Quote Originally Posted by Truegiant
Model 1896
Main article: Swedish Mauser
On November 3, 1893, the United Kingdom of Norway and Sweden adopted the 6.5x55 mm cartridge. As a result, the Swedes chambered their new service rifle —the Model 96 Mauser— in this round. The Swedish Mauser was manufactured relatively unchanged from 1896 to 1943, and M96 Rifle and M38 Carbine rifles, known by collectors as "Swedish Mausers," are often sought after by military service rifle shooters and hunters. A small initial batch of Model 96 rifles were built in Germany by Mauser, with the remainder being manufactured under license by Sweden's state-run Carl Gustaf factory. The Type 38 carbine was produced by Husqvarna, with additional carbines being converted from Model 96 rifles.

"Swedish Steel" is a term for the steel used by the Swedish and Mauser manufacturing facilities to make the M96 rifles. The Swedes felt that their steel was far superior to all others, so when Mauser was contracted to make Swedish Mausers in Germany they were required to use Swedish Steel in the manufacturing process.



I THOUGHT ALL THE m96 were 6.5 swede. Its a neat little round . I have a kimber sporterized 6.5 swede. a great shooter.
Mine isn't 6.5mm. I bought some 6.5mm ammo at a gun show thinking that was the caliber of the rifle, but it is not. It is somewhere between the 6.5x55 (too small for the chamber, fits very loosely) and the 8mm mauser (8mm is too big and won't chamber). The rifle is for sure a M96, but somewhere along the lines I think the barrel was changed. It is also not 7.62x51 (.308) or 7.62x63 (.30-06) which are common barrel conversions for the mauser rifles... I'm really going to have to take it to a gun smith and have them figure it out since I have tried all the common caliber sizes that this gun was originally chambered in and that barrel conversions are available in.