it seems they sell for over 600 bucks. Is this appropriate for one in very good/excellent condition?

I see a lot being offered at $600, not sure how many sell for that. You can verify. And if so, then yes, that would seem to be what the market will bear.

With these condition and having all matching parts will greatly affect price. Part of the perceived worth of these rifles is their reputation for being very accurate, therefore, bore condition is of great importance.

IME & IMO from what I've seen listed if it's all matching #s in that condition that's not a bad price in today's market.

I've owned & shot several 96's & 38s as well as other milsurp Mausers over the past 50 years. Could be it's my shooting ability or lack of but in original condition with the std. sights and good barrels they were all about equally accurate off a bench out to 200 yards which is as far as I shot them. I have heard the Swedes were better at longer ranges.

FWIW, I recently sold two, an may have offered them at too low a price but the both had ok bores. Good, not excellent bores, one was all matching the other an arsenal refurb and was forced matched. Offered them at $375 each and both were sold in ten minutes.

Matching numbers and bore condition should be noted on the stock button. If in good shape that sounds reasonable. Have one that I chopped and it's one of the most accurate units in the safe sending slugs out of its 114 year old military barrel.

Also of note is that I hit the range with a bunch of loads for a ladder run on targets. Everything went to the same point of impact.

Mine was supposed to be a bounced around truck gun. That is not the case now.

That is true but is reflective of the condition at the time it was last inspected and marked. Doesn't necessarily reflect current condition. I've seen many over the years marked as condition "1" which may have been true the last time it was inspected but certainly wasn't reflective of its current condition. Ironically, someone reminded me of this recently when I was selling mine. The funny part is that the one they were enquiring about was marked as a "3", the worst bore condition it can have an remain in service, lol.

I used to see a lot of Swede 6.5 military rifles around, but not much anymore. I did see one about 2 weeks ago but I dont remember the price. Im surprised that the Tikka, Ruger, etc in 6.5 arent plentiful either.

"$600", damn I only paid $350 for mine....

Way back when, when I had an FFL, I ordered two for guys. They were like $69-89 (1994?).

Swedish cavalry carbines were a very hot item a few years ago, dang they were high dollar

That's a beauty. I've got a couple from Samco back in the day when they were nice and matching. Not sure how much I paid. The surplus ammo we could buy was good, too.

HAd to be before that, no? 91-95 is round the time I was interested in them and they were already $200-300. COuld just be a huge NJ markup, there was no gunbroker.

Swedish Mausers are getting pricier as time goes by, like most military surplus firearms. Captain Obvious wrote that...

Most M96 and M38 rifles came to us in decent condition. If you are fussy, then all matching thins the possibilities. I have about 7 M96's, three of which are from the 1-5000 German built order from 1900. One of those three has no provision for a stock disc. It is the original German stock. I purchased it from collector who liked Swedes.

Some of the others are "matching" as far as I can tell, some aren't. I like them all. I put a cheap pistol/scout scope on a 96 and took it out for a run the other day. I used a Badace ND&T scope mount. The old girl is a 1903 and shoots like a dream.

Wow those have gone up alot. I have one that was made in 1917. All matching numbers and a perfect bore. I paid $130 for it back in the late 80s and it's VERY accurate.