Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters SCANDINAVIAN RIFLES,OPTICS AND AMMO?

I read something about 6.5X55 being the most popular caliber in Sweden and 30-06 the most popular in Finland,I'd like to know more about what they use,rifles,optics and ammo?

Lots of Tikkas, Sakos, and Norma ammunition I would bet.

I cannot even conjecture on Sweden and Finland, as have ot hunted there. But have hunted in Norway, with a bunch of average guys who worked for a silicon-chip factory along the coast. They had access to company lands.

By far the most common rifle was a cheaper version of the Remington 700 that I gathered was made for sale in Europe. The most common chambering was .308, though there were also some .30-06's. One guy carried a "sporterized" 98 Mauser in 8x57. Did not see a 6.5x55, but that doesn't mean they weren't there. Saw an older Sako or two.

Most of the scopes were a cheaper Euro brand called a Nikko, as I recall. Saw a Tasco or two as well, but none of the more expensive scopes such as Leupold or Swarovski.

Ammo tended toward Norma and Remington. There were also a couple of more obscure European brands that I hadn't heard of and haven't seen since. Several of the guys were handloaders, and used Norma or Nosler bullets. Both were available from local gun shops.

Visited a couple of gunshops and found about the same selection. In Bergen I saw the very first box of Swift A-Frames that I'd even seen in a store: 400-grain .416's!

This was 10 years ago, so things may have changed. And the guys I hunted with were definitely wokring-class.

JB

Hello,
I'm a Swede that has been shooting and hunting in Sweden for 20+ years now and during that time I've seen some changes in the preferences of my fellow swedish hunters.

First of all it's important to understand that there's some major differences between different parts of my country. In the southern parts of our Sweden there�s a lot of deer hunting as well as boar and moose hunting, whereas the nortern parts has a lot lees deer and boars but they do have good moose hunting as well as bears (at least in some areas). I do believe that the average hunter in the southern parts spend a lot more money on his (or her) hunting equipment compared to hunters in the north. The leases for hunting areas are also more expensive in the southern parts of the country.

Anyway the most popular rifles here are probably Sako, Tikka and Huskvarna but you will also see a lot of german guns such as Blaser and Sauer as well as american guns e.g. Remington, Winchester and Ruger.

(I would like to add that the german guns that Mule Deer has written about in rifle over the last years such as german mausers, drillings and double guns are also quite popular.)

The kind of optics that hunters use varies a lot depending on the kind of hunting they do, but it's a safe bet to say that during the last 10 years people have started to spend more money on their optics then what they used to do.
Deer and boars are commonly hunted in low light situations (as in dusk or dawn) and that's when high quality optics really makes a difference.Popular choices would be Zeiss, Swarovski, Helia, Kahles or Schmidt & Bender If your main quarry are moose or bears the optics are less critical and you�ll see a lot of budget scopes as well as a lot of Leupold.
Due to legislation (we are only entitled to 6 hunting guns here in Sweden) you'll see a lot of rifles with detachable scopemounts and two (or more) scopes. For the same reason switch barrel rifles such as Blaser R93 and Sauer 202 and similar guns have become more popular during the last 10 years.

Regarding ammunition, Norma is the hands down choice for the majority of Swedish hunters but Lapua are popular as well. For practice and our "running moose" training sessions people prefer the cheapest possible ammunition thats available. Handloading is also popular among Swedish hunters and shooters even though the vast majority will use factory fodder when it's time to go hunting.

Our choce of chamering might differ from your "Joe Average" as we tend to put less faith in speed and the magnums are not as popular here as I get the impression that they are in the US. We have also seen a trend where 6.5x55 is losing in popularity (at least in sales of new guns) and what used to be "the big three" 30-06, 308 win and 6.5x55 are now dominated bu the first two rounds.
Fortunately we have a tendency to document and analyze everything in our country which means that there's at least some official statistics available. I have two different documents available, the first one where are the statistics regarding 8760 mooses.
Unfortunately I'm not able to put them in a decent table when I post them but hopefully it will still make some sense


The second document is regarding 6167 mooses shot in an area in northern Sweden between 1990 and 1997. I will try to explain the figures first, eg

30-06 1938 1.5 43 this means that there where 1938 mooses shot with a 30-06 each moose took an average of 1.5 shots to go down and the average moose travelled 43 meters after the shot. So here come the figures:

Obviously the chamberings at the bottom of the list are only used by one or maybe two shooters and the statistics tell us more about their shooting abilities then it does about their choosen gun.

I would like to apologize for the bad english and for the fact that my post became pretty long in the end. But if any of you guys have any further questions about hunting or guns here in Sweden I will be more than happy to answer them to the best of my ability.

Henrik

Good post Henrik.Thanks.

Henrik,
Very informative and interesting post. Welcome to the fire.

Steve

Thank you for your welcoming, but I have actually been a member for some time even though I have not contributed the way I should have.

Even though there might be a lot of differences between your way of hunting and mine I have always found it really instructive and interesting to learn about other hunters and shooters and to hear their point of view.

Best regards,
Henrik

Henrik,

Thank you for your very informative and interesting post. It's always good to hear from hunting and shooting brothers from countries other than one's own. Your English is just fine - actually better than some Americans I know.
_

Your English is great. Do not be afraid to post more.

Henrik,

Great post! I recently purchased a Husqvarna rifle (that was made in 1930) chambered for the 9.3x57 cartridge so I found your post about hunting in Sweden and the hunting statistics very interesting. Thanks for sharing that information.

Here's a photo of the rifle:


Cheers!
-Bob F.

Very interesting information Henrik. Thanks for sharing it and welcome to the Campfire.


HBB

I'd also like to thank you Henrik for your contribution. Your English is very good, better than many people who have it as their first language. Please post more often, as it's really interesting to get a different perspective on things - particularly from people living and hunting across the ocean.
I look forward to reading more about your experiences in Sweden.

Henrick, I too thank you for your posting; I did a lot of shooting while stationed in Oslo, Norway but did not have an opportunity to hunt. One of the interesting things brought out by your tables is that of the top three calibers; the 30-06, 6.5x55, and .308, the 308 beat out the 06 and the 6.5 in average shots required as well as distance traveled. I don't know about the rest of the CF members, but that threw me for a loop. Makes me glad I ordered an 308 barrel along with the 6CM for my custom switch barrel project. Please do continue to post, I and many others, I'm sure, look forward to learning about hunting in other countries.

Jim

Henrik,you possibly can tell from my forum name what my favorite rifles are. I own three and one or the other have been my primary hunting rifle for about 30 years. I do own other guns including some nice pre-WWII Remingtons. From what I read, I respect the Scandinavian style of hunting. The main reason for this post is I think the statistics you post are very informative and could possibly teach us some real lessons in choice of cartridges. I wish we had similar data from American hunters on American game.

thanks, henrik.
you scandinavian guys get wonderful idomatic english instruction.
in school, i presume?
but where do you practice your english? with one another? with visiting english speakers?
keep posting.

Henrik Thanks so much for your posting please keep it up. No problem with your English wished everyone was as clear.
One cartridge you mentioned is of particular interest to me.
That is the 358NM. Do you shoot or have shot one? What is your
impression of this cartridge? Thankyou for your time
Northcountry

Henrik with the others welcome! If I spoke Swedish as well as you speak English I would be dang proud of my foreign language ability.

Henrik,

With the others, I'd like to thank you for your very interesting (and well-written) post. You should post more! After all, this is very much an international forum.

Sincerely,
John Barsness

Henrick:

Your written English is quite, quite good. Better, in fact, than that of many, many Americans. You have nothing to apologize for.

Do you have any thoughts about why the 6.5x55 is becoming less popular in your country?

- TJM

Thank you all.Henrick,thank you,you did a great job.It's me who should apologize for my English,I'm from NJ.I think we all learned a lot from your post and would like very much to learn more about hunting and living in Sweden as well as the rest of Scandinavia.