Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles Question on a 1917 Swede

Thank You! And z1r.. that would seem a great solution.
People here have mentioned the accuracy of these old rifles/carbines. The gunsmith who raised my front sight down at Ahlmans sent a three shot target group back with it and at 50 yards all were touching nearly the same hole.
As I posted above somewhere, I think he was showing off.
Thanks again to all of you. This will now become a northern MN bear gun.

Osky

Dwayne,
That is a sweet little rifle, very handy and useful and still being used by the family. Does not get much better than that.👍

When I pick up a rifle, its something I want to shoot and use... I don't buy it to be a safe queen or to save hoping the value will go up...

open sites to me just disappear in a blur for me... I have to scope something if I am going to hunt with it..

I have a few older military rifles, that I dearly love to have....I shoot them at the range... but not long ago, I used one of my old Mausers to take a buck in the yard...so open sites worked...I wasn't hunting it was just a target of opportunity..

but If I needed to drill and tap it for a scope I'd do so...the gun's value to me is the joy of having a 100 yr old Mauser, and hunting with it...
and seeing better with a scope is the price...the next owner if there will be one, will be after I die... I just don't get rid of guns unless they are a piece of junk...and usually I just give those away....

but I'd scope it if ya needed to...sure there will be 4 holes on the receiver.. the next owner can live with that... it will just be another chapter in the rifles history and those that owned it... just like the old Finlander who owned it before you and passed on..

I think you are lucky to have a rifle with a history you know, instead of history of each Mauser I have owned and don't know the history..
and the 1898 Krag and a couple of WW 1 Enfields I have....but I'm glad they have a history that I am part of....by just owning them..

a perfect life would be wearing out each rifle barrel I have...

I have a Model 70, that I got from the original owner.. its a 1970s made rifle..Short Action... I was bought new by a guy I knew who was a Champion Bench Rest Shooters in the late 50s and during the 60s.. he's since passed... it is chambered in 22.250... when I bought the gun from Kenny, he gave it to me cheap... but told me the barrel was shot out...told me it was the 5th barrel he had worn out on that rifle...
The stock had dings etc.... I put a new 28 inch Pac Nor barrel on it, done by John Noveske before he got famous here locally...so this is this rifle's 7th barrel on it... I left the dings in the rifle... and it isn't for sale... until I'm gone....I love this rifle... because of its history...

yeah, It isn't like your Finlander friends rifle...but its important to me, not only the history but knowing what the history was and knowing the person who owned it...

one day we will each be history ( if we are lucky) to someone else....

wish my son was a shooter, but like all millennials.. he could care less...

but at least he loves cars... we are restoring a 1968 Cougar that we gave him... he's thrilled with that..
and not long ago, he bought the ( as he puts it) the car of his dreams, since he was 6 yrs old, in his first Grand Theft Auto video game..
a 2000 Mustang GT in Black....and some day my 88 4 Runner will be his...I at least am happy he is into that stuff...I've always been a history guy... appreciate things past... I had a couple of my grandfather's guns ( who died in 1968)... the Marlin 30/30 was stolen... I still have the old Savage Model 24... 410 and 22 LR on top...and the Model 94 my dad bought in 1966, for $49 brand new at the RAF Alconbury Rod and Gun club in England... and a Model 93 Marlin lever action, chambered in 25/20.... that was once tapped for a scope.... a long Unertl type scope..
belonged to a doctor friend of mine, when he passed his wife gave it to me... he never had kids and got it from his grandfather... made in 1903.

Alternatively, there are ways and means to continue open sight usage when heading into your Golden Years. It's all about focusing light, be it with apertures (either in the form of peep sights or mounted on the lens of your shooting glasses) or optics (not scopes, rather special glasses or contact lenses- talk to your optician).

My eyes are typical of many guys in their late 60's. I'm still in the open sight game, be it handguns or vintage rifles, by the simple expedient of wearing 1.25x drug store reading glasses over my normal contact lenses that I wear to correct horrid near sightedness. They focus front and rear sights and don't unduly distort the target- certainly not perfect, but by golly they work. I've also tried putting a piece of electrician's tape over the shooting glasses lens of my dominant eye, with a tiny hole in it to peer through- it works. I also have a Merit iris that attaches to the lens of my shooting glasses, through which my dominant eye peers also- it too works a treat. Those apertures on the lens tricks would work great for those who wear regular glasses.

It's all about focusing the light that makes up the sight picture. Perseverance to overcome a handicap is far more admirable than throwing up one's hands in defeat and reaching for the drills, taps, and scopes. But, we shooters have long been brainwashed into believing that scopes are absolutely required to shoot with, and that just ain't so, Lucy. Heck, I have scopes of all kinds on hunting and target rifles, but I also have a bunch of vintage pieces that I wouldn't think of scoping, and a couple rifles whose form and balance I would never wish to wreck by installing scopes on them- and I have a ball shooting all of them. I refuse to listen to guys whining about their eyes when all they have to do is consult with an optometrist or at least try the simple tricks I mentioned above.

Jeff,

I'll gladly give you $100 for that rifle, just to make you feel better, of course. I'll even pay for the transfer!

Ed

I guess mine is $75 also. It went through 3 upgrades (downgrades). I bought it in the 1980's for $125 instead of an SKS.

First go:

B&C foam stock, Rust blued, Custom mount, cut crown barrel to 20"





Second go:

Maple stock from Royal and new mount.



Third go:

New ramline stock.