Love Henry and Josh. Thanks for posting. 👍

 

Me too, what he said.

 

Watching Henry's shooting is a humbling experience. I'm certain he can get Swedish citizenship for this bit of M96 bravura. What is particularly impressive is the effectiveness of his fire using the volley sight.

 

I'd have gladly donated some m/41 ammo to him to make it more 'authentic' LOL.

 

I watched it less than an hour after it was posted. I have collected Swedish rifles because of their elegant looks, like Henry also describes them. Henry's shooting is the most impressive on the web by far, and the way it is carried out is 1st Class.
Will something like boost values? I think it probably will attract interest to the M96. I would like to see him shoot the M41/b with the M-55 sight.

 

Love their videos. His rifle has a beech stock right?

 

Walnut best I could tell given the visible grain. Correct for the date of an MO manufactured rifle, so maybe original.

 

Ah ok, guess I was thrown off by the orangish color and texture

 

Really enjoyed this Youtube movie about m/96! Just some small notes to clarify. "Skarpskytterörelsen" was dead and gone when The mauser showed up for swedish shooters. "Frivilliga Skytterörelsen" was taking care of its advantages. A small competition with m/96 performed during "Riksskyttetävlingen" 1897 but used by top shooters at "Riksskyttetävlingen" in Stockholm1900. That championship gathered The 300 best shooters in three different levels but final shooting for some 20-30 ultimate top shooters. Swedish King presented three new m/96 as prize rifles, one for each top shooters, for those three levels (one of those rifles in my collection as for now).
6,5 x 55 ammo somewhat expensive today and ordinary FSR shooters dont get reduction on this ammo. Target shooters apployed by The Army guess gets some sponsordeal I guess. The 6,5 x55 is NO longer a popular caliber for swedish hunters. Those days are gone.

Here is a signed photo on famous Oscar Gomer Swahn that is part of my photo collection.

 

Really enjoyed this Youtube movie about m/96! Just some small notes to clarify. "Skarpskytterörelsen" was dead and gone when The mauser showed up for swedish shooters. "Frivilliga Skytterörelsen" was taking care of its advantages. A small competition with m/96 performed during "Riksskyttetävlingen" 1897 but used by top shooters at "Riksskyttetävlingen" in Stockholm1900. That championship gathered The 300 best shooters in three different levels but final shooting for some 20-30 ultimate top shooters. Swedish King presented three new m/96 as prize rifles, one for each top shooters, for those three levels (one of those rifles in my collection as for now).
6,5 x 55 ammo somewhat expensive today and ordinary FSR shooters dont get reduction on this ammo. Target shooters apployed by The Army guess gets some sponsordeal I guess. The 6,5 x55 is NO longer a popular caliber for swedish hunters. Those days are gone.

Here is a signed photo on famous Oscar Gomer Swahn that is part of my photo collection.
View attachment 3939512

Arilar: was any competitive shooting done at ranges beyond 600 meters, i.e. using the volley sight? In Henry's video he uses the volley sight. Since the volley sight notch is a "V" - "Kimme" part of "Kimme und Korn" - but the front sight was the post 1941 straight blade, so the sight picture would be rather difficult to use. But that evidently didn't bother Henry too much. (He is a fantastic natural rifleman!) Also, the "V" notch is displaced to left to account for drift, but it is fixed. The rear sight ladder on the US 1903 Springfield is slanted so it progressively adjusts for drift as range increases.

Added: for more of Henry's bravura shooting: Finnish M39 out to 1,100 yards! Practical accuracy.
He showed his Finn M39 during the M96 video.

I am interested in the "Cold Warriors": Finn, Swedish and Swiss rifles. I need a Norwegian Krag to close the circle though.

 

WE CAN'T WAIT, Arilar! TELL US NOW!


Great stuff. I'm continuously finding that the 1880-1910 era was one heck of a neat time to be alive.

 

WE CAN'T WAIT, Arilar! TELL US NOW!


Great stuff. I'm continuously finding that the 1880-1910 era was one heck of a neat time to be alive.

Olympedia – Shooting at the 1908 Summer Olympics

 

Here is some info on Alfred Swahn, 1908 gold medalist and son of Oscar, who was the oldest Olympic gold medalist.
Olympedia – Alf Swahn
The USA team was shooting the then new Springfield 1903 with special match ammunition. The 03 has extremely fine sights that only very well trained shooters can master, and US Marines were just that. (Not to mention that the US shooters used sling support.) The Canadians were probably shooting the Ross rifle, which although it proved later in WWI to be unsuitable in the trenches was undoubtedly the most accurate .303 rifle ever made.

Regarding the late arrival of the Russian team; possibly the Julian calendar excuse was just that: an excuse. Having been defeated by Japan 3 years earlier, the Russians may have been worried about putting the performance of their 3-line Mosin Nagant on public display. If the team and their rifles did well, it would have raised questions about why the Russians did so poorly against the Japanese. If the team did poorly in competition, it would have raised doubts about the serviceability of the rifle and the competence of the authorities that approved it.

 

Arilar: Very interesting story. I’ve read about «Gubben» Swahn when researching a particular Krag cartridge used for running deer targets.

Back in those days Sweden were dominating the shooting competition on “running deer” targets. But in the 1920 olympics, the Norwegian team took all the gold medals in “running deer”. This time they had a secret weapon. Namely a new cartridge.

When shooting at the moving target with an ordinary military cartridge, you would have to aim in front of the target. The Norwegian shooters wanted a cartridge that could be aimed at the center of the target. To achieve this, the bullet needed a muzzle velocity of about 1000 m/s (3280 f/s). The Oslo based company “Norma projektilfabrik” managed to produce such a cartridge for the “deer shooters”. It was a 5 gram spitzer bullet called “Hjortekule” (Deerbullet. It later came in a soft point version as well, for hunting). This ammunition landed the gold medals for the Norwegian team.

In “American rifleman” # 9, September 1930, there was an article about a sensational new ammunition by the german engineer H. Gerlich. His new cartridge vas called 280 Halger Ultra and it was a high velocity round. His sensational discovery was that a relatively light projectile with a high velocity could penetrate armoured steel. This article did not go unnoticed in Scandinavia either and there were many articles regarding Gerlich. In the journal “Norsk skyttertidende” (Norwegian shooters times) in june 1931, there was an article by S. Kristensen (Engene dynamittfabrikk, Oslo). He wrote that similar results had been achieved when they were asked to develop a powder for Norma, for the Deer cartridges. With an ordinary ballistite powder, they had achieved muzzle velocities of 1100m/s (3608 f/s) (Pmax of 3400 Bar). They had a 50 m test range, and a hardened nickel steel plate behind the target. They discovered that the small 5 gram spitzer projectiles shot straight through the steel, while the heavy bullets from an ordinary cartridge disintegrated hardly without leaving a mark on the steel plate. This was a decade before Gerlich. Also the swedish captain Thure Holmberg wrote about the same article. He had witnessed the same phenomenon at the Norma factory in Åmotfors in 1920, during testing of the deer cartridges, so the cartridges was obviously not exclusive for the Norwegian team for very long.

Shooting at the 1920 Summer Olympics - Wikipedia